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Tag: John O'Keefe

  • Fired Karen Read Investigator Michael Proctor Appeals

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    Michael Proctor told Civil Service Commission Board he is ‘scapegoat’ targeted by Read and her LA lawyers

    Alan Jackson, a member of Karen Read’s defense team, “conspired” to get the lead investigator on her case fired from the Massachusetts State Police, his attorney told a Civil Service Commission as the former trooper Michael Proctor fights to get rehired
    Credit: Charles Krupa via AP Photo

    Fired Massachusetts State Police Detective Michael Proctor – the lead investigator on the case of a Massachusetts woman who was acquitted this summer on charges she murdered her Boston cop boyfriend – argued to a state agency Thursday that Karen Read and her L.A.-based attorneys “conspired” with federal officials to get him fired.

    In the first of two hearings scheduled for Proctor Tuesday – who is fighting to get reinstated to the Massachusetts State Police after he was fired in March for a slew of missteps including sending derogatory text messages about Read, sharing information about the murder case he charged her in with people outside the department and drinking alcohol on the job in his department vehicle – his attorney said his client was “an exemplary member” of his department.

    Proctor’s attorney, Daniel Moynihan, told the Civil Service Commission who will hear the former trooper’s appeal, that his client’s “privacy was violated” by federal investigators who “infiltrated” Proctor’s cell phone at the urging of Read’s legal team, which included Los Angeles-based partners Alan Jackson and Elizabeth Little. Proctor, Moynihan said, is a “scapegoat,” targeted by Read’s supporters and then fired by his department to appease the loudest critics and “the whims of politics.”

    Proctor’s firing came after a long, unpaid suspension from his job as a homicide investigator for the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office in Massachusetts that was handed down to him in the weeks after Read’s first murder trial, connected to the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, ended in a mistrial in 2024. Proctor’s text messages about Read, in which he called her a “wacko cunt,” along with other infantile remarks, came to light during the trial. He was not called for her second trial, which ended in an acquittal on the most serious charges in June.

    Stephen Carley, the attorney representing the state police, defended the department’s decision to fire the investigator by reminding the agency’s board members how Proctor described his own actions on the stand in Read’s trial.

    “Distasteful. Unprofessional. Inappropriate. In poor taste. Juvenile. Sexist. Disgusting. Dehumanizing. This selection of words comes not from the public comment section of a website, an Op/Ed columnist or a protestor outside the Norfolk County Courthouse. No, indeed, one would be forgiven for not immediately recognizing this is Michael Proctor’s accounting of his own conduct in his case.”

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    Michele McPhee

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  • John O’Keefe’s ex-girlfriend believes Karen Read is innocent: ‘Nothing was adding up’

    John O’Keefe’s ex-girlfriend believes Karen Read is innocent: ‘Nothing was adding up’

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    A one-time girlfriend of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe shared her thoughts on the case against Karen Read in an interview with NBC’s Dateline.

    Lindsay Higgins says she dated O’Keefe for about six months.

    “He was just such a gentleman, you know, walked me home,” she told Dateline. “Just really, really kind.”

    She first learned of his death while she was in Florida, she said.

    “My phone was ringing nonstop, my texts were going off, and I looked at my phone, and one of my friends was like, ‘Did you hear about John O’Keefe? He died,’” Higgins recalled.

    In Friday’s edition of Canton Confidential, we look at Karen Read’s Dateline interview, her first trial’s price tag for taxpayers and other recent headlines in the high-profile case.

    Read was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in the death of O’Keefe, who was find outside a house in Canton, Massachusetts, in January of 2022. Prosecutors say she hit him with her SUV after a night of drinking, while her defense team argued she was framed as part of a conspiracy.

    Higgins believes Read is innocent.

    “Nothing was adding up,” she said. “I was watching every news story, I was seeing what was going on online, and the stories coming out, and I was like, ‘I don’t think she hit him. It doesn’t make any sense to me.’”

    Read’s trial this summer ended with a hung jury. A retrial is scheduled for January. Massachusetts’ highest court is considering her appeal to dismiss the charges of murder and leaving the scene.

    Higgins says she started attending hearings with Read after contacting her on Facebook.

    “I said, you know, ‘Hi, Karen. I don’t know if you know me or not, but I used to date John, and I think I dated him right before you, and I just want to say that I don’t think you did it, and I support you,’” Higgins said. “And she wrote me back. Ever since then, we just became closer and closer.”

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    John Moroney

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  • Jury says they can’t agree on whether Karen Read was a murderer; judge tells them to keep trying

    Jury says they can’t agree on whether Karen Read was a murderer; judge tells them to keep trying

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    DEDHAM, Mass. — Jurors in the Karen Read trial told the judge on Friday that they’ve been unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The judge sent them back for more deliberations.

    The jury must decide whose story they believe: that of prosecutors who say she drunkenly and angrily slammed into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her Lexus SUV and left him to die, or defense attorneys who claim one or more colleagues killed John O’Keefe and framed Read to cover it up.

    SEE ALSO | Is she a murderer or was she framed? Things to know about the Boston-area trial of Karen Read

    The Massachusetts jury of six men and six women is deliberating behind closed doors in Norfolk County Superior Court, while a “sidewalk jury” of true crime bloggers and pink-shirted Read supporters gathers outside. The unofficial adjudicators, many of them waving Stars and Stripes, have been present every day since the trial began nearly two months ago.

    Who’s who?

    Read, 44, had worked as an equity analyst and was an adjunct lecturer in finance at her alma mater, Bentley University. O’Keefe, 46, was a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department who was raising his niece and nephew.

    Jurors are deliberating events that unfolded at the Canton home of Brian Albert, a Boston police detective, after a night of bar-hopping in January 2022. Brian Higgins, a federal agent who was among those gathered inside, had exchanged flirty texts with Read earlier that month. The lead investigator was State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was friends with several witnesses and sent offensive texts about Read to friends, family and fellow troopers during the investigation.

    The charges

    Read was charged with second-degree murder, punishable in Massachusetts by life in prison with the possibility of parole. She also faces lesser charges of manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, punishable by five to 20 years; and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, punishable by up to 10 years.

    The evidence

    Pieces of Read’s broken taillight were found at the scene and a single hair from O’Keefe was found on the rear bumper of Read’s SUV. Prosecutors say that Read repeatedly said, “I hit him. I hit him. Oh my God, I hit him” to first responders and others. Prosecutors replayed angry voicemails Read left for O’Keefe, painting a picture of a failing relationship. They also questioned her behavior, saying she never cried after O’Keefe’s body was found.

    Read’s defense

    Read contends that the prosecution’s case is based on lies by officers trying to protect themselves. Her lawyers say the pieces of taillight and the hair were planted at the crime scene, which was left unsecured. They also suggested O’Keefe might have been beaten up by Higgins, who had flirted with Read through texts, and that the men panicked, dumping his body outside before trying to cover up the crime.

    Sloppy detective work

    Regardless of any verdict, the case revealed questionable techniques and actions on the part of law enforcement. Proctor, who had personal relationships with several of the people involved, called Read a “wack job” and texted his sister saying he wished Read would “kill herself.” He said that was a figure of speech and that his emotions had gotten the better of him.

    The defense also pointed to sloppy policing: The crime scene was left unsecured for hours; the house wasn’t searched; blood-stained snow was scooped up with red plastic drinking cups; and a leaf blower was used to clear snow. The defense also claims that a prosecution witness conducted an incriminating internet search hours before O’Keefe’s body was discovered and then deleted it, and that others linked with the case destroyed phones and manipulated videos.

    Growing attention

    As more evidence emerged about what might have seemed an open-and-shut case, interest picked up among true crime fans and others with suspicions about law enforcement. For more than a year, dozens of Read supporters have gathered outside the courthouse, calling for the charges to be dropped.

    As jurors deliberate, members of this self-proclaimed “sidewalk jury” – wearing pink and waving American flags to symbolize what they call a fight for truth and justice – intently watch their phones for word of a verdict. Some take it further, including a man who dresses as the trial judge and a woman who wears plastic cups as earrings. Their mood has been jubilant, encouraged by passing motorists who honk their horns.

    READ MORE | Judge scolds Karen Read as jurors close out 2nd day of deliberations without verdict in Boston trial

    Many were drawn to the case by Aidan Timothy Kearney, aka Turtleboy, whose website has relentlessly questioned the prosecution. He and other supporters have also been accused of harassing witnesses: Kearney was charged with witness intimidation and conspiracy, which he denies.

    The demonstrators, as many as 100 people, have been ordered to remain 200 feet (60 meters) away. At one point on Wednesday, some said a verdict had come, prompting a mad dash toward the courthouse.

    The video in the player above is from a previous report.

    Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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    AP

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  • Jury says they can’t agree on whether Karen Read was a murderer; judge tells them to keep trying

    Jury says they can’t agree on whether Karen Read was a murderer; judge tells them to keep trying

    [ad_1]

    DEDHAM, Mass. — Jurors in the Karen Read trial told the judge on Friday that they’ve been unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The judge sent them back for more deliberations.

    The jury must decide whose story they believe: that of prosecutors who say she drunkenly and angrily slammed into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her Lexus SUV and left him to die, or defense attorneys who claim one or more colleagues killed John O’Keefe and framed Read to cover it up.

    SEE ALSO | Is she a murderer or was she framed? Things to know about the Boston-area trial of Karen Read

    The Massachusetts jury of six men and six women is deliberating behind closed doors in Norfolk County Superior Court, while a “sidewalk jury” of true crime bloggers and pink-shirted Read supporters gathers outside. The unofficial adjudicators, many of them waving Stars and Stripes, have been present every day since the trial began nearly two months ago.

    Who’s who?

    Read, 44, had worked as an equity analyst and was an adjunct lecturer in finance at her alma mater, Bentley University. O’Keefe, 46, was a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department who was raising his niece and nephew.

    Jurors are deliberating events that unfolded at the Canton home of Brian Albert, a Boston police detective, after a night of bar-hopping in January 2022. Brian Higgins, a federal agent who was among those gathered inside, had exchanged flirty texts with Read earlier that month. The lead investigator was State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was friends with several witnesses and sent offensive texts about Read to friends, family and fellow troopers during the investigation.

    The charges

    Read was charged with second-degree murder, punishable in Massachusetts by life in prison with the possibility of parole. She also faces lesser charges of manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, punishable by five to 20 years; and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, punishable by up to 10 years.

    The evidence

    Pieces of Read’s broken taillight were found at the scene and a single hair from O’Keefe was found on the rear bumper of Read’s SUV. Prosecutors say that Read repeatedly said, “I hit him. I hit him. Oh my God, I hit him” to first responders and others. Prosecutors replayed angry voicemails Read left for O’Keefe, painting a picture of a failing relationship. They also questioned her behavior, saying she never cried after O’Keefe’s body was found.

    Read’s defense

    Read contends that the prosecution’s case is based on lies by officers trying to protect themselves. Her lawyers say the pieces of taillight and the hair were planted at the crime scene, which was left unsecured. They also suggested O’Keefe might have been beaten up by Higgins, who had flirted with Read through texts, and that the men panicked, dumping his body outside before trying to cover up the crime.

    Sloppy detective work

    Regardless of any verdict, the case revealed questionable techniques and actions on the part of law enforcement. Proctor, who had personal relationships with several of the people involved, called Read a “wack job” and texted his sister saying he wished Read would “kill herself.” He said that was a figure of speech and that his emotions had gotten the better of him.

    The defense also pointed to sloppy policing: The crime scene was left unsecured for hours; the house wasn’t searched; blood-stained snow was scooped up with red plastic drinking cups; and a leaf blower was used to clear snow. The defense also claims that a prosecution witness conducted an incriminating internet search hours before O’Keefe’s body was discovered and then deleted it, and that others linked with the case destroyed phones and manipulated videos.

    Growing attention

    As more evidence emerged about what might have seemed an open-and-shut case, interest picked up among true crime fans and others with suspicions about law enforcement. For more than a year, dozens of Read supporters have gathered outside the courthouse, calling for the charges to be dropped.

    As jurors deliberate, members of this self-proclaimed “sidewalk jury” – wearing pink and waving American flags to symbolize what they call a fight for truth and justice – intently watch their phones for word of a verdict. Some take it further, including a man who dresses as the trial judge and a woman who wears plastic cups as earrings. Their mood has been jubilant, encouraged by passing motorists who honk their horns.

    READ MORE | Judge scolds Karen Read as jurors close out 2nd day of deliberations without verdict in Boston trial

    Many were drawn to the case by Aidan Timothy Kearney, aka Turtleboy, whose website has relentlessly questioned the prosecution. He and other supporters have also been accused of harassing witnesses: Kearney was charged with witness intimidation and conspiracy, which he denies.

    The demonstrators, as many as 100 people, have been ordered to remain 200 feet (60 meters) away. At one point on Wednesday, some said a verdict had come, prompting a mad dash toward the courthouse.

    The video in the player above is from a previous report.

    Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

    [ad_2]

    AP

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