After Karen Read debacle, Michael Proctor's work in other murder cases faces scrutiny

Boston Globe

6 hours ago

They have asked judges to grant them access to Proctor's work and personal cellphones, his work iCloud account, and disciplinary records for him and some State Police colleagues and supervisors in the office of Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey, court records show.
Proctor did not testify in the retrial of Read, who was acquitted Wednesday of any responsibility in the 2022 death of O'Keefe, after a mistrial last year. But his role in the initial Read investigation could tarnish his other work.
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'I believe that the district attorney's office is going to find it harder and harder to run away from Proctor in the other cases that Proctor was involved in,' said attorney Rosemary Scapicchio, who represents three men being prosecuted for murder in cases investigated by Proctor.
In cases that prosecutors do distance themselves from Proctor, she added, defense attorneys should be able to inform the jury and ask, 'Why do you think that is?'
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As recently as Tuesday, a judge granted access to some records from Proctor's work and personal cellphones to Scapicchio and other defense lawyers in two pending murder cases, court records show.
The identical rulings also ordered Proctor to provide his personal cellphone as well as carrier information to prosecutors and preserve the device and its data.
In his orders, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Michael P. Doolin
wrote that
he had reviewed an independent report about data pulled from Proctor's work phone that found communications that 'support the defense theory that police bias played a role' in the cases.
The communications do not 'specifically address' the defendants, Doolin wrote, but they 'demonstrate a pattern of bias and misconduct by Proctor in conducting investigations that fairly suggests there may have been similar impropriety in this case that casts doubt on his credibility as an investigator generally.' He didn't elaborate.
Proctor, who has
State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble, who took the helm of the force last year,
Doolin's ruling involved
prosecutions stemming from two fatal shootings that Proctor handled as a lead investigator.
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Shawn Johnson and Jovani Delossantos are charged with murder stemming from the fatal shooting of Ivanildo Cabral, 29, outside of Mojitos
Country Club in Randolph on July 4, 2022.
King, Johnson, and Delossantos have pleaded not guilty.
Proctor was also the lead investigator in the death of Ana Walshe, 39, who prosecutors allege was killed by her husband, Brian, on New Year's Day following a gathering at the couple's Cohasset home.
Morrissey's office has said it doesn't plan to call Proctor to testify at that trial. Brian Walshe has pleaded not guilty.
But
Walshe's lawyers sought a copy of all data extracted from Proctor's work cellphone and iCloud account as well as disciplinary files for him and other troopers assigned to Morrissey's office, and records from a separate federal investigation examining the death of O'Keefe.
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Diane C. Freniere declined to grant Walshe's lawyers access to the full scope of records they've sought, though she allowed some requests.
'Simply alleging that there was demonstrated bias by Trooper Proctor against a particular defendant in a different case does not entitle the defendant to access to confidential internal affairs records in order to search for other potential impeachment evidence,' Freniere wrote in the decision.
Since then, the prosecution and defense have reached agreements on protective orders governing access to Proctor's internal affairs records, an independent report of data extracted from his work cellphone and iCloud account, and text messages he sent about Read, court records show.
Walshe has also asked a judge to toss some of the evidence against him, and a hearing is scheduled for
next month to consider his request to dismiss the murder charge, court records show.
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Attorney Larry Tipton, a lawyer for Walshe, declined to comment Thursday.
Proctor is also being scrutinized for his role in an investigation that began before he was assigned to Morrissey's office.
In 2017, Proctor was the first officer to arrive at the scene of a fatal shooting on Interstate 93 that claimed the life of Scott Stevens Jr., 32, as he drove a motorcycle through Boston, court records show.
Scapicchio, who represents Holloman, has pending requests in that case for a range of records concerning Proctor, court records show.
Chris Dearborn, a professor at Suffolk University Law School, said Proctor's widely publicized misconduct in Read's case made him vulnerable to challenges to his work in other investigations.
'There's a compelling argument that if you acted that inappropriately and unprofessionally in one case, arguably compromising and infecting that investigation, it stands to reason that he might have acted similarly in other investigations,' Dearborn said.
Yet how much of Proctor's work will be turned over to the defense in those prosecutions, and whether juries get to hear it are unclear, he said.
'Judges are going to have to make case by case determinations,' he said.
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at