We’re turning up the temperatures in the coming days. The humidity will also climb, but that’s Thursday’s concern.
We’re still under the influence of an upper-level pool of cold air on Wednesday. Clouds will pop up again, an…
Massachusetts
MBTA directors approve $3 billion budget, ponder projected $700 million shortfall
The T’s Board of Directors, on Tuesday, gave their grudging approval to a fiscal 2025 spending plan that ballooned by 11% — nearly $300 million — over the previous year. The budget, according to its authors, will allow the beleaguered transportation system to spend another year focused on hiring and fixing the many problems it’s finding along the tracks and at stations.
‘Compromising integrity’: Fallout from Michael Proctor’s texts about Karen Read
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor will be back on the stand Wednesday in the Karen Read murder trial.
The lead investigator in John O’Keefe’s death read a series of text messages for the jury Monday that he sent to family, friends and colleagues about the defendant and the case. They were crude, demeaning and inappropriate.
You can read a full breakdown of Proctor’s text messages here.
“The testimony about the text messages was extremely damaging to the prosecution case and potentially fatal,” said Tom Nolan, a professor of criminology at Boston University and former Boston police officer. “I was not impressed by Trooper Proctor’s contention that his text messages, in no way, had an effect on the factual evidence of the case, because it clearly did.”
Proctor, who serves as the lead investigator for the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office and is currently the subject of an internal affairs investigation with the state police, told jurors the text messages — some of which went to supervisors — were regrettable and unprofessional. But he said they don’t impact the integrity of the investigation.
“When you are now having to respond to extremely misogynistic statements and other unprofessional statements, you’re compromising integrity as an investigator, as a law enforcement professional,” said Todd McGhee, a security consultant who worked as a state trooper for more than 20 years.
McGhee says Proctor could eventually end up on the Brady List of officers whose credibility have been tainted.
“It’s not an automatic termination if your name makes that list,” he said. “However, it could cause reassignment based on your role within a unit.”
“They don’t have a strong history of imposing discipline on their members, so in all likelihood, this trooper will continue to be to be assigned to the district attorney’s office,” said Nolan. “I think that’s imprudent.”
“I have faith within my former agency,” McGhee said of the Massachusetts State Police. “There’s thousands of professional men and women that do the right thing every day every day.”
Police investigate sexual assault in Cambridge
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Could Trooper Proctor’s testimony impact the Walshe murder trial, other cases?
Monday’s testimony by Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor could not just have implications on Karen Read’s ongoing murder trial, but potentially beyond.
Experts say that the investigator’s vulgar text messages about Read could spell trouble for Proctor’s credibility while testifying in other cases as well, including the pending Brian Walshe murder trial, for which he is the designated case officer — the same position that Proctor holds in the Read investigation.
Read denies the state’s allegations that she killed her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, in Canton in 20222, and her lawyers have depicted a large-scale coverup by law enforcement, which they say Proctor was part of. The prosecution has denied there was a coverup, calling the allegations “fanciful.”
In a text conversation with friends that prosecutors had Proctor read from Monday, he referred to Read as a “whack job” and “c—,” made fun of a medical condition she has and made a disparaging comment about her rear. Proctor said his comments were “unprofessional and regrettable,” but said they “have zero impact on the facts and the evidence and the integrity of this investigation.”
In another text chain with colleagues, Proctor made a joke about not being able to find naked photos of Read while going through her phone. Read’s defense team hammered Proctor — and is expected to continue doing so when court returns Wednesday, on whether his text messages about the defendant reflected a bias.
“I think the testimony likely was fatal to the government’s case,” Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law and NBC10 Boston legal analyst Michael Coyne said. “The fact is, it does taint all law enforcement in this case.”
Former Massachusetts State Trooper Todd McGhee explained Tuesday that the bombshell testimony could taint other cases, too, saying it was possible the situation could potentially put Proctor at risk for being included on what’s called a Brady list, referring to a Supreme Court case.
Watch the Karen Read trial live on nbcboston.com, NECN, NBC Boston streaming platforms (including Roku, Peacock and Samsung TV) and NBC10 Boston’s YouTube page. Every night of the trial at 7 p.m., come back for analysis and more.
Email questions to canton.confidential@nbcuni.com.
Brady lists are typically used by prosecutors to determine whether they should consider officers unqualified to testify in a case over lack of credibility.
“Once that officer has been deemed as compromised, their integrity has been compromised, their name ends up on the list,” McGhee said. “Once your name was on the Brady list, anytime you testify in a court of law, the opposing attorney is going to challenge your veracity.
“Effectively, you are of no real use in the court of law based on any investigative work you’ve conducted,” McGhee continued.
Proctor, who works out of the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, is also the designated case officer for the Brian Walshe murder case.
Brian Walshe is charged with murdering and dismembering his wife, Ana Walshe, in their Cohasset home in early 2023. He’s pleaded not guilty. The case is expected to be heard soon after the Read trial concludes.
Shira Diner, an instructor at the Defender Clinic at Boston University, believes these developments could impact Proctor’s involvement at the Walshe trial.
“Because of the high profile nature of [the Karen Read trial], it’s well known,” Diner said. “Before a trial starts involving him, I think the defense lawyer is going to be in a very strong position to be asking for internal affairs reports — their kind of potential bias discovery that we usually have a hard time getting.”
Diner added that the commonwealth may try to avoid having him on the stand in future cases, “because there’s no way that this isn’t going to come up.”
“It is always going to be relevant,” Diner said. “The issue of bias is never collateral to anything. It’s sort of at the root of what we are asking our jurors to do.”
That said, the prosecution could still try the case without calling Proctor, Diner said, by calling other witnesses to piece together the narrative.
The Walshe case became infamous over the massive search for Ana, whose body hasn’t been found, and the Google searches allegedly made by her husband seeking instructions for how to discard a body.
While Proctor is the case officer for the Walshe case, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said Tuesday, he is “one of numerous officers involved in the investigation.”
The office and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security both declined to comment on Proctor’s testimony Tuesday. Massachusetts State Police has also not issued a statement.
State police confirmed in March that Proctor was the subject of an internal investigation for a potential violation of department policy, but would not comment on what caused them to probe one of their own. However, sources told NBC10 Boston that the investigation is connected to the Read case.
Proctor remains certified under Massachusetts’ POST Commission, as of May 31, the most recent date available. The commission offers a mandatory statewide certification system for all of the Bay State police officers.
MBTA fueling hiring blitz with first $3B budget
MBTA overseers unanimously approved a $3 billion budget Tuesday that will ramp up spending ahead and drain the agency’s savings, setting up a major funding gap that is expected to hit next summer.
The MBTA Board gave the green light to a fiscal year 2025 plan that boosts spending 11% over fiscal 2024 while expecting a 10% growth in revenue, some of it from one-time sources.
T officials expect the spending plan will continue to fund a hiring blitz and repair campaign, both of which they view as necessary to improving service that for years has been unreliable.
To balance the books, the budget would draw down $307 million in pandemic-era reserves and shift $191 million in federal preventative maintenance funds to the operating side of the ledger.
More on the MBTA budget
Board members approved the plan that leans on dwindling one-time resources minutes after hearing a stark warning about the fiscal 2026 outlook from a watchdog representing cities and towns who help fund the T.
MBTA officials expect they will face a budget gap of nearly $700 million in fiscal year 2026, when they may look to Beacon Hill for help as the agency tries to address infrastructure woes and attain service levels that may boost ridership.
“That is an enormous gap, and we see, at this point, no clear path for covering it,” Roy Epstein, a Belmont Select Board member who chairs the operating budget oversight committee at the independent MBTA Advisory Board. “It’s going to require some concerted action at, I believe, all levels of government.”
