The Massachusetts state trooper who led the investigation that resulted in former college lecturer Karen Read being charged with the 2022 murder of her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, has been relieved of duty.
Ms. Read’s trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts, ended in a mistrial on July 1 after the jury failed to deliver a verdict.
Mr. Mawn said that Mr. Proctor remains employed as a state trooper, but has been removed from the state’s police detective unit.
Mr. Proctor served as lead investigator in the real-life whodunnit case—which had so much unusual evidence that it drew international attention.
At the core of such widespread interest was the defense’s theory that Ms. Read was framed for the murder of her boyfriend, Officer John O'Keefe, in a police cover-up led by Mr. Proctor.
Evidence presented to support the prosecution included eyewitness testimony and photographs of a tail light on Mrs. Read’s SUV showing it intact except for a small, missing piece before Mr. Proctor took the vehicle into police custody.
Weeks after investigators scoured the area where Mr. O'Keefe’s body was found, Mr. Proctor produced more than 40 pieces from her tail light.
Text Messages
Other evidence against Mr. Proctor was the discovery of text messages he sent out in which he made crude remarks about Ms. Read and also what appears to be promises of protecting those the defense contends were actually responsible for Mr. O'Keefe’s injuries and ultimate death.In one of the texts, he states that Brian Albert, the owner of the house where Mr. O'Keefe’s body was found lying outside would be safe from an investigation “because he was a cop.”
In another message, Mr. Proctor’s sister—identified during the trial as a friend of the wife of Officer Albert—texted him: “When this is all over, she wants to get you a thank you gift.”
Mr. Proctor responded by telling her to get a gift for his wife.
Under direct examination by the state, Mr. Proctor said he never received any gifts in the case and that he made crude and disparaging comments about Ms. Read out of anger that she had killed a fellow police officer.
In another text to his sister, Mr. Proctor stated that he wished Ms. Read would kill herself.
He also sent a text to other officers indicating he was searching Ms. Read’s phone for “nude pictures” of her and in other texts mocked her for having a medical condition.
He admitted under cross-examination that he had dehumanized Ms. Read. However, throughout his testimony, he denied planting evidence or any other wrongdoing.
“Instead of investigating her objectively, you objectified her,” Mr. Jackson said to Mr. Proctor before telling the 10-year veteran state trooper that he should be ashamed of himself.
Mr. Mawn said there is an open internal affairs investigation into his conduct relative to Ms. Read.
“Misconduct in any way, shape, or form of the Massachusetts state police will not be tolerated,” Mr. Mawn said at a July 2 press conference.
He also said he “condemned” Mr. Proctor’s comments in the case “in the strongest terms possible.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Mr. Proctor did not get a response before publication.
On July 2, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey told reporters that the state police made the right decision to remove Mr. Proctor from his duties and added that she expect the state law enforcement agency to face “additional scrutiny.”
Earlier this month, she took aim at Mr. Proctor, saying that “as a former attorney general,” she was “disgusted” by his conduct and comments.
“It does harm frankly to the dignity and integrity of the work of men and women across the state police and in law enforcement,” she said.
A Divided Jury
On day five of deliberations following the two-month trial, the six-man, six-woman jury told Judge Beverly Cannone that they were at an impasse.“Our perspectives on the evidence are starkly divided,“ the jury wrote. ”Some members of the jury firmly believe that the evidence surpasses the burden of proof, establishing the elements of the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Conversely, others find the evidence fails to meet this standard and does not sufficiently establish the necessary element of the charges.”
According to the prosecution, after some heavy drinking on a blizzardy winter night of Jan. 29, 2022, Ms. Read and Mr. O'Keefe, along with others in law enforcement, went to the Canton home of fellow Boston police officer Brian Albert and his wife Nicole for an afterparty.
The prosecution said Ms. Read and Mr. O‘Keefe never made it inside the home. Instead, the couple got into a fight and Ms. Read rammed her car into Mr. O’Keefe, ran him over, and then left him for dead in heavy snowfall, the prosecution alleges.
Two EMTs testified that they overheard Ms. Read say the next day that she had hit Mr. O'Keefe. On cross-examination, the defense was able to show that one of the EMTs was a friend of the Alberts’ daughter.
Ms. Read, who suffers from Crohn’s Disease, has always maintained that she dropped off Mr. O'Keefe outside the Alberts’ home because she wasn’t feeling well.
The defense argued that Mr. O'Keefe was killed inside the Albert home in a fight between him and Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Brian Higgins over a romantic interest Mr. Higgins had in Ms. Read.
The defense’s theory is that after realizing Mr. O‘Keefe was mortally wounded, Mr. Higgins, the Alberts, and possibly others in the house dragged Mr. O’Keefe outside and left him there.
Both the Alberts and Mr. Higgins denied having anything to do with Mr. O'Keefe’s injuries.
