Special prosecutor Hank Brennan may have softened the impact of inappropriate text messages the lead homicide detective sent regarding Karen Read days before she was charged with the murder of John O’Keefe – but they remain detrimental to the state’s case, and not just because of his vulgar and obscene language, experts say.
The texts were a bombshell that disrupted the first trial when they were presented with Michael Proctor on the witness stand, resulting in a deadlocked jury last year. This time, prosecutors opted not to call him as a witness, leaving his childhood friend Jonathan Diamandis – clearly uneasy – to guide the jury through the conversation.
But beyond the crass remarks about Read, experts say less explosive messages about Proctor’s early opinions of the investigation could be damning.
“Proctor is mentally urging [the defense] to call him,” retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge and Boston College law professor Jack Lu told Fox News Digital. “Now that the texts have been introduced, they won’t call Proctor unless they’re convinced they’ve lost – it’s the equivalent of a ‘Hail Mary’ pass.”
Proctor is on the defense witness list, but Read’s team called Diamandis instead, in what Edwards believes is a risky move by the defense.
“Brennan has now taken the wind out of the sails of the defense because the reading of those texts did not have the impact that they did during the first trial when Michael Proctor read them himself,” Edwards said.
The choice to call Proctor’s childhood friend could be viewed as a safe way for the defense team to drop the bombshell text chain without risking cross-examination by the state.
On the other hand, the defense can now point to the fact that prosecutors declined to put their lead investigator on the witness stand, Bederow said.
“They’ll likely pursue a ‘missing witness’ instruction from the court in which the judge will inform jurors they may draw an adverse inference against prosecution for their failure to call Proctor,” he said. “It is virtually unheard of for the prosecution not to call the lead investigator in a murder case, but of course it’s also extraordinarily rare that the lead investigator was terminated for unprofessional behavior and bias on [the same] case.”
