Karen Read murder case: Fired investigator Michael Proctor to loom over retrial as jury selection begins
Karen Read, whose murder trial ended in a hung jury last year, returns to court this week as prosecutors try again to convict her in the 2022 killing of her boyfriend, John O' Keefe.
Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman whose sensational murder trial ended with a hung jury last year, is set to return to court this week as prosecutors again try to convict her in the 2022 killing of her boyfriend, a veteran Boston police officer.
But the lead investigator in the case, Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, was fired last month over allegations that he had disparaged Read and shared confidential investigative details, and legal experts say that Proctor will likely loom over the proceedings when they get underway Tuesday.
“I suspect that Michael Proctor — and the state police investigation in general — will be the elephant in the courtroom throughout the trial,” said Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston.
“At the time of his original testimony, he still had a job to rein him in,” said Stara Roemer, a former Dallas County prosecutor who is now a criminal defense lawyer in Texas. “Now that he no longer has that job, who knows what could come out of his mouth.”
“This is a case that was already on the edge,” said criminal defense lawyer and NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos. “You’ve now deleted the lead investigator.”
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