Michael Proctor has not worked as a police officer since March 2025 and has not spoken publicly since 2024. He is nonetheless one of the most searched names in Massachusetts law, because his conduct as the lead investigator in the Karen Read case has become the thread running through half a dozen other proceedings: a Milton murder case where he took the Fifth last week and where the hearing resumes Tuesday, two civil suits by Read, a wrongful death suit by John O’Keefe’s family in which he is a witness who says he lost his phone, the Aidan Kearney witness intimidation case, the Sandra Birchmore investigation, and a state licensing proceeding that has suspended his certification.
There is no single place where all of that is laid out, and the vacuum has filled with rumor. This is the record as it stands on September 22, 2026, with a date and a source for each item and a plain statement of what is not known.
Where he is now
Out of law enforcement. The State Police fired him on March 19, 2025, citing in part the text messages about Read that surfaced at her first trial, including one hoping she would kill herself. He appealed to the Civil Service Commission, testified at two days of hearings in August 2025, and withdrew the appeal on October 18, 2025, the day after prosecutors in a separate case disclosed what they had found on his personal phone. On December 18, 2025 the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission suspended his certification, finding “by a preponderance of the evidence that the suspension is in the best interest of the health, safety, or welfare of the public.” His certification had been due to run through July 1, 2026. A suspended officer cannot be employed as a police officer anywhere in Massachusetts.
Where he is employed now, if anywhere, has not been reported. His family said in a 2024 statement that Read’s lawyers were “creating false narratives” about him; he has given no interviews since. His lawyers described “personal circumstances” in a June 2026 court filing without elaborating. Claims circulating on TikTok and Facebook that he has been hospitalized, and search queries asking about his death, have no basis in any reporting. He filed a 25-page answer in federal court in January 2026 and an emergency motion in Plymouth Superior Court in June 2026. He is alive and represented by counsel.
The phone
Everything since 2025 traces to one device. After a protracted court fight, Proctor’s personal cellphone was turned over to the Norfolk District Attorney’s office in October 2025. Prosecutors reported finding hundreds of thousands of items going back more than a decade, and on October 27, 2025 disclosed that it held “highly sensitive information.” That disclosure ended his Civil Service appeal within days. Material from the phone has since surfaced in three other cases: the Myles King prosecution, where it was produced as discovery; the Kearney case; and Read’s June 2026 lawsuit, which quotes dozens of messages between Proctor and former Canton Sergeant Sean Goode that Read’s lawyers characterize as racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic.
Then, according to Read’s lawyer Aaron Rosenberg in a February 2026 hearing, prosecutors returned the phone to Proctor and he lost it. When Read’s team asked him for its data as a witness in the O’Keefe wrongful death case, “he claimed to have lost his phone,” Rosenberg told Judge Mark Gildea. Whether the DA’s office retained a full forensic image is not in the public record, though the volume of material it has already produced suggests it did.
Commonwealth v. King: the hearing that resumes Tuesday
Myles King is charged with the July 2021 shooting death of Marquis Simmons in Milton. Proctor, then assigned to the Norfolk DA’s office, was an investigator. King’s lawyer, Rosemary Scapicchio, moved to dismiss the indictment in May 2025 over evidence turned over years late, including search warrants Proctor obtained that were disclosed only after a new prosecutor took the case. Judge Peter Krupp took the case off the trial list, ordered the Commonwealth to complete its disclosure by September 2025, and released King on bail in June 2025.
The evidentiary hearing on the motion has run in sessions since. On August 27, 2026 the former lead prosecutor, Adam Lally, testified that Proctor’s biases were “never communicated” to him. On September 14 Proctor appeared, went to sidebar with his lawyer, and told the judge he would invoke the Fifth Amendment if called. Krupp found the privilege “would be properly exercised.” Scapicchio, who had prepared to examine him on more than a decade of messages, said he “represented to the court twice that he wasn’t going to take the Fifth.” We explained what a judge must find before allowing that, and why the reason stays at sidebar, in our report on the invocation.
The hearing continues September 22 with a defense expert on racial bias in investigations. The question before Krupp is not whether Proctor is a bad witness but whether the late disclosure and the investigator’s conduct prejudiced King enough to warrant dismissal, which is a high bar. A ruling is not expected from the bench.
Read v. Proctor and others: the federal conspiracy suit
On November 18, 2025 Read sued Proctor, Sergeant Yuri Bukhenik, Lieutenant Sergeant Brian Tully, Brian and Nicole Albert, Jennifer and Matthew McCabe and Brian Higgins, alleging they conspired to frame her for O’Keefe’s death. The case was removed to federal court on November 26. On January 16, 2026 Proctor filed a 25-page answer, his most detailed account of the investigation since his firing. He admits observing the cracked taillight on Read’s Lexus and that red and clear plastic fragments were recovered at 34 Fairview Road. He denies that any evidence was planted or that its discovery was backdated, and maintains the fragments came from the collision. No trial date has been set.
Read v. State Police and Canton: the June suit
On June 4, 2026 Read filed an 87-page complaint in Bristol Superior Court against the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department for negligence and civil conspiracy in her prosecution. Proctor and Goode are not defendants; they are the evidence. The complaint reproduces years of their text messages and argues both departments hired and retained “virulent bigots.” Goode resigned from the Canton police in June 2026 in the middle of an internal investigation into the messages. The Committee for Public Counsel Services responded by calling for a review of every case Proctor handled, open and closed. We set out all three of Read’s civil cases in our civil-cases explainer.
O’Keefe v. Read: the deposition that keeps moving
Proctor is not a party to the O’Keefe family’s wrongful death suit against Read, but he is its most important third-party witness. Rosenberg told the court in February that his deposition was set for April. It was then scheduled for June 8. On June 5, one day after Read’s suit published the Goode texts, Proctor’s lawyers filed an emergency motion to reschedule, stating that “due to personal circumstances” he had been unavailable for preparation. Judge Gildea held a Zoom hearing on the morning of June 8. Whether the deposition has since been taken has not been reported; more than a dozen depositions in the case were scheduled through the summer.
Commonwealth v. Kearney
Two of the sixteen counts in the December 2023 witness intimidation indictment against blogger Aidan Kearney named Proctor and Bukhenik as victims. Judge Michael Doolin dismissed both in May 2025, finding Proctor was not home when Kearney’s “rolling rally” reached his house and that Kearney’s statements about the two troopers, while “distasteful” and “insulting,” were not shown to be intended to obstruct the Read prosecution. Ten counts remain against Kearney, with trial set for December. Our full account of that case is in Who Is Turtleboy?
Sandra Birchmore
Proctor was among the Norfolk DA investigators who handled the February 2021 death of Sandra Birchmore in Canton, which the state ruled a suicide. Federal prosecutors later charged former Stoughton officer Matthew Farwell with killing her and staging the scene; his trial begins October 5 before Chief Judge Denise Casper. Read’s lawyers have sought unredacted Birchmore investigative files, and commentators have argued that Proctor’s texts bear on the credibility of the original investigation. Proctor is not charged in connection with Birchmore, and no report has placed him on either side’s witness list. Our tracker for that trial is here.
The cases nobody has counted
State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble said in July 2026 that Proctor had worked “hundreds, if not thousands” of cases and that every one needed to be looked at. The Norfolk DA has said it is reviewing cases. No list has been published, no timeline given, and no case other than King has produced a public ruling. Whether any conviction is vacated as a result is the question that will outlast every other item on this page.
What is scheduled
- September 22: King hearing resumes, Norfolk Superior Court, Dedham.
- October 5: Farwell trial begins, Moakley Courthouse, Boston.
- December 2026: Kearney trial, Norfolk Superior Court.
- No date: Read’s federal suit; Read’s Bristol suit; the O’Keefe wrongful death trial; any POST decertification hearing.
Where is Michael Proctor now?
Out of law enforcement. He was fired by the State Police in March 2025, dropped his appeal in October 2025, and had his POST certification suspended in December 2025. His current employment has not been reported.
Is Michael Proctor dead or in the hospital?
No report by any news organization says so. He filed court papers in January and June 2026 and is represented by counsel. Social media claims about a hospitalization are unconfirmed.
What did Michael Proctor’s texts say?
At Read’s first trial, messages disparaging Read, including one hoping she would kill herself. Read’s June 2026 lawsuit quotes years of messages between Proctor and former Canton Sgt. Sean Goode that it characterizes as racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic. Proctor has not disputed sending them.
Has Michael Proctor been deposed in the Karen Read civil case?
His deposition was scheduled for June 8, 2026 and he moved to reschedule it three days earlier citing personal circumstances. Whether it has since been taken has not been reported.
Is Michael Proctor charged with a crime?
No. He has not been charged with anything. He invoked the Fifth Amendment on September 14, 2026 rather than testify at a hearing in the Myles King case.
What happens on September 22?
The evidentiary hearing on Myles King’s motion to dismiss continues before Judge Krupp with a defense expert on racial bias. Proctor will not testify.
Firing, appeal and POST suspension from Boston.com (March 19, October 20 and December 22, 2025). Phone disclosures from Boston.com (October 27, 2025) and MassLive (February 2026, as syndicated by Yahoo News). Federal answer from MassLive (January 2026). Deposition motion from CBS Boston (June 8, 2026). Goode and CPCS from NBC10 Boston (June 10, 2026). King case from MassLive (August 2025), the Boston Globe and CBS Boston (September 15, 2026). Kearney ruling as reported May 2025. Colonel Noble’s remark as reported July 2026. Proctor has not been charged with any crime, and the allegations in Read’s lawsuits are unproven. General information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice.