Karen Read trial: Lead detective's wife slams suspected cop killer's media tour as 'unrelenting propaganda'
FIRST ON FOX: The family of a Massachusetts police officer whose embarrassing testimony may have tanked the trial against a suspected Boston cop killer is speaking out for the first time – calling the defendant's elaborate claims of a police cover-up a campaign of "unrelenting propaganda and disinformation."
"The Karen Read defense team is unabashedly creating false narratives and distracting the public and potential jurors from clear-cut evidence," said Elizabeth Proctor, whose husband Michael was the lead investigator in the case.
Karen Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, by hitting him with her Lexus SUV during a snowstorm after a drunken argument, then leaving the scene and letting him die.
Prosecutors initially considered it a "slam dunk" case – before Proctor's text messages emerged.
Proctor, a Massachusetts state trooper, sent a series of sultry texts about Read that were read in court, prompting jurors to shake their heads and giving Read's defense a scandal to seize on.
In the texts, he called Read a "wack job," a "babe… with no a--" and a "c---." He also wrote that he wished she would kill herself and joked about looking for nude selfies while searching her phone. He was suspended without pay after the trial, which ended with a hung jury.
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Read's defense seized on the scandal and painted the case against her as an elaborate effort to frame her, claiming someone else beat O'Keefe to death and left him in the snow.
O'Keefe died from blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia during a January snowstorm in Canton, Massachusetts, about 15 miles outside of Boston.
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"At the end of the day, a beloved police officer and honorable man was killed," Elizabeth Proctor told Fox News Digital. "The Prosecution believes it’s an open and shut case, and the defense knows this, too. So, their tactic is to put my husband, the lead investigator, on trial for sending texts on his personal phone to his friends and family."
She argued that Read's defense effort, which included multiple on-record interviews with the media in which she raised her claims of a conspiracy, is an effort to taint the jury pool.
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Read, in a recent round of interviews, argued that she was framed by the real killers, whom she believes are other members of law enforcement O'Keefe got into a fight with after she dropped him off at the home of fellow Boston Police Officer Brian Albert.
"After exhaustive investigations at both the state and federal level, and a grand jury, only one person has been charged with a crime, the defendant Karen Read," Elizabeth Proctor said.
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Trooper Proctor had an "unblemished" record over 12 years on the job and called his texts both "unprofessional and regrettable," but his sister, Courtney Proctor, argues that they do not undercut the credibility of the investigation: Read is scheduled to go on trial again on April 1.
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"Michael – and so many others in his line of work – see horrible things every day and may at times need to vent personally," his sister said. "He saw a fellow officer die a horrible, tragic death. Who among us has not said something regrettable in moments of stress, shock, or sadness? And how would you feel if the contents of your personal phone were questionably released to the public without full context?"
When the case goes back to trial, the Proctor family is hoping jurors focus on the evidence, not conspiracy theories or Read's vocal online supporters.
"Unfortunately, we know that by speaking out, more harassment will be unleashed on our family," Elizabeth Proctor said. "But we can no longer stand by and silently watch Michael’s character be attacked and disparaged so unfairly."
O'Keefe's family has also named Read in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Read's attorney.