Michael Proctor: Firing, Decertification, and Karen Read Lawsuits

Michael Proctor is the former Massachusetts State Police trooper who led the investigation into the 2022 death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe, the case in which O’Keefe’s girlfriend Karen Read was charged and ultimately acquitted of murder. Proctor’s role in the Karen Read case ended in disgrace: crude and racist text messages he sent about Read surfaced at trial, a broader trove of hateful messages later emerged from his personal phone, and he was fired, stripped of his law enforcement certification, and named in civil litigation. He has not been criminally charged.

His Role in the O’Keefe Investigation

O’Keefe, a 46-year-old, 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, was found unresponsive in the snow outside the Canton home of retired Boston police officer Brian Albert on January 29, 2022. He had been dropped off by Read after a night out and was later pronounced dead, with the medical examiner citing blunt impact injuries to the head and hypothermia.¹

Proctor was assigned as the lead investigator for the State Police. Under his lead, the case concluded that Read had struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV while intoxicated and driven away. She was indicted on second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene resulting in death.²

What Proctor Did Wrong

Proctor admitted at trial that he was personally acquainted with Brian Albert, who hosted the party O’Keefe attended before his death. Defense lawyers argued that connection tainted the investigation from the start.³ He also acknowledged sharing confidential details about the investigation with people outside law enforcement, including his sister.⁴

The most damaging evidence was his own text messages. Under oath during the first trial in 2024, Proctor admitted sending crude and derogatory messages about Read to friends and colleagues. He called her a “whack job” and “a nut bag.” In a message to his sister, he wrote that he hoped Read would kill herself.⁵ He conceded on the stand that his comments “dehumanized” Read, including remarks about her medical conditions. Read’s attorneys also accused him of manipulating the cracked taillight on her SUV to fit the prosecution theory, an allegation he denied under oath.⁴

A state police trial board later found him responsible for a fourth violation as well: consuming alcohol while on duty and then driving his cruiser.⁵

Firing, Appeal, and Loss of Certification

Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial on July 1, 2024, after a deeply divided jury.⁶ Proctor was relieved of duty and suspended without pay soon after, and the Office of Professional Integrity opened a formal internal affairs investigation.⁷ The internal probe was triggered in part by a separate federal investigation; Proctor learned during a February 2024 federal grand jury appearance that federal authorities had obtained the contents of his personal cell phone.⁸

In March 2025, the trial board found him guilty of four department policy violations: three counts of unsatisfactory performance covering his biased texts, his sharing of confidential information, and creating the image of a biased investigator, plus the alcohol-on-duty count.⁹ He was fired and dishonorably discharged on March 19, 2025. State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble called the termination a “righteous decision.”¹⁰

Proctor appealed to the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission but withdrew that appeal on October 18, 2025. His attorney at the time cited a “recent disclosure” from the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, understood to involve additional messages on his phone that he did not want aired in a public proceeding. The State Police Association of Massachusetts ended its support for him around the same time.⁵

On December 18, 2025, the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission suspended his law enforcement certification, finding by a preponderance of the evidence that suspension was “in the best interest of the health, safety, or welfare of the public.” The order bars him from police duties anywhere in the state. He has a right to a hearing but, as of the most recent reporting, has not requested one.¹¹¹²

He has not been criminally charged for any aspect of his conduct. No federal charges were announced after the federal probe that led to the seizure of his phone.¹³

Read’s second trial began in April 2025. Neither side called Proctor to the stand. On June 18, 2025, the jury acquitted her of murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene, convicting her only of operating under the influence. She was sentenced to one year of probation.¹⁴

The Broader Text Message Trove

The messages read at Read’s first trial were only part of what was on Proctor’s phone. Through 2025 and 2026, court-ordered disclosures and litigation revealed years of racist, homophobic, antisemitic, and misogynistic messages, many exchanged with former Canton Police Sergeant Sean Goode and dating back to 2013.¹⁴

Reporting and court filings have described:

Messages using racial slurs, including one saying it should be “punch a [racial slur] day” and telling Goode to assault any Black person he encountered, and another stating that “Hitler was really on to something” before the United States intervened.¹⁴
Discussions of performing sexual acts on women without their consent, and a comment by Proctor that he needed “a roofie or something” to find a sexual partner.¹⁴
References, according to Read’s 2026 lawsuit, to “planting coke” on suspects.¹⁵
A 2013 message during his application to the State Police in which Proctor wrote, “No idea how I passed the background,” and used a slur to describe the Boston Police investigator who conducted the check.¹⁶

A review of the phone showed that he used similar language in a long-running group chat with high school friends that spanned his entire career.¹⁶

Other Cases Under Review

Because Proctor investigated many cases besides Read’s, the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office began disclosing the contents of his personal phone to defendants in the fall of 2025. Disclosures have gone out in roughly 20 or more cases, including some that already resulted in convictions.¹⁷¹⁸

In June 2026, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state’s public defender agency, formally requested a full accounting of every open and closed case Proctor investigated. Chief Counsel Anthony Benedetti described the messages as “virulently racist, sexist, antisemitic, homophobic and hateful” and said affected defendants have a constitutional right to disclosure.¹⁸

Specific pending challenges include:

Myles King, charged with a 2021 murder in Milton with Proctor as lead investigator. Defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio has moved to dismiss, arguing Proctor’s biases “infected his entire investigation.” Prosecutors have until August 2026 to respond; trial is set for January 2027.¹⁹
Shawn Johnson, Jovani Delossantos, and Bianca Chionchio, charged in the 2022 shooting death of Ivanildo Cabral at a Randolph country club. In June 2026, a Norfolk Superior Court judge gave defense attorneys access to Proctor’s hiring and discipline records after finding communications on his phone that “support the defense theory that police bias played a role.”²⁰
Brian Walshe, charged with murdering his wife Ana Walshe, another case in which Proctor was lead investigator. At Walshe’s December 2025 trial the defense tried to raise Proctor’s misconduct, but the judge limited that line of questioning. Prosecutors said they did not intend to call him.²¹²⁰
Lance Holloman, accused in a 2017 double murder on Interstate 93, whose attorney has requested Proctor’s records.²⁰

Defense attorneys are also seeking records of disciplinary “nonconformities” at the State Police crime lab. Scapicchio has compared the potential scope of the fallout to the Annie Dookhan scandal, in which a state lab chemist’s misconduct tainted thousands of Massachusetts drug convictions.¹⁶

Civil Lawsuits Involving Proctor

Two civil cases now put Proctor’s conduct at issue. The first is a wrongful death suit filed by O’Keefe’s family against Read in August 2024, alleging she caused O’Keefe’s death and inflicted emotional distress by promoting a conspiracy theory. The case is pending in Plymouth Superior Court.²²²³²⁴

The second is a lawsuit Read filed on June 4, 2026, in Bristol County Superior Court against the Massachusetts State Police and the Town of Canton. Her 87-page complaint alleges wrongful prosecution, negligent hiring and supervision, and an “embedded culture of bigotry, misogyny, systemic failures, and institutional rot” at both agencies. It seeks damages for legal fees, lost income, emotional distress, and reputational harm. Her legal team said: “Michael Proctor and Sean Goode are not the exception. They are the evidence.”²⁵²⁶

Proctor’s attorney, Matt Hamel, has said that “anything Mr. Proctor did or said in his personal life, years before Officer O’Keefe was killed, had no bearing whatsoever on the investigation of Karen Read.”²⁵

1
NPR. Karen Read Acquitted at Trial
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CBS News Boston. Karen Read Trial Timeline
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BBC News. Karen Read Case
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NBC News. Karen Read Michael Proctor
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WCVB. Michael Proctor Drops Appeal
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NBC News. Karen Read Trial Verdict
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NBC Boston. Michael Proctor Appeal Update
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NBC Boston. Michael Proctor Text Messages Appeal
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13 WHAM. Massachusetts State Police Fire Trooper Michael Proctor
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Police1. State Board Revokes LE Certification for Mass State Police Investigator
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WCVB. Michael Proctor Certification Suspended
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Boston Herald. POST Commission Suspends Karen Read Investigator Michael Proctor’s Certification
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Boston.com. Karen Read Messages Public Defenders
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CBS News Boston. Michael Proctor Sean Goode Text Messages
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Boston.com. Karen Read Unleashes Tidal Wave of Explicit Texts
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MassLive. Defense Lawyers Secure Michael Proctor Hiring Discipline Records
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MassLive. Mass Public Defender Agency Raises Concern About Cases Involving Karen Read Investigators
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Boston Herald. Mass State Police Asked for Info on Every Case Michael Proctor Investigated
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MassLive. Lead Investigator’s Racist Texts Threaten Milton Murder Case
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Boston Globe. Karen Read Michael Proctor Murder Cases Scrutiny
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CNN. Brian Walshe Murder Trial Day 5
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CBS News Boston. Karen Read John O’Keefe Civil Suit Motion to Dismiss
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Boston.com. Michael Proctor Deposition Karen Read
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Boston Herald. Karen Read Wrongful Death Suit Proctor Deposed
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NBC Boston. Karen Read Says She’s Suing Mass State Police Canton Police
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ABC News. Karen Read Files Lawsuit Against Massachusetts State Police Canton