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Special Attorney Hank Brennan may have made the homicide impact on the inappropriate text messages sent by Karen Read several days after he was accused of murdering John O'Keefe, but they still do damage to the state's case, not just because he used vulgar language.
The words were a bomb that blew up the first trial when they read it with Michael Proctor at a witness booth, ending in a deadlock last year. This time, the prosecutor decided not to call him a witness, and it was his childhood friend, Jonathan Diamandis – obviously uncomfortable – the jury spoke through dialogue.
But, apart from the questions about reading, experts say there is less explosive information about Proctor’s early views on the investigation.
“Proctor is begging [the defense] Call him “retired Massachusetts Superior Court judge and Boston University law professor Jack Lou told Fox News Numbers.” “Now, the texts are already in it, and they won't call Proctor unless they are convinced they're lost – the old 'Hail Mary' pass.”
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Karen Read sat on the left with her defense team, Robert Alessi, Elizabeth Little, Alan Jackson and David Yannetti during the murder of the Norfolk Superior Court in Didem, Massachusetts on Monday, June 2, 2025. (PAT Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP, swimming pool)
Lu said the Defense Forces achieved some results with Diamandis in the stands, but Brennan faced the text chain head-on, and the information may not have changed significantly.
“Will the jury be shocked by the abuse text of the police investigating someone they believe is the murderer?” Lu said. “I doubt.”
Read is accused of assaulting her boyfriend, Boston policeman John O'Keefe, whose Lexus SUV was in a drunken argument before freezing him to death in the front yard of his friend's house early on January 29, 2022.
Diamandis testified that he had been in group chat with Proctor for more than a decade and sent text messages during the investigation into O'Keefe's death.
Karen Read case: Massachusetts soldier Michael Proctor from state police
Michael Proctor's long-time friend Jonathan Diamandis testified in the murder case in the Norfolk Superior Court in Dedem Court, Massachusetts on Monday, June 2, 2025. (PAT Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP, swimming pool)
Massachusetts police fired Proctor in March after internal investigations found he shared sensitive and confidential information about the case with people outside of law enforcement.
Read’s first trial showed that as the case was ongoing, the chief investigator sent inappropriate text messages.
“The information proves one thing, and Michael is human – without corruption, not capable in his role as a homicide detective, and certainly not suitable to continue to be a soldier in Massachusetts,” his sister Courtney Proctor said in a statement.
During cross-examination, Brennan asked Diamandis to read the jury information from the day O'Keefe's body was found.
Massachusetts Police Police Police Michael Proctor during his first murder trial on June 10, 2024 at Norfolk Superior Court in Didem, Massachusetts. (Kayla Bartkowski/Boston Globe by Getty Images)
“She's working hard,” Prokt wrote. “I was watching his body in the hospital.”
Proctor made his own observations on what might have happened to O'Keefe, initially reaching a consensus with another member of the group chat that the Boston police may have been beaten to death.
“That’s what I first thought of after talking to him [a] Canton healthcare staff,” Proctor wrote. “And I saw the guy. ”
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Karen Read spoke with defense attorney Alan Jackson during a retrial at Norfolk Chorever Court Thursday, May 29, 2025 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Mark Stockwell/AP photo, swimming pool)
Asked for more details, Proctor answered with a message of meaning and told his friend: “She hit him with a car.”
“In trouble,” a friend wrote.[O’Keefe] Frozen in the driveway, she didn't see him. ”
“This is another animal we won't be able to prove.” “They arrived at the house together, and they had a fight, and she drove away.”
Defense attorney urges reexamination of conviction led by fired Karen Read Detective
Massachusetts defense attorney Grace Edwards said the text message raised the possibility that Proctor would draw conclusions about O'Keeffe's death before the investigation was concluded. He sent them around 11 pm on January 29, 2022, which was O'Keefe's day. The autopsy was not completed until two days later.
“These text messages were the night of John O'Keefe's death, and it seems Michael Proctor has concluded – before the medical examiner's report,” Edwards told Fox News. “It's too early to conclude.”
According to Edwards, Proctor is eager to suggest that Read might have led him to ignore the evidence, pointing out other possibilities for O'Keefe's death career.
“Michael Proctor is not qualified to determine how John O'Keefe died,” Edwards said. “That's what we have medical examiners. According to the text, Michael Proctor came to this conclusion within hours of O'Keefe's death.”
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Officer John O'Keefe poses for his official title. O'Keefe's girlfriend Karen Reed was found dead outside a Massachusetts house in January 2022 and is currently on trial for the murder. (Boston Police Department)
Criminal defense attorney Mark Bederow also noted that Proctor's expertise was unable to determine what or who killed O'Keefe, and how to assume it immediately was harmful to the investigation.
“[Proctor] There is no right to say, “Bedro told Fox News numbers.” There is a lot of evidence for Proctor's investigative tunnel vision and bias. ”
As the tone of the text changed, Diamandis told the court that he did not want to continue reading the messages aloud because they contained “discomfortable words”, prompting Brennan to read them and asking Diamandis to confirm that what he was reading was an accurate description of the text on the chain.
Karen Read, John O'Keefe poses for an undated photo. (Karen Read)
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“Yes, she's a baby,” Proctor wrote. “The weird Fore River accent. No a-.”
The text chain is obscene at the dots, including ridicule of alleged medical problems.
Proctor was quarantined by witnesses and refused to comment.
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Proctor is on the list of defense witnesses, but Read’s team called Diamandis, which Edwards believes is a risky move by the defense attorney.
“Brennan has now gotten out of the defensive trend because reading of these texts has not had the impact of the first trial that Michael Proctor did when he was reading himself,” Edwards said.
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The choice of childhood friends who call Proctor can be viewed as a safe way for the defense team to abandon the blockbuster text chain without risking the state to cross-examination.
On the other hand, the defense can now point out the fact that prosecutors refuse to place their primary investigators on the witness stand, Bedro said.
“They may withdraw the 'missed witness' instructions from the court, in which the judge will inform the jurors that they may make adverse inferences about the prosecution for failing to call Proctor,” he said. “The prosecution is actually unheard of, and do not call the chief investigator in a murder case, but of course, it is extremely rare for the chief investigator to be terminated for non-professional conduct and prejudice. [the same] case. ”
