Lead investigator in Karen Read case relieved of duties following vulgar texts

The state trooper who acted as lead investigator within the Karen Learn case has been relieved of his duties and transferred to a different unit, bringing one other public notion catastrophe to the troubled state police division.

Trooper Michael Proctor admitted in court docket to vulgar texts about Learn throughout court docket proceedings. His elimination was introduced simply hours after the high-profile homicide case
led to a mistrial.

“Our focus stays on delivering the best degree of police providers with professionalism and integrity,” Colonel John Mawn Jr.
stated in a written assertion Monday night time.

“This follows our earlier resolution to open an inner affairs investigation after details about severe misconduct emerged in testimony on the trial. This investigation is ongoing,” he continued.

Proctor will likely be transferred to the State Police Detective’s Unit assigned to the Norfolk County District Lawyer’s Workplace efficient July 7, a five-day delay that’s required beneath the troopers’ collective bargaining settlement.

Proctor was confronted along with his personal textual content messages on the stand throughout Learn’s trial, which indicated he was on the lookout for nude photographs of Learn when he searched her telephone. Within the texts, he additionally made disparaging feedback about Learn in connection along with her well being.

Former Boston police lieutenant and criminologist Tom Nolan believes the general public consideration on the trial uncovered what goes on behind closed doorways.

“I believe that this type of exercise and these sorts of behaviors have gone on routinely,” Nolan stated. “Solely due to the notoriety hooked up to this specific trial did we see it come beneath the glare of the general public highlight.”

However the full penalties Proctor will face for his actions stay to be seen, relying on how far the State Police makes an attempt to self-discipline him and the way a lot he’s protected by his union.

Apart from the switch, Proctor might face extra sanctions. In any state police self-discipline course of, a trooper is topic to an obligation standing listening to the place they are going to be retained on full obligation, positioned on restricted obligation, suspended with pay, or suspended with out pay, in response to the state police.

Civil rights lawyer Howard Friedman, whose work focuses on police misconduct circumstances, says Proctor’s actions may be trigger for suspension.

“That is such a high-profile case that it’s going to be laborious for the state police to not have extreme self-discipline — of as much as and together with a termination, I’d assume,” he stated.

Nolan doesn’t consider Proctor will likely be suspended as a result of power of the state troopers’ police union.

“We might even see a state of affairs right here the place Trooper Proctor may be suspended for a time frame, however I doubt that he’s going to lose his job over this,” he stated.

Proctor’s union stated in a press release Tuesday that it does “not condone” his textual content messages about Learn.

There’s additionally a chance Proctor could possibly be decertified by the state’s POST Fee, a police accountability physique. It was established beneath state laws in 2020 and is empowered to strip legislation enforcement officers of their skill to work for any Massachusetts police company. A spokesperson for the company stated they will’t touch upon whether or not a case has been opened or not, or if any circumstances are pending.

“POST critiques every grievance individually, making use of the statutory requirements to the details introduced, and bearing in mind the totality of the circumstances,” a spokeswoman wrote to GBH Information.

Nolan doesn’t assume that Proctor will take care of a lot penalty from the police accountability physique after assessing the instances it’s chosen to decertify officers.

“From what I’ve seen thus far, many of the events the place they’ve decertified somebody — it’s been reserved for individuals who have both been arrested or convicted of some sort of legal offense, and never for what we’ve seen right here, which is simply merely incompetence,” he stated.