Karen Read investigator now suspended without pay after being fired for inappropriate text messages

Michael Proctor, a Massachusetts State Police trooper and lead investigator in the high-profile Karen Read murder case, has been suspended without pay after coming under scrutiny for a series of offensive, misogynistic text messages he sent to friends and colleagues about the investigation.

During the nine-week trial of Read, who was accused of killing her boyfriend John O’Keefe in 2022, Proctor admitted in his testimony to sending a series of inappropriate text messages about Read. The case ended in a mistrial last week.

In the text messages, he joked that he hoped to find nude photos on her phone, made fun of her Crohn’s disease, used misogynistic language about her, and said he hoped she would commit suicide.

Proctor previously acknowledged that the messages went too far, describing them as “dehumanizing” Read, but insisted on his police work in the case.

“These childish, unprofessional comments have no bearing on the facts and evidence and the integrity of this investigation,” he testified.

Proctor was relieved of duty last week and transferred from a criminal unit in the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office that was prosecuting the Read case.

During Monday’s hearing, a panel of three officers recommended that he be suspended without pay, which state police leadership accepted.

An internal investigation into Proctor is underway.

The Independent has asked his lawyer for comment.

“Trooper Proctor has cooperated fully in responding to the investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police Internal Affairs Division,” Proctor’s attorney Michael R. DiStefano said earlier Inside Edition“To be clear, Trooper Proctor stands firmly behind the integrity of his work in investigating the death of Mr. John O’Keefe.”

Massachusetts authorities and Read’s lawyers condemned the text messages.

In June, state Governor Maura Healy called the texts “horrific” and described them as “a defamation of the dignity and integrity of the work of the men and women in the state’s police and law enforcement agencies.”

Read, 44, was accused of killing Boston police officer O’Keefe in 2022 by hitting him with her SUV and leaving him in a snowstorm. She denies those charges.

The case attracted nationwide attention and sparked conspiracy theories.

A jury could not reach a unanimous verdict in this case and a mistrial occurred.

The public prosecutor’s office plans to retry the case. A status conference is scheduled for the end of the month.