What he said about Karen Read – NBC Boston

Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the Karen Read murder case, was suspended without pay following a status hearing Monday. He had already been relieved of duty and had his patrol car, gun and equipment taken away, but he was still receiving his paycheck pending the hearing.

Proctor had publicly admitted to making “unprofessional and deplorable” comments about Read during the investigation into the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe. The investigation led to Read being charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving a crime scene causing bodily harm and death, which she denies.

A mistrial was declared last week after a nine-week trial; her lawyers said Monday that the jury was prepared to acquit her on two counts, including murder.

The lead investigator in the case against Karen Read has been suspended pending an internal investigation.

The internal investigation into Proctor is ongoing, a State Police spokesman said Monday in announcing Proctor’s suspension. The department will issue a statement on each allegation – confirmed, not confirmed, exonerated or unsubstantiated – and forward the findings to the state’s POST Commission, which maintains police disciplinary records. If investigators in such investigations find charges justified, they will be adjudicated by a State Police Trial Board.

A major turning point in the two-month trial came when Proctor was forced to admit and apologize for sending abusive text messages about Read to friends, family and comrades during the investigation.

Here is a look back at the content of these text messages:

Texts with Proctor’s circle of friends

During his testimony in early June, Proctor read a text message conversation he had with a group of friends he had known since childhood on the evening of Jan. 29, the day of O’Keefe’s death. After some discussion, one friend texted, “I’m sure the owner of the house is going to get some sh*t.”

Proctor replied, “No, the homeowner is also a Boston police officer,” and told his friend that Read had “messed up” O’Keefe, whose body was “bruised” when he saw it in the hospital. When a friend asked if O’Keefe had been beaten, Proctor said, “No.”

Proctor further stated that Read and O’Keefe “arrived at the house together, got into an argument, she drove off and drove away,” and later added, “serious charges will be brought against the girl,” telling the jury that there was already “convincing evidence” that Read had struck O’Keefe.

When a friend asked, “Is she at least hot?” Proctor replied, “It seems he’s done nothing wrong. She’s a lunatic.” Then he spelled a vulgar word for a woman.

Read’s attorney objected and Judge Beverly Cannone asked him, “Those are your words, Trooper Proctor,” and had him say the word “shit” out loud.

Proctor continued, “She’s a sweetheart. But she has a weird Fall River accent,” adding a snide remark about her butt.

“Why did you send a text message like that?” asked prosecutor Adam Lally.

Proctor responded that they were “unprofessional and regrettable comments that I am not proud of and that I should not have made privately or in any other setting.”

Proctor also testified that he shared a photo of Read being led out of the Milton State Police barracks, and when someone asked him if Read was “a smoker,” he replied, “eh.” He then made a derogatory remark about a medical condition suggesting incontinence.

The officer called the comment “unprofessional” and nothing he was proud of, but added: “These childish, unprofessional comments have no bearing on the facts and evidence and the integrity of this investigation.”

Later, Lally revisited the texts with the friend group, asking what language he had used and over what time period he had used it.

Proctor said it was 16 to 18 hours after O’Keefe’s death that it was determined: “Mr. O’Keefe never entered the house on Fairview Road. We knew there was one shoe at the crime scene and one shoe at the hospital.” There was also other evidence at the crime scene, such as part of a taillight, that suggested Read was responsible for O’Keefe’s killing.

“Based on the day’s investigation, it was clear that Ms. Read had struck Mr. O’Keefe with her vehicle,” Proctor said.

Since the Karen Read murder trial began, we have heard testimony from more than 50 witnesses, but Monday’s testimony from Massachusetts State Police officer Michael Proctor has many people talking.

Texts with Proctor’s sister

Proctor testified that he was very close to his sister Courtney and that she was friends with Julie Albert, a witness in the Read trial.

Proctor’s sister was incredulous and then remarked that McCabe’s sister was “married to Brian Albert.” The police officer told the jury that it was an “all innocuous conversation.”

Later, Proctor’s sister asked if the Canton case was a murder, to which Proctor replied, “Don’t say a word to anyone.”

“Of course not,” his sister replied.

He said of the death: “It is at least suspicious,” and told his sister: “Julie and Chris (Albert) were in the bar with the victim and his girlfriend. I need to question them.”

Lally mentioned a text message his sister later sent after the conversation with Julie Albert: “When this is all over, she wants to give you a thank you gift.”

Proctor replied, “Get one for Elizabeth,” referring to his wife. The policeman told the jury that his wife had to look after the two children for ten nights, adding, “I never got a present, I never asked for a present, my wife never got a present, my wife never asked for a present.”

Texts with Proctor’s wife

Lally turned to conversations with his wife, in which he again called Read a “lunatic,” this time after she was indicted by a Norfolk County grand jury.

Proctor reiterated that they were “unprofessional messages that I should not have sent. I have no explanation other than that they are regrettable and I should not have sent them.”

Texts with Proctor’s colleagues

Lally had Proctor review several text messages from co-workers, one of which the officer described as a buddy he was meeting outside of work.

Proctor described how the friend was upset about a conference call with the coroner and doctor, who did not rule O’Keefe’s death a homicide.

Later, Proctor again calls Read a “madman” in a text message to another police officer, to which the officer replies, “Dear God, what the hell, what the hell is so inconclusive about this whole thing?” – a reference to the coroner’s finding that O’Keefe’s manner of death was unknown.

In another thread involving this officer and another, Proctor said he made “a regrettable comment … about Ms. Read’s health.”

Later, one day in June, when Read was booked into the state police barracks, Proctor’s boyfriend told police, “f— her, bitch,” in response to her statement that O’Keefe had been killed by the Alberts.

In another thread, Proctor made a comment about Yannetti. He wrote that after he stopped searching Read’s phone records because he discovered protected communications between her and her lawyer, he was “searching his damn client’s phone. No nude photos yet. I hate that man, I really hate him.”

The comment was “a tasteless joke,” Proctor said, later adding that he was not looking for nude photos but for “location data from text messages … other evidence contained in the phone.”