BOSTON (AP) 鈥 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鈥檚 trial 鈥 where she was her Boston police officer boyfriend 鈥 ended in a , 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.
鈥淢y decision to terminate Mr. Proctor follows a thorough, fair, and impartial process,鈥 Noble said in a statement. 鈥淚 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 鈥渄erogatory, defamatory and disparaging and/ or inappropriate text messages鈥 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 鈥渢ruly disappointed鈥 with the decision, explaining it 鈥渓acks precedent, and unfairly exploits and scapegoats one of their own.鈥 They noted the investigation only turned up the evidence on his personal phone.
"The messages prove one thing, and that Michael is human 鈥 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鈥橩eefe, 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鈥橩eefe 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 鈥渃onvenient outsider鈥 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 is set to start next month. Proctor is on a list of prospective witnesses that the defense submitted to the court this week.
