Mass State Police Trooper Michael Proctor listens on the witness stand during the Karen Read murder trial, Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Norfolk Super Court in Dedham, Mass.
Sarah Betancourt Sarah Betancourt is a bilingual reporter for GBH News, and longtime Boston muckraker. Feedback? Questions? Story ideas? Reach out to Sarah at sarah_betancourt@wgbh.org. July 02, 2024
The state trooper who acted as lead investigator in the Karen Read case has been relieved of his duties and transferred to another unit, bringing another public perception disaster to the troubled state police department.
Trooper Michael Proctor admitted in court to vulgar texts Read during court proceedings. His removal was announced just hours after the high-profile murder case ended in a mistrial.
“This follows our previous decision to open an internal affairs investigation after information serious misconduct emerged in testimony at the trial. This investigation is ongoing,” he continued.
Proctor will be transferred to the State Police Detective’s Unit assigned to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office effective July 7, a five-day delay that’s required under the troopers’ collective bargaining agreement.
Proctor was confronted with his own text messages on the stand during Read’s trial, which indicated he was looking for nude photos of Read when he searched her phone. In the texts, he also made disparaging comments Read in connection with her health.
Former Boston police lieutenant and criminologist Tom Nolan believes the public attention on the trial exposed what goes on behind closed doors.
“I suspect that this kind of activity and these kinds of behaviors have gone on routinely,” Nolan said. “Only because of the notoriety attached to this particular trial did we see it come under the glare of the public spotlight.”
But the full consequences Proctor will face for his actions remain to be seen, depending on how far the State Police attempts to discipline him and how much he’s protected by his union.
Besides the transfer, Proctor could face additional sanctions. In any state police discipline process, a trooper is subject to a duty status hearing where they will be retained on full duty, placed on restricted duty, suspended with pay, or suspended without pay, according to the state police.
Civil rights attorney Howard Friedman, whose work focuses on police misconduct cases, says Proctor’s actions might be cause for suspension.
“This is such a high-profile case that it’s going to be hard for the state police to not have severe discipline — of up to and including a termination, I would think,” he said.
Nolan doesn’t believe Proctor will be suspended due to the strength of the state troopers’ police union.
“We may see a situation here where Trooper Proctor might be suspended for a period of time, but I doubt that he’s going to lose his job over this,” he said.
Proctor’s union said in a statement Tuesday that it does “not condone” his text messages Read.
“From what I’ve seen so far, most of the occasions where they have decertified someone — it’s been reserved for who have either been arrested or convicted of some kind of criminal offense, and not for what we’ve seen here, which is just simply incompetence,” he said.
Sarah Betancourt Sarah Betancourt is a bilingual reporter for GBH News, and longtime Boston muckraker. Feedback? Questions? Story ideas? Reach out to Sarah at sarah_betancourt@wgbh.org.
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