Disgraced trooper faces hearing next week

Suspended for months after his vulgar texts surfaced during Karen Read’s first trial, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor may face “permanent discipline” following a hearing next week, according to a new court filing.

The disgraced trooper will sit before a State Police trial board Jan. 15 to answer “allegations of misconduct in the performance of his duties as a uniformed member of the Massachusetts State Police,” prosecutors in the Read case said in a Friday filing. 

State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble may “immediately impose permanent discipline” if the hearing determines there are reasonable grounds to do so, according to the court document. 

Proctor has been suspended without pay since July, days after Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury. She’s charged in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, who was found unresponsive in the snow outside another Boston officer’s home in Canton in 2022. While prosecutors allege Read drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at a house party, her lawyers claim she was framed in a coverup. 

The lead investigator on the case, Proctor took the stand during Read’s trial and was forced to read aloud his crude text messages about the defendant. In messages to family, friends, and coworkers, Proctor called Read a “wack job c**t,” made light of her Crohn’s disease, joked about looking for nudes on her phone, and said he hoped Read would kill herself. 

State Police launched an internal affairs investigation into Proctor last year. 

Pursuant to a March court order, prosecutors told Read’s lawyers they expect State Police will turn over reports and records of Proctor’s discipline when the internal affairs investigation concludes. 

Proctor was also involved in the investigation into Brian Walshe, the Cohasset man accused of killing and dismembering his wife, Ana, in 2023. However, prosecutors have said they don’t plan to call Proctor to testify when Walshe heads to trial in October. 

It remains unclear whether Proctor will testify when Read stands trial again later this year.