He was called the worst witness to take the stand since the OJ Simpson trial

THE cop who sent vulgar texts about Karen Read while investigating her case has been fired.

Embattled Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor has been dishonorably discharged after being found guilty of mishandling Read’s case and drinking on the job, the agency announced on Wednesday.

Trooper Michael Proctor testifying in court.

Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor testifying during Karen Read’s trial in Norfolk Super Court in Massachusetts on June 10, 2024
Karen Read at her trial.

Karen Read looking at jurors during her trial on July 1, 2024
Karen Read at her trial.

Read walking into court on June 26, 2024

Proctor made headlines for mishandling the murder case of Read, who was accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Department Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV in January 2022.

During Read’s trial last year, Proctor was forced to read incriminating texts he sent while investigating the case on the witness stand.

“She’s a whack job (expletive),” Proctor wrote in a text, he read on the stand in June 2024.

“Yes she’s a babe. Weird Fall River accent, though. No a**.”

While searching Read’s phone during the investigation, he texted his friends that he had found “no nudes so far.”

He also messaged his sister “Hopefully she kills herself,” about Read.

Proctor was relieved of duty just hours after Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial in July 2024.

Weeks later, he was suspended without pay.

The texts were just one of four of Proctor’s violations of agency conduct that the Massachusetts State Police board found in a months-long investigation into the disgraced state trooper.

He was dismissed for sending derogatory texts about Read, providing sensitive information about the case to people who weren’t in law enforcement, and creating bias in dealing with Read.

Karen Read’s haunting admission to a friend after finding her boyfriend’s lifeless body revealed in new 20/20 special

In his fourth violation, the only one separate from the Read case, the trial found Proctor drank while eating dinner on duty on July 19, 2022.

He then got into his cop cruiser and drove while buzzed.

FAMILY LASHES OUT

Proctor’s family said they’re disappointed with the MSP’s findings, according to the Boston Herald.

The family said in a statement the dismissal was a “wrongful termination” because Proctor was a “trooper with a 12-year unblemished record.”

Michael Proctor’s texts

Disgraced Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor sent a series of inappropriate texts while he was the lead investigator on Karen Read’s murder case.

He called her a “whack job c**t” in one of the disturbing messages.

He texted to his friend, “Yes she’s a babe. Weird Fall River accent, though. No a**.”

While searching Read’s phone during the investigation, he texted his friends that he had found “no nudes so far.”

He also messaged his sister, “Hopefully she kills herself.”

About her Crohn’s disease, Proctor wrote, “She’s got a leaky balloon knot. Leaks poo.”

He also called Read “retarded.”

In another message he wrote that Read “waffled” O’Keefe.

“I looked at [O’Keefe’s] body in the hospital. He was banged up. She hit him with her car,” he said.

Proctor apologized for the texts on the witness stand and said they were “regrettable.”

“The messages prove one thing, and that Michael is human – not corrupt, not incompetent in his role as a homicide detective, and certainly not unfit to continue to be a Massachusetts State Trooper,” the family’s statement said.

Read has insisted she’s innocent and claims she’s being framed for her boyfriend’s death as part of an elaborate conspiracy by law enforcement.

‘BOTCHED’ CASE

After Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury, Neama Rahmani, founder of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told The U.S. Sun he believed prosecutors botched the case by putting Proctor on the stand.

In his 20 years of practicing law, Rahmani said Proctor was one of the worst witnesses he ever saw take the stand.

He compared the state trooper’s performance to a disastrous witness in the murder trial of OJ Simpson.

During Simpson’s trial, LAPD detective Mark Furhman was found to have used the N-word and then lied about it on the stand.

Read’s retrial is set to begin on April 1, 2025.