Massachusetts Trooper Michael Proctor fired over Karen Read case actions

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on Mar 19, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Disgraced Trooper Michael Proctor has been fired.

Massachusetts State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble announced that he had accepted the MSP Trial Board’s recommendation to terminate Michael Proctor’s employment for failing to uphold agency standards, particularly regarding his conduct while as the lead investigator in the Karen Read case.

Proctor’s dismissal is listed as a “dishonorable discharge.”

The Trial Board, which convened on Jan. 15, Feb. 10, and March 13, found Proctor guilty of two violations of the agency’s code of conduct: Article 5.8 Unsatisfactory Performance and Article 5.10 Alcoholic Beverages.

Noble said in a statement that the MSP’s mission is “to deliver the highest level of police services depends on the public’s trust in our professionalism and integrity. It is incumbent upon me, as well as every member of this Department, to hold one another accountable when any member compromises our mission by failing to uphold our values.”

“I have weighed the nature of the offenses, their impact on our investigative integrity, and the importance of safeguarding the reputations of our dedicated women and men in the State Police,” Noble continued. “This decision reflects our unwavering commitment to upholding our values, enhancing public trust and ensuring the highest standards of service and accountability.”

Proctor, who earned $184K pay in 2023 according to comptroller records, was relieved of duty immediately following the Read mistrial last year. He was then suspended without pay about a week later following an internal hearing.

The findings

The personnel order spelling out the trial board’s findings makes clear that Proctor’s dismissal has to do with his work on the Read case.

The MSP trial board found him guilty of four specific violations of the agency’s rules of conduct.

Three of those “Specifications” are defined in the document as having taken place “on various dates between Jan. 29, 2022, and Aug. 17, 2022,” “when Trooper Proctor, while assigned as the lead investigator in a homicide investigation …”:

•“… sent derogatory, defamatory, disparaging, and/or otherwise inappropriate text messages about a suspect in that investigation to other individuals.”

•“… provided sensitive and/or confidential information about a homicide victim, potential witnesses and/or potential investigative steps in the investigation to non-law enforcement personnel.”

•“… through his unprofessional and inappropriate conduct, created an image that he was biased in his dealings with a homicide suspect and/or brought otherwise himself and the Massachusetts State Police into disrepute.”

The fourth and final finding is outside the Read realm: the trial board found that on July 19, 2022, Proctor drank alcohol while eating dinner on duty and then got into his MSP cruiser and drove buzzed.

The Read case

The sensational case of Karen Read, who is accused of mowing down her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her Lexus SUV in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2022, in Canton, was never hotter than the bombshell text messages Proctor was forced to read in court during his time on the witness stand during Read’s trial last year.

“She’s a whack job (expletive),” Proctor on June 10, 2024, from the witness stand in Norfolk Superior Court, read off from a text exchange with friends and co-workers, using a derogatory term for women that he at first tried to spell out before Judge Beverly Cannone told him to read it the way he wrote it. “Yes she’s a babe. Weird Fall River accent, though. No ass.”

Subsequent testimony from that day and the following day, in which Proctor returned to the stand, revealed more texts that Proctor admitted during testimony were “inappropriate.”

Proctor texted that he had found “No nudes so far” while searching Read’s phone less than a day into his investigation, which he said was “an inappropriate joke.” He said he was going through this “retarded client’s cellphone” — a message that earned a “like” from MSP Sgt. Yuryi Bukhenik, one of Proctor’s superiors at the homicide unit based at the Norfolk DA’s office.

Proctor also texted his sister that he hopes Read “kills herself.”

Response

Proctor’s family sent a press release stating that they “are truly disappointed with the trial board’s decision as it lacks precedent, and unfairly exploits and scapegoats one of their own, a trooper with a 12-year unblemished record.” They said it was a “wrongful termination.”

“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,” the family continued.

--------