DEDHAM, Mass. — Disgraced Trooper Michael Proctor, who was terminated by the Massachusetts State Police on Wednesday, is one of nearly 100 names included on the defense team’s list of prospective witnesses for the retrial of Karen Read.
Read is accused of hitting O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die after a night of drinking. The defense has sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the Albert family home and then dragged outside and left for dead.
Read’s legal team filed their witness list in Dedham’s Norfolk Superior Court, with the start of the Mansfield woman’s second murder trial now less than two weeks away.
The list includes many familiar names, including members of the Albert and McCabe family, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, Brian Higgins, and Dr. Marie Russell, in addition to Proctor and his wife, Elizabeth.
Proctor was assigned to investigate the death of Read’s Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe. He was relieved of his duty without pay this past summer after a mistrial was declared in Read’s murder case and his last day with the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office followed soon thereafter.
Proctor came under fire for a series of disparaging texts he sent about Read, which he read aloud in court during witness testimony at her first trial. Proctor admitted on the stand that the texts were “unprofessional.”
He called Read things like a “whack job” and other derogatory words, he talked about her medical issues and wrote, “No nudes so far,” while going through her phone.
Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury in July 2024.
Her retrial is slated to start with jury selection on April 1.
Read the full list of witnesses in the defense’s filing:
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