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'Days of hiding behind badges over': Karen Read suing Massachusetts State Police, Canton Police

MassachusettsGDELTGDELT event22% biasedThu, Jun 4, 2026, 12:00 AM

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'Days of hiding behind badges over': Karen Read suing Massachusetts State Police, Canton Police.'Days of hiding behind badges over': Karen Read suing Massachusetts State Police, Canton Police Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman acquitted in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, is suing the Massachusetts State Police Department and the Canton Police Department.Read's defense team filed a complaint Thursday in Bristol County Superior Court, claiming the agencies that "negligently permitted virulent misogynists and bigots to target her will answer for what they built, what they concealed and what they did to her." "The days of hiding behind badges and promotions while peddling vile bigotry are over.The truth is coming, and with it an unflinching reckoning," her defense team said in a statement.Read was found not guilty of murder last summer after her second high-profile trial in the death of Boston police officer John O'Keefe, but guilty of a lesser charge of drunken driving.O'Keefe was found dead during a snowstorm on Jan.29, 2022.Former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in Read's case, was fired in March 2025 and later had his law enforcement certification suspended by the POST Commission.A three-member trial board found Proctor guilty of violating four department policies, including sending insulting text messages about Karen Read, sharing sensitive information about Read's case with people from outside law enforcement, creating an image of being biased against Read and drinking while on duty in connection with an unrelated cold case.On Wednesday, Canton Police Department Sgt.Sean Goode, who testified in Read's first trial, resigned after he was accused of misconduct and placed on leave."Michael Proctor and Sean Goode did not slip through the cracks; they are emblematic of the failure to responsibly exercise the trust and faith the public puts in these institutions.Proctor and Goode were unfit for positions of public trust and yet they were handed badges, promotions, and ultimately control of homicide investigations despite harboring deep-seated and abhorrent anti-woman, racist, antisemitic, and homophobic ideologies for more than a decade," the statement said.Read's attorneys allege the state police knew about Proctor's "prejudices and biases" and did nothing."Canton reviewed Goode's vile messages last year and never terminated him.Rather, Canton allowed Goode to keep his rank until he chose to resign two days ago, on the eve of this lawsuit.That is the culture of these two institutions," her attorneys said.Civil Lawsuits Continue Four witnesses who testified during Read's murder trials are accusing her and Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as "Turtleboy," of defamation.Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert, Colin Albert, and Brian Higgins allege in their new lawsuit that Read and Kearney "orchestrated a coordinated campaign" to implicate them in the death of Boston police officer John O'Keefe.None of them was ever charged in connection with his death.Read is also being sued by the O'Keefe family and is pursuing her own case, alleging that others were responsible for O'Keefe's death and a subsequent cover-up.Kearney was a vocal advocate for Read's claims, and prosecutors alleged that the two communicated about the case, sometimes through third parties.Kearney still faces witness intimidation cases stemming from the events.