Karen Read investigator now suspended without pay after being relieved of duty for inappropriate texts

Investigator called texts dehumanizing, but said he stands by police work in Karen Read case

Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the high-profile Karen Read murder case, was suspended without pay, after coming under scrutiny for a series of offensive, misogynistic text messages the officer 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 in a case that ended in a mistrial last week, Proctor admitted in testimony that he sent a series of inappropriate texts about Read.

The texts included messages where he joked about hoping to find nude photos on her phone, mocking her Crohn’s disease, referring to her with a misogynist slur, and saying he hoped she killed herself.

Massachusetts State Police officer Michael Proctor (AP)

Proctor has previously acknowledged that the messages crossed the line, describing them as having “dehumanized” Read, but has stood by his police work in the case.

“These juvenile, unprofessional comments have zero impact on the facts and the evidence and the integrity of this investigation,” he testified.

Proctor was relieved of duty last week and transferred out of a detective unit assigned to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Read’s case.

During the hearing on Monday, a board of three officers recommended he be suspended without pay, which state police leadership accepted.

A judge declared a mistrial in the Karen Read case last week after jurors deadlocked. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

An internal affairs investigation into Proctor is ongoing.

The Independent has contacted his attorney for comment.

"Trooper Proctor has been fully cooperative in responding to the investigations conducted by the US Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police Internal Affairs Unit," Proctor’s lawyer, Michael R. DiStefano, previously told Inside Edition. "To be clear, Trooper Proctor remains steadfast in the integrity of the work he performed investigating the death of Mr John O’Keefe."

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

In June, the state’s governor Maura Healy called the texts “terrible,” describing them as causing “harm” to the “dignity and the integrity of the work of men and women across the State Police and law enforcement.”

Read, 44, was accused of killing O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, in 2022, by hitting him with her SUV and abandoning him in a snowstorm, which she denies.

The case attracted nationwide attention and conspiracy theories.

A jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the case, and a mistrial was declared.

Prosecutors plan to retry the case, and a status conference is scheduled for later this month.