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Michael Proctor suspended without pay

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Controversial police officer Michael Proctor was suspended without pay “effective immediately” on Monday after a closed hearing decided his immediate future with the department, officials said.

State police officials said Proctor appeared for his performance hearing before a panel of “three officers” that recommended that Proctor be suspended without pay. Colonel John E. Mawn, the agency’s chief, accepted the recommendation, officials said.

Proctor, the lead investigator in the Karen Read case, was relieved of his duties as a detective in Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office after his crude and degrading text messages about Read came to light at her murder trial.

Neither a lawyer for Proctor nor a spokesman for his union immediately responded to requests for comment.

Proctor’s dismissal was announced hours after a judge declared a mistrial in the high-profile case. Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him dying outside a Canton home.

Read pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have announced they will retry the case, and Judge Beverly Cannone has scheduled a hearing for July 22.

Proctor was transferred to a desk job at Troop H in South Boston. Monday’s duty status hearing was held virtually and was not open to the public, a standard department practice.

According to the agency, Proctor’s supervisors had four options: reinstate Proctor’s full schedule, place him on restricted schedule, suspend him with pay, or suspend him without pay.

According to officials, an internal investigation into Proctor’s conduct is still ongoing.

“After completing an internal investigation, the department can file charges, which would be decided by a state police court,” officials said.

Travis Andersen of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

John R. Ellement can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @JREbosglobe.

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