By Veronica Haynes, Ted Wayman, John Atwater
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BOSTON (WCVB) — Former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor — fired over misconduct allegations after Karen Read’s first trial — has withdrawn his appeal to get his job back, days before hearings were set to resume this week.
Members of the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission were expected to resume Tuesday in Proctor’s appeal, which began in August.
“This notice confirms the withdrawal of my appeal in the above referenced matter (his termination). I exercise my right to sign this form of my own free will,” read a brief document signed by Proctor on Oct. 18.
Now that Proctor has withdrawn his appeal, the next step will be that the commission issues an order of dismissal based on the withdrawal.
WCVB has reached out to Proctor and his attorney for comment but said they had no comment.
“Following the discovery of new evidence from Michael Proctor’s cell phone, the State Police Association of Massachusetts’ Executive Board unanimously voted to sever all support for his appeal. We hope this decisive move closes a deeply embarrassing chapter in State Police history,” Union President Brian Williams said in a statement.
In June, the jury in her retrial found Read not guilty of second-degree murder, but guilty of a lesser charge of drunken driving, in the death of her her boyfriend John O’Keefe, who was a Boston police officer. Her first trial ended with a hung jury.
The prosecution argued Read hit O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV outside of a home in Canton during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking. Read’s attorneys said someone else was responsible for killing O’Keefe and that Read is the victim of a law enforcement cover-up.
In March, a three-member trial board found Proctor guilty of violating four department policies, including sending insulting text messages about Read, sharing sensitive information about Read’s case with people from outside law enforcement, creating an image of being biased against Read and drinking while on duty in connection with an unrelated cold case.
In August, Proctor’s lawyer, Daniel Moynihan, argued that the investigation of Proctor was rushed under political pressure and there was no evidence that his client’s personal feelings about Read influenced the case or violated policy.
Moynihan said state police have no policy that prevents investigators from sharing personal feelings on personal cellphones.
But Massachusetts State Police attorney Stephen Carley said the conduct rules apply at all times.
“It doesn’t matter if it occurs by email, smoke signal,” Carley said.
During August’s hearings, Carley played a video from Read’s first trial showing Proctor reading text messages to a friend, in which he said he thought, at one point, that O’Keefe might have been beaten, and that Read “waffled” him with a vehicle.
Carley said Proctor “consumed alcohol and then operated his cruiser while on duty, released confidential information to individuals outside of law enforcement and called suspect and eventual defendant, Karen Read, ‘a babe,’ ‘a nut bag.'”
Moynihan said Proctor’s personal feelings about Read did not impact the integrity of the investigation or the outcome of the case against Read.
“Michael Proctor did not commit a crime. Michael Proctor did not violate a specific policy prohibiting personal conduct on a personal phone, because there is no specific policy. Those are two very important facts to remember in this case,” Moynihan said.
In his now-withdrawn written appeal, Proctor said he was never disciplined prior to this case and that all messages in question were sent on a personal phone while he was off duty, with an expectation of his right to privacy. Ultimately, Proctor said that he was treated unfairly.
During Read’s first trial, Proctor was questioned about messages he shared with a group of friends. After reading one of the messages in which he called Read a “whack job” and an expletive, he apologized to the jury for his “unprofessional” comments.
In another text message, Proctor told his sister that he hoped Read would kill herself. Proctor described his messages as “very regrettable.”
Proctor was suspended and later terminated in the wake of Read’s first trial, which ended with a hung jury.
Read was ultimately found not guilty of murder in the death of O’Keefe in a second trial, but was convicted of OUI.
Proctor has denied planting evidence during the investigation, and his family said they faced harassment as a result of the high-profile case.
The president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, Brian Williams said the union’s executive board voted to unanimously cut all support for Proctor’s appeal.
“Following the discovery of new evidence from Michael Proctor’s cell phone, the State Police Association of Massachusetts’ Executive Board unanimously voted to sever all support for his appeal. We hope this decisive move closes a deeply embarrassing chapter in State Police history,” Williams said.
After the trial board’s decision, Proctor’s family said they were “truly disappointed with the trial board’s decision.
“It lacks precedent, and unfairly exploits and scapegoats one of their own, a trooper with a 12-year unblemished record. Despite the Massachusetts State Police’s dubious and relentless efforts to find more inculpatory evidence against Michael Proctor on his phones, computers and cruiser data, the messages on his personal phone — referring to the person who killed a fellow beloved Boston Police Officer — are all that they found.
“The messages prove one thing, and that Michael is human — not corrupt, not incompetent in his role as a homicide detective, and certainly not unfit to continue to be a Massachusetts State Trooper.”
Alan Jackson, who represented Read during both criminal trials, released a statement regarding proctor’s appeal withdrawal:
“Michael Proctor’s sudden withdrawal of his appeal wasn’t an act of humility — it was self-preservation. He learned investigators had recovered text messages from his private phone dating back years, and he wanted no part of what those messages would reveal,” Jackson said. “He didn’t accept accountability—it hunted him down. And as Col. Noble admitted, the years-long corruption is systemic.”
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