Embattled Karen Learn investigator Michael Proctor ends struggle to get job again

Former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor — fired over misconduct allegations after Karen Learn’s first trial — has withdrawn his enchantment to get his job again, days earlier than hearings have been set to renew this week. Members of the Massachusetts Civil Service Fee have been anticipated to renew Tuesday in Proctor’s enchantment, which started in August. “This discover confirms the withdrawal of my enchantment within the above referenced matter (his termination). I train my proper to signal this type of my very own free will,” learn a quick doc signed by Proctor on Oct. 18. Now that Proctor has withdrawn his enchantment, the subsequent step will probably be that the fee points an order of dismissal based mostly on the withdrawal.WCVB has reached out to Proctor and his lawyer for remark however mentioned they’d no remark. In June, the jury in her retrial discovered Learn not responsible of second-degree homicide, however responsible of a lesser cost of drunken driving, within the loss of life of her her boyfriend John O’Keefe, who was a Boston police officer. Her first trial ended with a hung jury.The prosecution argued Learn hit O’Keefe along with her Lexus SUV exterior of a house in Canton throughout a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following an evening of consuming. Learn’s attorneys mentioned another person was liable for killing O’Keefe and that Learn is the sufferer of a regulation enforcement cover-up.In March, a three-member trial board discovered Proctor responsible of violating 4 division insurance policies, together with sending insulting textual content messages about Learn, sharing delicate details about Learn’s case with folks from exterior regulation enforcement, creating a picture of being biased towards Learn and consuming whereas on responsibility in reference to an unrelated chilly case.In August, Proctor’s lawyer, Daniel Moynihan, argued that the investigation of Proctor was rushed underneath political stress and there was no proof that his shopper’s private emotions about Learn influenced the case or violated coverage.Moynihan mentioned state police haven’t any coverage that forestalls investigators from sharing private emotions on private cellphones. However Massachusetts State Police lawyer Stephen Carley mentioned the conduct guidelines apply always.”It does not matter if it happens by e mail, smoke sign,” Carley mentioned.Throughout August’s hearings, Carley performed a video from Learn’s first trial displaying Proctor studying textual content messages to a buddy, wherein he mentioned he thought, at one level, that O’Keefe may need been overwhelmed, and that Learn “waffled” him with a car.Carley mentioned Proctor “consumed alcohol after which operated his cruiser whereas on responsibility, launched confidential data to people exterior of regulation enforcement and known as suspect and eventual defendant, Karen Learn, ‘a babe,’ ‘a nut bag.'”Moynihan mentioned Proctor’s private emotions about Learn didn’t affect the integrity of the investigation or the result of the case towards Learn.”Michael Proctor didn’t commit against the law. Michael Proctor didn’t violate a selected coverage prohibiting private conduct on a private telephone, as a result of there isn’t any particular coverage. These are two crucial info to recollect on this case,” Moynihan mentioned. In his now-withdrawn written enchantment, Proctor mentioned he was by no means disciplined previous to this case and that each one messages in query have been despatched on a private telephone whereas he was off responsibility, with an expectation of his proper to privateness. Finally, Proctor mentioned that he was handled unfairly.Throughout Learn’s first trial, Proctor was questioned about messages he shared with a bunch of pals. After studying one of many messages wherein he known as Learn a “whack job” and an expletive, he apologized to the jury for his “unprofessional” feedback.In one other textual content message, Proctor advised his sister that he hoped Learn would kill herself. Proctor described his messages as “very regrettable.”Proctor was suspended and later terminated within the wake of Learn’s first trial, which ended with a hung jury.Learn was finally discovered not responsible of homicide within the loss of life of O’Keefe in a second trial, however was convicted of OUI.Proctor has denied planting proof in the course of the investigation, and his household mentioned they confronted harassment because of the high-profile case.Video under: State police colonel feedback on Proctor caseAfter the trial board’s resolution, Proctor’s household mentioned they have been “actually dissatisfied with the trial board’s resolution.”It lacks precedent, and unfairly exploits and scapegoats one among their very own, a trooper with a 12-year unblemished document. Regardless of the Massachusetts State Police’s doubtful and relentless efforts to search out extra inculpatory proof towards Michael Proctor on his telephones, computer systems and cruiser knowledge, the messages on his private telephone — referring to the one that killed a fellow beloved Boston Police Officer — are all that they discovered.”The messages show one factor, and that Michael is human — not corrupt, not incompetent in his function as a murder detective, and positively not unfit to proceed to be a Massachusetts State Trooper.”Alan Jackson, who represented Learn throughout each legal trials, launched an announcement concerning proctor’s enchantment withdrawal: “Michael Proctor’s sudden withdrawal of his enchantment wasn’t an act of humility — it was self-preservation. He realized investigators had recovered textual content messages from his non-public telephone relationship again years, and he needed no a part of what these messages would reveal,” Jackson mentioned. “He didn’t settle for accountability—it hunted him down. And as Col. Noble admitted, the years-long corruption is systemic.”