DEDHAM -- A lawyer for Karen Read ended his cross examination of the lead state police detective in her high-profile murder trial in dramatic fashion Wednesday. “Shame on you, sir,” Los Angeles defense lawyer Alan Jackson told state police Detective Michael Proctor in Dedham Superior Court. Jackson’s condemnation drew an immediate objection from the prosecution and a rebuke from the judge, who instructed the jury that lawyers are not supposed to make comments.
It came after Proctor spent nearly five hours in the witness chair and was forced to explain his shocking personal text messages to former high school friends and his sister about Read, 44, of Mansfield. Read is on trial for second-degree murder for allegedly intentionally backing into John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, outside the Canton home of another Boston police officer before leaving him for dead in a snowstorm. But she and her lawyers claim Proctor is a dirty cop who framed her soon after O’Keefe, 46, died on Jan.
29, 2022. They say Proctor is shielding the real killers who were inside the house, where she dropped O’Keefe off for a late night party. She has pleaded not guilty and is free on bail.
In an attempt to attack Proctor’s credibility Jackson, for the second day, asked the trooper about his text messages disparaging and demeaning Read and poking fun at her medical condition. Read suffers from multiple sclerosis and, according to Jackson, had a colectomy and 10 surgeries in 18.
