With Her Murder Trial About to Resume, Karen Read Still Can't Catch a Single Break in Federal Court

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

As I keep beating the dead horse that is comparing this phase of the Karen Read retrial to Spring Training, we're quickly getting to the stage where it's all about resting your starters for Opening Day of jury selection, which begins in two weeks. And yet, both sides continue to make big moves to improve their situations before the games start to count. 

The first move doesn't come from the prosecution team as much as it does from the prosecution's key witness. More specifically, the family of lead investigator Michael Proctor have let it be known they've had just about enough of people criticizing him:

So they're speaking out to defend their man's honor:

Source - The wife and sister of Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the Karen Read case who's been suspended from the force, have released statements Wednesday saying that Read's lawyers have maligned Proctor's character as a distraction from the case. 

The statement was released as Proctor was before a state police trial board for his third hearing on whether he should remain on the force based on his handling of the case. 

Proctor faced allegations of misconduct and criticism for derogatory text messages he sent about Read that were read aloud in court during the first trial …

Proctor's sister, Courtney, referred to those messages in her part of the statement, writing, "Who among us has not said something regrettable in moments of stress, shock, or sadness? And how would you feel if the contents of your personal phone were questionably released to the public without full context?" 

Proctor testified during the trial that he texted Courtney, "Hopefully she kills herself." …

“At the end of the day, a beloved police officer and honorable man was killed. The Prosecution believes it’s an open and shut case, and the defense knows this, too. So, their tactic is to put my husband, the lead investigator, on trial for sending texts on his personal phone to his friends and family,“ said Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor. “The Karen Read defense team is unabashedly creating false narratives and distracting the public and potential jurors from clear-cut evidence.”

Let's be completely fair to Courtney and Elizabeth Proctor. Family loyalty is in all too short supply in these days of fractured relationships and the nuclear family crumbling under societal pressure. We should all feel blessed to have two people in our lives willing to stand by us through such difficult times. I take great comfort in knowing that I'd get this level of support from my loving sister and devoted Irish Rose. 

And Courtney is, of course correct. We all say things we regret once in a while. According to the emails I get from Barstool's legal team, I do that pretty regularly. But there's a difference between not using a sufficient number of "allegedly"s in an article about some jackass being accused of a crime (alleged jackass) and calling your prime suspect in your homicide investigation a "cunt" with "a leaky balloon knot" that "leaks poo" to your fellow law enforcement officers. Or rooting for her to suicide herself to your sister. 

But sticks and stones, amirite? To repeat, we all say regrettable things. What this statement is ignoring is what the vast majority of people who've been following this case can't ignore, is that Proctor showed up to a crime scene that just happened to be the front yard of his friend's house. What no one on the Commonwealth's side has even attempted to explain is why he didn't recuse himself immediately. Conflict himself out as soon as he realized John O'Keefe's body was lying within the property line of his fellow Boston PD officer Brian Albert. Who is enough of a friend that his son was ringbearer at the wedding of …  Michael and Elizabeth Proctor. 

We can all handle the sailor talk in private texts messages, as unprofessional and biased as they are. What needs to be addressed is the lead investigator and the homeowner being so aggressively incurious about one another. No one under Proctor's direction bothered to knock on the door on Fairview Road. No one inside the house came out to see why there were a half dozen or more emergency vehicles with their lights flashing. When Courtney and Elizabeth - or anyone else - can give an even slightly reasonable explanation as to why everyone was so disinterested in each other in that moment of "stress, shock and sadness," the apologies might start coming. But not until then. 

Which brings us to the much more relevant matter. And that is the continued asskicking the defense has been suffering in federal court. That losing streak continued yesterday:

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Source - Yet another judge has told Karen Read that she has to fight the murder charge in the Norfolk County courtroom.

A U.S. District Court judge on Thursday denied the murder defendant’s federal bid to toss the murder charge against her. …

Last summer, Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial. Read’s attorneys have since argued that several jurors claimed they were only hung on the OUI manslaughter charge, and they were ready to acquit on the murder charge and the leaving the scene charge. 

Note: that would be this little matter:

We continue:

Read had recently filed a “writ of habeas corpus” in Massachusetts federal court after the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Read’s pending retrial on the charges did not violate her rights against double jeopardy.

“The issues presented by the petition are limited to those arising under the federal Constitution — specifically, whether a retrial would constitute double jeopardy in violation of petitioner’s rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments,” F. Dennis Saylor IV, chief judge of Massachusetts U.S. District Court, wrote in the ruling on Thursday.

“… The petition for a writ of habeas corpus is DENIED,” Saylor wrote.

This is all very much above the paygrade of guy who used to work on previewing Patriots draft prospects in the middle of drunk driving cases. And I think we all default to the same reference when we hear "double jeopardy.":

So I won't try to analyze this beyond stating the obvious: This whole attempt to get the case thrown out in federal court has been an unmitigated disaster for Read's defense team. Probably a very expensive one at that. The die hard "Free Karen Read" people have been pinning most of their hopes on the Feds since it was first leaked that they were investigating the investigation. And it's led nowhere. By all accounts, the FBI is no longer pursuing it. Every motion in US District Court has been rejected like Justice Victor Wembanyama is presiding. And all the hopes of the FKR side for getting the case dismissed have been dashed against the rock of the federal bench. (OK, that's enough of the metaphors.) 

Now with this heading back inevitably back to Norfolk Superior Court, there's really no other way for it to play out than another trial lasting several months once again. The good news is Proctor is still on the witness list. So if nothing else, the reboot of the first trial won't be boring.