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A court hearing is set Tuesday for Norfolk County murder defendants’ attempt to get evidence materials related to former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor‘s phones used in the Karen Read trial.
The Read trial evidence was given to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office on condition that it would only be used in the Read trial and then destroyed. But attorneys for Brian Walshe and others have been trying to get them to see if there is any exculpatory evidence in their cases.
Proctor investigated cases in the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.
At a recent hearing, prosecutors told a judge that they believe they have a potential way of providing the materials, but still needed at least a couple more weeks to finalize the plan with the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Walshe had been scheduled to go on trial for the alleged murder of his wife, Ana Walshe, on Oct. 20, but it was delayed Monday as the suspect was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital to be evaluated for competency in the wake of his stabbing in jail.
Lawyers for Walshe and other murder defendants have been waiting months for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office to release critical evidence, including between 3,000 to 5,000 pieces of communication stored in Proctor’s cloud account. Similar evidence led to Proctor being fired for misconduct in the high-profile murder case of Read, who in June was found not guilty on the most serious charges she faced and guilty of the lowest form of a drunken driving charge.
Rosemary Scapicchio, the defense attorney representing 25-year-old Myles King, raised concerns at a previous hearing that the date when the evidence can be destroyed is drawing closer. King is accused of fatally shooting Marquis Simmons in Milton back in July 2021.
“I’m concerned that if at some point this court needs to make an order, we want to make sure we’re giving them enough time,” she said. “We can’t do what happened initially where the day before where we’re making phone calls and this stuff is getting destroyed tomorrow.”
The judge disagreed, however, saying he thought that a lot of progress had been made over the previous 25 days.
That brief hearing was continued until Tuesday, and the judge said that the hearing might not even be necessary, as the information might be able to be shared via letter. If the hearing is necessary, he said at the time that it would be used to determine next steps.
Walshe, 48, of Cohasset, faces first-degree murder, misleading a police investigation and other charges in the death of his wife, whose body has never been recovered. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Ana Walshe, who is originally from Serbia, was last seen early on Jan. 1, 2023 following a New Year’s Eve dinner at her Massachusetts home with her husband and a family friend, prosecutors said.
Listen to The Searches for Ana Walshe podcast for a deep dive into the case.
Brian Walshe said she was called back to Washington, D.C., on New Year’s Day for a work emergency. He didn’t contact her employer until Jan. 4. The company — the first to notify police that Ana Walshe was missing — said there was no emergency, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors have said that starting Jan. 1 and for several days after, Brian Walshe made multiple online searches for “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” “how long before a body starts to smell” and “hacksaw best tool to dismember.”
Prosecutors have also said that Ana Walshe had taken out $2.7 million in life insurance naming her husband as the sole beneficiary.
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