Karen Read Files Lawsuit Against Massachusetts State Police and Canton Police

Karen Read filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday against the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department. The suit claims the departments employed officers who held biases and that those officers played lead roles in the investigation that led to her murder charge.

Read, 46, was acquitted last June of second-degree murder in the January 2022 death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe. Prosecutors had alleged she struck him with her car and left him outside another officer’s home during a blizzard. She maintained that no collision occurred.

It cites previously unreleased text messages that the suit says were sent by the two officers and that contain slurs and derogatory remarks about women, Black Americans, Asian Americans, Jews, Hispanics, Arabs, and members of the LGBTQ community.

” Messages attributed to Goode are described as containing racial and antisemitic slurs and sexualized comments about Read. Matthew Hamel, Proctor’s attorney, told ABC News that Proctor’s personal messages had been reviewed by a grand jury, the district attorney, and the Massachusetts State Police.

” Proctor was terminated from the state police after earlier text exchanges became public. The Massachusetts State Police called the messages “disturbing” and “abhorrent” in a Thursday statement. It retained an outside investigator and began termination proceedings.

Goode resigned effective June 2 before those proceedings concluded. “I have to make some good come of the pain,” she said. She added that she had encountered widespread public support, particularly from women. Her attorneys stated the legal team had identified 13,000 messages reflecting bias.