What the Massachusetts State Police investigator said – NBC Boston

Massachusetts State Police Detective Michael Proctor, who led the investigation into the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe, took the witness stand Monday – a long-awaited moment in the Karen Read murder trial.

Proctor is being investigated in connection with the Read case for a possible violation of department policy. The defense claims — allegations which the prosecution strongly denies — that he likely played a role in framing Read for O’Keefe’s murder. Read has been charged with manslaughter in connection with her boyfriend’s death, which she denies.

In opening statements in late April, Read’s defense told the jury that they would hear that “Proctor was texting with his school friends about this supposedly secret investigation, using his personal cell phone,” hours after O’Keefe’s body was found. On Monday, the prosecution had Proctor enter these and other statements into the record.

Proctor described to the jury a text he had sent to friends in which he described Read using a vulgar word for a woman, saying the comments were “unprofessional and regrettable” and that he should not have made them.

Below is a breakdown of the SMS conversations that Proctor detailed:

Texts with Proctor’s circle of friends

At the suggestion of prosecutor Adam Lally, Proctor read through a text message conversation he had 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 wrote, “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 Cannone asked, “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 such a text message?” asked prosecutor Lally.

Proctor responded that they were “unprofessional and regrettable comments that I am not proud of and that I should not have made in private 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.

Texts with Proctor’s sister

Proctor testified that he was very close to his sister Courtney and that she was friends with Julie Albert.

Proctor texted his sister that he “found someone frozen to death on a front yard this morning,” and when he interviewed Jen McCabe, she said she knew Courtney.

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 at the bar with the victim and his girlfriend. I need to question them.”

Lally mentioned a text message his sister sent later 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.”