The Massachusetts state police trooper who led the investigation into the death of a Boston police officer acknowledged Wednesday that derogatory comments he made about Karen Read, the officer’s girlfriend on trial in John O’Keefe’s death, had “dehumanized” her.
During two days of testimony in a courtroom outside Boston, trooper Michael Proctor admitted using slurs and vulgar language to describe Read in text messages to friends, family and supervisors.
Proctor also acknowledged writing a text to his sister, sent days after the death of O’Keefe, 46, on Jan. 29, 2022, saying he hoped Read took her own life.
Proctor has said the comments were unprofessional but didn’t compromise the integrity of the investigation. He testified that he didn’t want Read to die by suicide and described that comment as a “figure of speech.”
When defense lawyer Alan Jackson asked Proctor if his comments had dehumanized his client, the trooper responded: “Based off that language, yes.”
Read, 44, is charged with second-degree murder and other crimes in connection with O’Keefe’s death. Prosecutors have alleged that she backed her SUV into her boyfriend and left him to die outside the home of another Boston officer who was having a gathering at his family’s home in Canton, a Boston suburb.
The medical examiner attributed O’Keefe’s cause of death to blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia.
Read has said she dropped her boyfriend off at the gathering and didn’t see him until the next morning, when she found his body in Brian Albert’s front lawn.
Read’s lawyers have alleged O’Keefe was beaten and killed at Albert’s home and Read was framed in his death.
The defense has said that Proctor’s investigation was biased and failed to pursue other potential suspects, including Brian Higgins, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who had been at the party at Albert’s home.
In the months before O’Keefe’s death, Higgins and Read flirted via text and she kissed him, the agent testified last month. The defense has suggested that Higgins became frustrated when Read “ghosted” him and paid no attention to him at a bar where they and others, including O’Keefe, had been before the party.
Higgins has testified that he was not upset about Read, and Proctor said the agent had no motive to harm O’Keefe.
But another defense lawyer, David Yannetti, pointed to what he described as two “curious” phone calls between Higgins and Albert at 2:22 a.m. on Jan. 29, after the party at Albert’s home.
Albert has testified that the first phone call, which lasted one second, was accidental, and he did not respond to a returned call from Higgins that lasted 22 seconds. Higgins testified that he had no recollection of calling Albert back.
Proctor said that he had been unaware of the call. Typically, he said, investigators do not seize witnesses’ phones.
Read’s lawyers also accused Proctor of failing to disclose his relationships with the Albert family. Proctor testified that his sister was close friends with Albert’s sister-in-law, whom Proctor had also asked to babysit his children, and he had worked on a cold case and hung out with Albert’s brother, a police officer in Canton.
Proctor interviewed the sister-in-law, who had been at the bar before the party, and he acknowledged discussing that interview and other details of the case with his sister.
Asked if he was sharing progress of the homicide investigation with his sister, Proctor said, “absolutely not” and added that he’d only made her aware of “newsworthy stuff.”
The trial is expected to last until the end of the month.
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