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Trooper Proctor suspended without pay following State Police hearing
The lead investigator in Karen Read's case, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor came under fire for his vulgar texts about the defendant.
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the disgraced investigator whose crude texts took center stage in Karen Read’s murder trial, has been suspended without pay following a hearing Monday.
Proctor was relieved of duty last week, just hours after Read’s case resulted in a mistrial. The trooper previously faced questions about his texts to family, friends, and colleagues, in which he called Read a “wack job c**t,” made fun of her Crohn’s disease, joked about looking for nude photos on her phone, and said he hoped Read would kill herself.
Previously:
On the stand, Proctor agreed that his choice of words “dehumanized” Read.
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State Police formally transferred Proctor out of the detective unit assigned to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Read’s case, and moved him to the field services division of Troop H. However, an agency spokesperson previously clarified that Proctor turned in his equipment and is “not able to function as a trooper” for the time being.
An internal affairs investigation into Proctor’s conduct is ongoing, and the trooper faced a duty status hearing Monday to determine whether he should remain on duty or face suspension.
According to State Police, a board of three officers recommended Proctor be suspended without pay. Col. John Mawn Jr. accepted the board’s recommendation, making Proctor’s suspension effective immediately.
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A lawyer for Proctor did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of intentionally backing her SUV into her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, following a night of drinking in January 2022. Her lawyers maintain she was framed in a vast coverup involving witnesses and law enforcement, and they’ve sought to implicate Proctor in their theory.
Proctor admitted on the stand that his comments about Read were “unprofessional” and said he wasn’t proud of his language. However, he argued, “These juvenile, unprofessional comments have zero impact on the facts and the evidence and the integrity of this investigation.”
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