Lead investigator in Karen Read case who sent sexist and crude texts about her has been fired

Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor takes the stand to testify, June 10, 2024, in Norfolk Super Court, in Dedham, Mass., during the trial for Karen Read. (Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool, File)

BOSTON — The lead investigator in the Karen Read case was fired Wednesday after a disciplinary board found he sent sexist and crude texts about her to his family and colleagues.

After Read’s trial — where she was accused of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend — ended in a mistrial in July, Massachusetts State Police launched an internal affairs investigation into State Trooper Michael Proctor. The department then suspended him without pay. That investigation culminated with Superintendent Col. Geoffrey Noble accepting the trial board’s recommendation.

“My decision to terminate Mr. Proctor follows a thorough, fair, and impartial process,” Noble said in a statement. “I have weighed the nature of the offenses, their impact on our investigative integrity, and the importance of safeguarding the reputations of our dedicated women and men in the State Police.”

The State Police Trial Board found Proctor guilty of sending “derogatory, defamatory and disparaging and/ or inappropriate text messages” about Read while leading the investigation into her. He was also found guilty of providing sensitive and confidential information about the case to people outside of law enforcement and consuming alcohol while on duty.

It recommended that he be terminated from the state police.

Proctor’s family in a statement said they were “truly disappointed” with the decision, explaining it “lacks precedent, and unfairly exploits and scapegoats one of their own.” They noted the investigation only turned up the evidence on his personal phone.

“The messages prove one thing, and that Michael is human — not corrupt, not incompetent in his role as a homicide detective, and certainly not unfit to continue to be a Massachusetts State Trooper,” they added.

Read is accused of ramming into her boyfriend John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022.

The defense portrayed Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer, and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.

A key moment in the first trial was Proctor’s testimony, in which the defense suggested his controversial texts about Read and the case showed he was biased and had singled her out early in the investigation and ignored that other potential suspects existed.

A retrial in Read’s case is set to start next month. Proctor is on a list of prospective witnesses that the defense submitted to the court this week.

Michael Casey, The Associated Press