New details emerged during opening statements of the Karen Read murder trial on Monday about texts the lead investigator in the case reportedly sent to friends.
In his opening statement, defense attorney David Yannetti spoke for the first time about text messages that Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor allegedly sent to his high school friends in the aftermath of the death of Boston police Officer John O'Keefe in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.
Prosecutors allege that Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV and left him to die, while Read's defense attorneys have long claimed she is being framed in a wide-ranging coverup.
Watch Day 1 Opening statements and testimony
Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters.
Watch the Karen Read trial live on nbcboston.com, NECN, NBC Boston streaming platforms (including Roku, Peacock and Samsung TV) and NBC10 Boston's YouTube page. Every night of the trial at 7 p.m., come back for analysis and more.
Yannetti said Proctor was a long-time friend of the family of Brian Albert, whose lawn O'Keefe's body was found on, and he never stepped foot inside the home, asked permission to go inside or sought a search warrant for the home.
"Instead, he focused immediately and exclusively on Karen Read, the outsider," Yannetti said. "Karen Read was a convenient outsider. She was most definitly not from Canton. How did Michael Proctor feel about her? How did he treat somebody he was investigating at a point in time when he should have been keeping an open mind, focusing on obtaining all possible evidence so he didn't miss anything?"
"You will learn on the very day that John O'Keefe was found dead on Brian Albert's lawn, Michael Proctor was texting with his high school buddies about this supposedly secret investigation, using his personal cell phone," Yannetti said. "He was revealing information about this investigation to his friends, assuming that nobody would ever find out what he was doing and what he was saying. He was revealing his true thoughts about Karen Read to his friends. Not what he put in his sanitized police reports -- his true feelings, to his friends who he trusted and in text messages he never thought would come into the hands of the defense in this case."
"Lead investigator Michael Proctor called Karen Read names you would reserve only for your worst enemies. He told his friends that he hoped she would kill herself. He told his friends he had seized her cellphone."
Yannetti said Proctor knew he shouldn't have been accessing content on Read's phone without a search warrant because there could be attorney-client communications on it.
"He told his buddies that he was searching her phone for nude photos, and he was disappointed he hadn't found any yet," the attorney said. "That is the professional and unbiased investigator who was chosen to lead the investigation into the death of John O'Keefe."
Yannetti said in one text, one of Proctor's friends commented to him that with a dead body found on his front lawn, Brian Albert was surely going to catch a lot of flak.
"Do you know what his response was?" Yannetti asked. "One word: 'Nope.' And he explained why. Michael Proctor assured his buddies the homeowner wouldn't catch a lot of grief because "The homeowner's a Boston cop, too."
State police confirmed in March that Proctor was the subject of an internal investigation for a potential violation of department policy, but would not comment on what caused them to probe one of their own. However, sources told NBC10 Boston that the investigation is connected to the Read case.
Proctor remains on full duty while the internal investigation unfolds, and the Norfolk District Attorney's Offfice has said previously that the investigation was not impacting Proctor's case assignments.
