Crime
“Overall, myself and every detective in that office worked this case like we always do, so I wouldn’t change anything,” Proctor said when asked what he would do again.
Michael Proctor, the disgraced former State Police trooper, revisited the investigation he led against Karen Read during a television interview that aired hours after Read was acquitted in the death of her Boston Police Officer boyfriend John O’Keefe.
During a special edition of ABC’s 20/20, ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman interviewed Proctor about the initial investigation into O’Keefe’s death in Canton, his explicit texts about Read, and losing his job with the Massachusetts State Police.
“Is there any part of the actual investigation that you would do over?” Gutman asked Proctor.
“Because it’s blowing up into this crazy, crazy, so-called conspiracy, maybe I could have avoided it by looking at other people’s cars just to say we did it,” Proctor said. “There’s some witnesses, maybe, we could have interviewed a little sooner, but overall, myself and every detective in that office worked this case like we always do, so I wouldn’t change anything.”
O’Keefe was found unresponsive in the snow outside 34 Fairview Road, a home owned at the time by fellow Boston Police Officer Brian Albert. Read was with Albert’s sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe, when O’Keefe was discovered on the home’s front lawn.
Read was found not guilty of second degree murder but guilty of operating under the influence of liquor, ending her second trial Wednesday. Read was sentenced to one year of probation and a program for alcohol education — the standard sentence for a first-time OUI offense.
The investigation
The defense alleged that Proctor, a lifelong resident of Canton and lead investigator on the case into O’Keefe’s death, was close to the families involved the night of the Boston officer’s death.
Proctor told Gutman that while he had heard of Brian Albert, he “never met him until I interviewed him.” Proctor also said he knew Brian’s brother Chris Albert and his wife Julie, who were out at the bar the night O’Keefe died, “through a distant relationship with my sister.” Proctor also denied knowing the McCabes.
“Did you ever think at any point that you should recuse yourself from this case?” Gutman asked.
“No, absolutely not. Absolutely not,” Proctor said.
“Wasn’t too close to home, both figuratively and literally?” Gutman replied.
“No, it wasn’t a concern of mine, wasn’t a concern of DA Michael Morrissey, wasn’t a concern of my supervisors,” Proctor said. “I didn’t know these people. There was loose connections with Julie and Chris.”
The trial
Proctor adamantly denied any corruption, including planting evidence. Gutman asked if Proctor could see how some of his conduct, including explicit texts, “opens the door for the defense’s allegations that there was some sort of conspiracy and cover-up.” Read’s defense team, including attorney Alan Jackson, have long maintained she was framed in a coverup, suggesting she was the victim of a botched and biased investigation.
“There’s no evidence because it didn’t happen,” Proctor said, referring to any cover-up. “I spent two days on the stand. That was Alan Jackson’s opportunity to bring that up, question me on it.”
“Specifically asking you whether you planted evidence,” Gutman asked.
“Yeah, not one question,” Proctor said. He agreed that Boston has a history of police and law enforcement corruption but “not in this case, didn’t happen here.”
“They believe that the state police, multiple units within the state police, the Canton Police Department, and about a dozen civilians are all in this conspiracy to frame a woman we don’t know,” Proctor said. “And over the last two and a half, three years, not one person said, ‘Wait a minute. I’m not going down for this.’”
When asked about the taillight pieces of evidence that were found at the scene after the initial search, Proctor denied any accusation of planting evidence.
“It’s such a ridiculous accusation. It’s something I would never do. I’ve never done. There’s no evidence of it,” Proctor said. He pointed to the fluctuating weather after the snow storm that night. “The more snow that melted, the more evidence unearthed itself.”
Proctor told Gutman that there’s a “silent majority” from which prosecutors have had a lot of support “They’re just not out there tweeting,” he said, referring to the “loud minority.”
The texts
Proctor called the text messages that he sent to friends, family, and colleagues about Read “regrettable.” He used language like “wack job c**t” and “retarded” and made crass remarks about her appearance and medical condition. He read the texts aloud on the stand during Read’s first trial.
“In all the content and the messages, what you don’t see is a conspiracy,” Proctor told Gutman. When asked what he sees, Proctor said “I see someone was caught up in the moment of investigating a fellow police officer and just saying inappropriate things.”
He said he “absolutely” could understand why the texts appeared to be sexist and misogynistic.
In other messages, Proctor told his sister he hoped Read would kill herself. He also commented to State Police colleagues about looking for nude photos on Read’s phone.
“It was made in jest, you know, it’s a figure of speech,” Proctor said about the comment to his sister. When questioned, he said “It wasn’t like literally, I hope she kills herself.”
Proctor said the negative feelings that led to the language developed “as the case went on.”
“When you have a fellow police officer around my age, two kids of his own, it generates an emotion, and I expressed those emotions in a negative way, which I shouldn’t have,” Proctor said. “I shouldn’t even have been texting my friends anything.”
His termination
During the special, Proctor was in tears when he described giving up his uniforms he had earned through a six-month academy program.
“I just remember dropping on my knees, and laying on my lawn, crying. I couldn’t even talk,” Proctor said about after he was relieved of duty. “I was in complete hysterics.”
After he was relieved of duty, he was dishonorably discharged by the State Police Trial Board for “unsatisfactory performance related to State Police conduct,” according to the documentary.
“I don’t know any trooper that’s been punished for personal text messages on their personal phone, let alone fired,” Proctor said.
Proctor is appealing the Trial Board’s decision.
The ABC 20/20 special touched on the defense’s theories such as the Albert’s dog Chloe being involved, the “hos long to die in cold” Google search, and doubts about the crash reconstruction.
The 2-hour event also included tributes to O’Keefe, with multiple family members speaking about his love of baseball, his niece and nephew, and his memory.
“People keep asking, what legacy he left behind? And I would say a legacy of honor. He was an honorable man. He was a good man,” a friend said through tears to end the news special. “Can’t really say enough good things about John.”
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