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Dover doctor accused of killing his wife asks for investigators’ phones, citing Karen Read case
A lawyer for Ingolf Tuerk is seeking cellphones and records of communication from several investigators, including embattled Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor.
A former Dover surgeon accused of murdering his wife in 2020 is seeking access to cellphones and electronic devices from several investigators who worked on the case, including an embattled Massachusetts State Police trooper who was suspended without pay following his testimony in Karen Read’s trial.
A lawyer for Ingolf “Harry” Tuerk filed a motion in Norfolk Superior Court last week requesting access to electronic devices and records of communication from eight State Police and Dover Police Department investigators. Included on that list is Trooper Michael Proctor, who admitted to making vulgar comments about Read in texts with family, friends, and coworkers. Two of Proctor’s superiors — Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik and Lt. John Fanning — are also named in Tuerk’s motion.
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Proctor, Bukhenik, and Lt. Brian Tully, another trooper who testified during Read’s trial, are all facing internal affairs investigations. While Bukhenik and Tully remain on active duty, State Police relieved Proctor of duty in light of his texts, which ranged from calling Read a “wack job c**t” to poking fun at her Crohn’s disease and joking about looking for nude photos on her phone.
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Read is charged with murder in the 2022 death of her former boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. The case ended in a mistrial last month, and a retrial is scheduled for January.
“The government has provided the defense with a production of transcripts and notices from the matter of Commonwealth vs. Karen Read, Norfolk County Superior Court,” Tuerk’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, wrote in the Aug. 8 motion. Reddington, who also represented a key witness in Read’s case, cited the ongoing State Police internal affairs investigations.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office confirmed it has flagged Proctor’s testimony and suspension to lawyers in other cases the trooper worked on, as first reported by NBC10 Boston. State Police are still determining the number of impacted cases, according to the DA’s office.
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Speaking to reporters following a hearing in Tuerk’s case Wednesday, Reddington said the request for investigators’ communication is justified in light of what emerged during Read’s trial.
“They give me a notice and they say, ‘Look, you’ve got lousy investigation. You’ve got misrepresentations. You’ve got totally inappropriate references to the defendant who’s being investigated,” Reddington told reporters following a hearing Wednesday, per NBC10 footage.
A hearing on the motion is slated for Sept. 11.
“Our prosecutors continue to fulfill our discovery obligations in each case and will address ensuing issues that arise one-by-one,” David Traub, a spokesperson for the DA’s office, said in a statement.
Tuerk has pleaded not guilty to killing his wife, Kathleen McLean. Prosecutors allege the once-renowned surgeon confessed to strangling McLean and dumping her body in a pond near their home. According to court documents, Tuerk then allegedly texted a family friend: “Curt I am sorry brother But she is a vindictive devil, she played us all, I am really sorry brother, but she manipulated us all love you Harry.”
In another account filed in court last week, Reddington alleged Tuerk and McLean were arguing right before she died.
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McLean “hit him with a glass, striking him on the head and striking him in his forehead and came at him with arms outstretched,” Reddington wrote. “He stood up and grabbed her and it was at this point that he realized that she went limp and that she had, indeed, passed away.”
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