PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The Massachusetts State Police did not specify whether Proctor’s alleged violation is related to Read’s case. “Trooper Proctor remains on full duty,” a State Police spokesperson said in a statement to CNN on Thursday. “Please note that we are not stating whether the potential violation relates to a specific case, nor are we specifying the nature of the alleged violation.”
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STORY: "A state trooper is investigating the death of a Boston police officer. Now, he’s accused of policy violations," by Senior Writer (CNN Digital) Faith Karimi and News Assistant Zenebou Sylla, published by CNN on March 16, 2024.
PHOTO CAPTION:"Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe was found unresponsive in January 2022 outside this residence in Canton, Massachusetts.
GIST: "A state trooper investigating the death of a Boston police officer is now under investigation himself, authorities said Thursday, adding another layer of complexity to a case that has sharply divided a Massachusetts suburb.
The Massachusetts State Police said it has opened an internal investigation into a “potential violation of department policy” against Trooper Michael Proctor, one of the lead investigators in the death of Officer John O’Keefe. It did not elaborate on what he is being investigated for.
Investigators allege O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Read, hit him with her SUV in the Boston suburb of Canton in January 2022 and left him outside in the snow to die.
But Read’s defense team alleges that he was fatally beaten in the Canton home of a fellow Boston police officer, and that Read is the victim of a coverup to protect those inside the home that night. Read has said she dropped O’Keefe outside the home shortly after midnight — after they left a bar — then drove off to his house to sleep because she was not feeling well.
O’Keefe’s body was found about six hours later outside the home. Read has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision.
The Massachusetts State Police did not specify whether Proctor’s alleged violation is related to Read’s case. “Trooper Proctor remains on full duty,” a State Police spokesperson said in a statement to CNN on Thursday.
“Please note that we are not stating whether the potential violation relates to a specific case, nor are we specifying the nature of the alleged violation.”
David Traub, a spokesperson for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting Read’s case, told CNN they’re aware of the investigation. Proctor remains “on full duty and his responsibilities within our office have not changed,” he said.
The investigation comes the same week Read’s defense team alleged that Proctor did not fully disclose his relationship with key witnesses in the case. During a hearing Tuesday, attorney Alan Jackson alleged that text messages revealed Proctor has close ties with the family of the homeowner, and has communicated with them before and after O’Keefe’s death.
“We’ve been saying since September 2022 motions that we filed before this court and filed with the Commonwealth that there is a conflict. You’re not investigating the conflict. That conflict was never described to the grand jurors. And we’ve been rebuffed at every single turn,” Jackson said in court on Tuesday.
Proctor’s attorney, Michael DiStefano, said his client is cooperating with the investigation.
“Trooper Proctor remains steadfast in the integrity of the work he performed investigating the death of Mr. John O’Keefe,” he said in a statement obtained by CNN. “To the extent that Trooper Proctor’s personal text messages are alluded to in court proceedings regarding Ms. Read, he respectfully submits that the objective investigative steps he and members of his unit took are in no way undermined by the content of the personal messages.”
Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally has said the defense is using the relationships to distract from Read’s alleged guilt, CNN affiliate WFXT reported.
“It’s a three-card Monte trick. You know, card trick. On the corner, on the side. Look at all of this. Look at this relationship. Look at that relationship,” Lally said.
Read’s trial is scheduled to start next month."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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MORE VALUABLE WORDS: "As a former public defender, Texas' refusal to delay Ivan Cantu's execution to evaluate new evidence is deeply worrying for the state of our legal system. There should be no room for doubt in a death penalty case. The facts surrounding Cantu's execution should haunt all of us."
