Judge orders feds to preserve Proctor investigation material to be used in future cases

Defense attorneys from across Norfolk County had less than 24 hours to get access to documents related to how disgraced former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor investigated the Karen Read case that were scheduled to be destroyed tomorrow.

Several attorneys met at Norfolk Superior Court Thursday after they said they believe Proctor’s phone, notes, and audiotapes could help them better defend their clients.

“It will be helpful to our case because it will show us the manner and mannerisms which some of the investigations in the Karen Read case were done, and that’s helpful to us because we can compare and contract that to the way he investigated in our cases,” said Rosemary Scapicchio, a defense attorney representing a muder suspect who was investigated by Proctor.

Proctor was the lead investigator in the Karen Read murder case, however his credibility came into question when unprofessional texts on his phone were discovered. He has since lost his job and abandoned a civil service commission appeal to try and get it back.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult to have to sit down with my clients…and go through these chats, go through these texts, go through these emails because they’re very vulgar and they’re very disturbing,” said Scapicchio.

Scapicchio said she is confident the material she received will help her client, a Black man, dismiss his case — alluding that Proctor had a bias.

“Without a doubt. Its exactly what we thought it was,” she told 7NEWS outside court Thursday. “If you’re already prejudiced to people because of the color of their skin, their ethnicity, if they’re a male or female, then you can’t have an open mind when you started this investigation.”

The defense attorney for Brian Walshe, the Cohasset man accused of murdering and dismembering his wife in January 2023, also pleaded with a judge not to destroy documents. He said he wanted more information on Proctor’s investigative techniques.

A judge eventually ordered the federal government to preserve that material.