State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who was relieved of duty after his crude and demeaning text messages about Karen Read came to light at her murder trial, has been reassigned but remains off the job, State Police said.
Proctor’s removal from duty was announced on Monday evening, hours after a judge declared a mistrial in the Read case, as a deadlocked jury proved unable to reach a verdict in the killing of Read’s boyfriend, Boston police Officer John O’Keefe. The prosecution has said it will retry the case, and Judge Beverly Cannone set a hearing date for July 22.
On Monday, State Police interim Colonel John E. Mawn Jr. said that Proctor had been immediately relieved of duty and was being removed from the Norfolk district attorney’s office, where he led the investigation into O’Keefe’s death.
Related: Trooper Michael Proctor relieved of duty after testimony in Karen Read trial
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But because Proctor remains a State Police employee, his name must appear somewhere on the agency’s roster, according to State Police spokesperson Tim McGuirk. For that reason, Proctor has been reassigned to the field services division of Troop H in South Boston, where he worked before being assigned to the district attorney’s office, but he remains barred from working a shift or detail as a trooper, McGuirk said.
“He’s not going to work. He’s relieved of duty,” McGuirk said Wednesday.
A disciplinary process for Proctor is ongoing, and the next step is a duty status hearing, which has not been scheduled, McGuirk said. An internal affairs investigation into Proctor’s conduct also remains ongoing, he said.
State Police have said the probe is looking into “a potential violation of department policy” but have declined to say whether the violation was related to a specific case.
Related: Lead State Police investigator in Karen Read case, criticized by defense, is subject of an internal affairs probe
The police investigation of O’Keefe’s death is also the subject of a federal probe. That inquiry’s exact target has not been publicly disclosed, and no charges have come from it. But it resulted in thousands of pages of documents being provided to the prosecution and defense, including text messages from Proctor’s personal cellphone.
Proctor testified in Norfolk Superior Court that “emotions got the best of me” when in messages to fellow troopers and supervisors, friends, and relatives he referred to Read as a “whack job,” a “nutbag,” and a “retard.” He made fun of her medical conditions, her Fall River accent, and said he wished Read would kill herself.
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Proctor also admitted during testimony that he texted other troopers about searching for nude photos of her on her phone and divulged details about the case to relatives and friends.
Proctor said the texts were inappropriate and regrettable, and he never anticipated them becoming public.
“These juvenile, unprofessional comments had zero impact on the facts, the evidence, and the integrity of the investigation,” Proctor told jurors during Read’s trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash involving personal injury or death.
On Tuesday, Mawn said the department is investigating whether other employees should be disciplined in the Read case. Asked if Proctor should be fired, Mawn said the State Police is doing its “due diligence” and continuing to investigate.
Of Proctor’s texts, Mawn said: “I condemn those comments in the strongest terms possible. They are not reflective of the Massachusetts State Police. That’s not where we want to be as an organization.”
Related: After Karen Read trial, State Police expecting ‘additional scrutiny’
The State Police Association of Massachusetts, the union that represents troopers and sergeants, said in a statement Tuesday that “we do not condone the language used in text messages presented as evidence during the trial.”
Union president Brian Williams said the trial “blurred the lines between fact and innuendo presented during the defense of the accused,” referring to claims by Read’s lawyers that she was the victim of a law enforcement coverup. The discipline against Proctor, Williams said, “has no relationship to salacious allegations of cover-ups, collusion or conspiracies offered by the defense.”
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Governor Maura Healey said Tuesday that Mawn “made the right decision” in disciplining Proctor but did not directly address a question about whether he should be fired.
“This was the right move, to remove him. There is a process, so we have to wait for that process to go forward,” Healey told reporters. “There’s no tolerance for that behavior, frankly, with anyone in law enforcement, with anyone in public service.”
Material from previous Globe coverage was used in this report.
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him @jeremycfox.
