The Massachusetts State Police trooper who led the investigation into the death of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe acknowledged Wednesday that derogatory comments he made about O’Keefe's girlfriend, Karen Read, who is on trial in his death, had “dehumanized” her.
During two days of testimony in a courtroom outside Boston, Trooper Michael Proctor admitted having used slurs and vulgar language to describe Read in text messages to friends, relatives and supervisors.
Proctor also acknowledged he wrote a text to his sister, sent days after O’Keefe, 46, died 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 whether his comments had dehumanized his client, he 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 in Canton, a Boston suburb.
The medical examiner attributed O’Keefe's 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 on Officer 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 that he 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 died, Higgins and Read flirted via text and she kissed him, Higgins 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 wasn't upset about Read, and Proctor said Higgins 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. Jan. 29, after the party at Albert's home.
Albert has testified that the first phone call, which lasted one second, was accidental and that he didn’t respond to a returned call from Higgins that lasted 22 seconds. Higgins testified that he had no recollection of calling Albert back.
Proctor said he had been unaware of the call. Typically, he said, investigators don’t 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 that 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 whether he was sharing progress of the homicide investigation with his sister, Proctor said, “Absolutely not,” adding that he’d only made her aware of “newsworthy stuff.”
The trial is expected to last until the end of the month.