Karen Read filed a civil lawsuit Thursday in Bristol Superior Court against the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton, accusing the agencies of using biased officers in the investigation into the death of John O’Keefe. The complaint seeks unspecified financial damages and names former State Police investigator Michael Proctor and former Canton police Sgt. Sean Goode.
The filing puts new legal pressure on agencies already under scrutiny for the conduct of the officers who worked the case. Read’s lawyers said the State Police and Canton knew, or should have known, about Proctor’s and Goode’s bias before assigning them to an investigation that they say was tainted from the start.
The complaint describes Proctor and Goode as “inveterate bigots” and says both men harbored a deep-seated hatred for women and minority groups. It points to a text Proctor sent more than a decade ago while seeking work with the Boston Police Department, in which he wrote that a female employee was “that lady was an absolute [expletive] rag [expletive]” and used an anti-Black slur. The Boston Police Department did not hire Proctor, though the State Police did in 2013 and later fired him in March 2025.
Read’s complaint also cites texts tied to Goode. In one, he called Boston Mayor Michelle Wu a “little [expletive].” In another, he described a young woman allegedly killed by a former Stoughton detective as “borderline retarded.” He also wrote in 2015 about a female suspect, “can’t wait to look this [expletive] up tonight at work.” Goode responded to the O’Keefe crime scene and testified at Read’s first trial; he resigned from the Canton department this week after being placed on leave in October.
The lawsuit lands against the backdrop of the criminal case that drew the officers into the spotlight in the first place. O’Keefe was a Boston police officer and Read’s boyfriend. Proctor had already been forced to read crude and misogynistic messages he sent about Read on the witness stand during her first criminal trial, a moment that helped fuel scrutiny of the investigation and the officers involved.
State Police Colonel Geoffrey D. Noble said the comments were “entirely inconsistent with any basic standard of decency” and said they “absolutely do not reflect the values of the Massachusetts State Police” or are tolerated within its ranks. He also said they “underscore and fully support my decision to terminate Michael Proctor.” But Read’s complaint says the agencies “unleashed these two misogynist bigots on Ms. Read” to work the case, and her lawyers said Proctor discussed “planting coke” and assaulting someone with a nightstick on more than one occasion.
Proctor’s lawyer, Jason W. Crotty, pushed back, saying Read is trying to shift attention away from her own role in O’Keefe’s death. The court case now turns on whether Read can show the agencies’ choices and the officers’ private messages amounted to a corrupt investigation, a claim that will have to survive beyond the headlines and into the record.
