Karen Read’s latest lawsuit alleges years of offensive comments and misconduct by law enforcement, including an officer and a state trooper who played a role in her criminal prosecution.
Read’s defense team filed a complaint Thursday in Bristol County Superior Court, claiming the agencies that “negligently permitted virulent misogynists and bigots to target her will answer for what they built, what they concealed and what they did to her.” They supported their claims with dozens of crude and prejudiced messages from two investigators who worked on the case against Read.
Read was found not guilty of murder last summer after her second high-profile trial in the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe, but guilty of a lesser charge of drunken driving. O’Keefe was found dead during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022.
NewsCenter 5 reviewed her lawsuit and brought it to a defense attorney who is working in parallel on another case involving one of the same troopers.
The Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office, which prosecuted Read, said it began to provide materials from Proctor’s personal phone to defense attorneys in cases where he was an investigator in fall 2025. A statement said the office had reviewed the lawsuit but only addressed the messages in the aggregate.
“The egregious and offensive information discovered on former Trooper Proctor’s personal cell phone is inexcusable. Former Trooper Proctor’s outrageous comments do not reflect the values or beliefs of the hard-working men and women in the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office,” Morrissey’s office wrote.
Video below: Karen Read explains her ‘crusade’
Read’s lawsuit alleges the lead investigator in her case, former State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, has a history of making offensive remarks about women, Black people, Asian people, gay people and Jewish people.
One example cited in the lawsuit is a text exchange in which Proctor discussed a motor vehicle crash he had witnessed.
“Four-car accident. Get on it. Actually, take your time. I saw a (expletive) was involved. So I wouldn’t rush, if you’re working. Let them die,” the text read, according to the lawsuit.
Proctor also allegedly used insulting language about women, Asian people, gay people, Hispanics, and Jews. In a text message to a friend, he allegedly wrote, “America sucks… Hitler was really on to something, then the (expletive) U.S. had to step in and ruin it.”
“I shouldn’t have even been texting my friends anything,” Proctor said in an ABC interview.
Proctor has repeatedly claimed that his emotions over the death of fellow police officer John O’Keefe led him to make insulting comments about Read. However, Read’s lawsuit alleges that Proctor used such language for years and even discussed planting evidence on someone.
“Like literally shove a (expletive) nightstick up his (expletive), plant a bag of coke on him, and be like, ‘You’re going in,’” Proctor said.
Proctor was fired in March 2025 and later had his law enforcement certification suspended by the POST Commission.
A three-member trial board found Proctor guilty of violating four department policies, including sending insulting text messages about Karen Read, sharing sensitive information about Read’s case with people from outside law enforcement, creating an image of being biased against Read and drinking while on duty in connection with an unrelated cold case.
Defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio said she has been trying to use Proctor’s messages to have other cases he investigated thrown out, but prosecutors have fought to keep his comments sealed.
“Why are we protecting Trooper Proctor or former Trooper Proctor? If he’s a racist person, then everybody should know. It should be transparent,” Scapicchio said.
Read also claims that former Canton police Sergeant Sean Goode used crude and sexist language to describe Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and shared antisemitic messages about Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The messages cited in the lawsuit use several explicit words.
Read alleges that state and Canton police knew or should have known about the comments.
On Wednesday, Canton Police Department Sgt. Sean Goode, who testified in Read’s first trial, resigned after he was accused of misconduct and placed on leave. He had served the department for nearly two decades.
“Michael Proctor and Sean Goode did not slip through the cracks; they are emblematic of the failure to responsibly exercise the trust and faith the public puts in these institutions. Proctor and Goode were unfit for positions of public trust and yet they were handed badges, promotions, and ultimately control of homicide investigations despite harboring deep-seated and abhorrent anti-woman, racist, antisemitic, and homophobic ideologies for more than a decade,” Read’s legal team said in a statement.
Massachusetts State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble released a statement saying Proctor’s “disturbing messages are entirely inconsistent with any basic standard of decency and certainly with the expectations of a Massachusetts State Trooper.”
“These racist, sexist and abhorrent comments absolutely do not reflect the values of the Massachusetts State Police and are not tolerated within our ranks. They underscore and fully support my decision to terminate Michael Proctor,” Noble said. “As superintendent, my role requires me to act in the best interest of the department. In this moment, that means moving forward with a focus on upholding our standards, strengthening accountability, and supporting the honorable women and men of the State Police who serve our communities with professionalism and integrity. We do so keenly aware of the ways in which this misconduct harmed the public trust on which our mission depends.”
The town of Canton said it learned of the lawsuit from a press release and the media.
“Town Counsel had previously attempted to communicate with Read’s legal team as to the status of her claim, but received no response at the conclusion of the notice period,” the town said in a statement. “The Town has not been served, and as such we have nothing to review with legal counsel at this time. We have no comment on the press release issued by the Read legal team.”
The statement continued, “The Town of Canton has the utmost faith and confidence in the new leadership of Canton Police Department under Chief Michael Daniels, and we would refute any broad stroke characterizations about the brave and dedicated men and women who serve in the Department.”
Four witnesses who testified during Read’s murder trials are accusing her and Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as “Turtleboy,” of defamation.
Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert, Colin Albert, and Brian Higgins allege in their new lawsuit that Read and Kearney “orchestrated a coordinated campaign” to implicate them in the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe. None of them was ever charged in connection with his death.
Read is also being sued by the O’Keefe family and is pursuing her own case, alleging that others were responsible for O’Keefe’s death and a subsequent cover-up.
Kearney was a vocal advocate for Read’s claims, and prosecutors alleged that the two communicated about the case, sometimes through third parties. Kearney still faces witness intimidation cases stemming from the events.
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