Latest news with #MassachusettsSuperiorCourt
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
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Lead detective's text messages cast shadow over Karen Read murder trial
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan may have dulled 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're still damaging to the state's case and not just because he used vulgar and obscene language, experts say. The texts were a bomb that blew up the first trial when they were read with Michael Proctor on the witness stand, and it ended with a deadlocked jury last year. This time around, prosecutors decided not to call him as a witness, and it was his childhood friend Jonathan Diamandis who – visibly uncomfortable – walked 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 begging [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 are in, they will not call Proctor unless they are convinced they have lost – the old 'Hail Mary' pass." Karen Read Update: Fired Lead Investigator On Witness List For 2Nd Trial In Boston Cop John O'keefe's Death Lu said the defense team gained some ground with Diamandis on the stand, but with Brennan facing the text chain head-on, the messages were likely not a significant shift in Read's favor. Read On The Fox News App "Will the jury be truly shocked by abusive texts from a police officer investigating a person they think is a murderer?" Lu said. "I doubt it." Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, with her Lexus SUV during a drunken argument before leaving him to freeze to death in the front yard of a friend's home in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022. Diamandis testified he has been in a group chat with Proctor for more than a decade and was privy to text messages sent during the investigation into O'Keefe's death. Karen Read Case: Massachusetts Trooper Michael Proctor 'Terminated' From State Police The Massachusetts State Police fired Proctor in March after an internal investigation found he had shared sensitive and confidential information about the case with people outside of law enforcement. Read's first trial revealed inappropriate text messages the lead investigator sent as the case was unfolding. "The messages prove one thing, and that Michael is human – not corrupt, not incompetent in his role as a homicide detective and certainly not unfit to continue to be a Massachusetts State Trooper," his sister, Courtney Proctor, previously said in a statement. On cross-examination, Brennan asked Diamandis to read to the jury Proctor's messages from the day O'Keefe's body was discovered. "She waffled him," Proctor wrote, referring to Read. "I looked at his body in the hospital." Proctor weighed in with his own observations of what may have happened to O'Keefe, initially agreeing with another member of the group chat that the Boston police officer may have been beaten to death. "That's what I initially thought after talking to [a] Canton paramedic," Proctor wrote. "Then I saw the guy." Karen Read Trial: Lead Detective's Wife Slams Suspected Cop Killer's Media Tour As 'Unrelenting Propaganda' Asked for more details, Proctor replied with a message implicating Read, telling his friends, "she hit him with her car." "Gotcha," one pal wrote. "[O'Keefe] was frozen in the driveway, and she didn't see him." "That's another animal we won't be able to prove," Proctor replied. "They arrived at the house together, got into an argument, she was driving and left." Defense Lawyers Urged To Reexamine Convictions Led By Fired Karen Read Detective The text messages raise the possibility that Proctor reached a conclusion on O'Keefe's death before the investigation finished, according to Massachusetts defense attorney Grace Edwards. He sent them around 11 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022 – the day O'keefe had been found. An autopsy wasn't completed until two days later. "These text messages were from the night of John O'Keefe's death, and it appears that Michael Proctor has already come to a conclusion about the case – before the medical examiner's report," Edwards told Fox News Digital. "His conclusion was premature." Proctor's alleged rush to implicate Read could have caused him to ignore evidence pointing to other possibilities surrounding the cause of O'Keefe's death, according to Edwards. "Michael Proctor is not qualified to make a determination about how John O'Keefe died," Edwards said. "That is what we have medical examiners for. Based on the text messages, Michael Proctor had come to that conclusion all on his own within hours of O'Keefe's death." Karen Read Judge Blocks Sandra Birchmore Mentions; Expert Says Cases Should Be Wake-up Call For Police Criminal defense attorney Mark Bederow also pointed to Proctor's professional inability to determine what – or who – killed O'Keefe, and how the immediate assumption could have been detrimental to the investigation. "[Proctor] is not qualified to say that," Bederow told Fox News Digital. "There is an abundance of evidence of Proctor's investigative tunnel vision and bias." As the tone of the texts shifted, Diamandis told the courtroom he did not want to continue reading the messages aloud because they contained "uncomfortable words," prompting Brennan to read them and ask Diamandis to confirm that what he was reading was an accurate depiction of the texts on the chain. GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE True Crime Hub "Yeah, she's a babe," Proctor wrote. "Weird Fall River accent though. No a--." The text chain turned obscene at points, including mocking Read over a purported medical issue. Proctor is subject to witness sequestration and declined to comment. Follow The Fox True Crime Team On X 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."Original article source: Lead detective's text messages cast shadow over Karen Read murder trial
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Confirmation hearings next week for WMass AG's regional chief nominated for judgeship
SPRINGFIELD — There will be two public confirmation hearings next week for the regional chief of the Western Massachusetts division of the Attorney General's Office who was nominated recently for judgeship. Attorney Amy Karangekis, who has served as the regional chief since 2018, was nominated by Gov. Maura Healey for a judgeship on the Massachusetts Superior Court bench earlier this month. On June 2 and 4, there will be public confirmation hearings for Karangekis, the next step of the judicial process before a judge is appointed. The hearings will be chaired by Tara Jacobs, the District 8 representative for the Governor's Council, the body responsible for confirming nominated judges. Jacobs is the council's only member from Western Massachusetts. If confirmed, Karangekis would be the fifth person from Western Massachusetts nominated by the Healey administration to Superior Court. Judges Tracy E. Duncan, Deepika Shukla, Jeffrey Trapani and Charles Groce III were all previously nominated and appointed. Throughout her tenure with the AG's office, Karangekis has overseen staff and attorneys in the criminal and civil divisions, according to a statement. She also has prosecuted human trafficking cases, organized crime, gaming enforcement, and enterprise and major crimes. Last year, Karangekis represented the commonwealth in a case against two massage parlors in Springfield that were involved in a prostitution and money-laundering operation. She was also named as a defendant in a wrongful termination lawsuit against the AG's office. The plaintiff in that case, Bart Q. Hollander, alleged members of the AG's office discriminated against him because of his age. A request to the AG's office to interview Karangekis about her nomination went unanswered. Prior to becoming the regional chief, Karangekis was the deputy regional chief and the managing attorney for the Springfield office, a role she'd had for three years, between 2015 and 2018. She was hired to be an assistant attorney general in 2008. Before joining the Attorney General's Office, Karangekis was a contract attorney for law firms in Massachusetts and Maine. She was also an adjunct professor at the New England School of Law. Karangekis was nominated alongside Judge Asha White, who has served as the first justice of the Woburn District Court since last July. Shots-fired call leads to 2 arrests in Holyoke Muppet-based dollmaker in Wilbraham helps PBS with $10K fundraising effort After four decades, Cornucopia prepares to leave Northampton E-bike rider killed in collision in Springfield Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Yahoo
Holyoke sex offender charged with possession of child pornography
HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – A Holyoke man registered as a Level One sex offender was charged with possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Monday. Driver crashed into wooden sound barrier on I-91 in Enfield Charging documents stated that 34-year-old Justin Ouimette was first convicted of possession of child pornography in the Massachusetts Superior Court in October 2022. In July of 2024, law enforcement conducted a search warrant of Ouimette's home in Holyoke and found over 200 files depicting CSAM. These files on Ouimette's electronic devices allegedly included content of children as young as three years old. Officers also searched Ouimette's Dropbox, allegedly discovering 200 additional CSAM files. Ouimette was issued a probation violation on July 25, 2024. He was sentenced to one year of incarceration, which he is currently serving. For possessing child pornography as a registered sex offender, Ouimette faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to 20 years in prison, as well as five years to life of supervised release. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Yahoo
Perjury at Karen Read trial? Experts explain what ‘false statement' by key witness means
In a dramatic exchange on day 2 of the Karen Read murder trial, the judge turned to a key prosecution witness and asked, 'Did you lie?' The witness looked away from the judge, startled by the question, and replied, 'I did. Not intentionally.' The admission by Kerry Roberts, a close friend of John O'Keefe, came during intense cross-examination by Read's attorney, Alan Jackson, on Wednesday. It also marked a significant difference from the first trial since the defense decided not to cross-examine Roberts last year. Roberts admitted to telling a 'false statement' to a grand jury in 2022 before Read's indictment. Jackson asked if she realized she made the false statement under oath and penalty of perjury, to which she said, 'I did.' The exchange went viral and set social media and YouTube commentators ablaze with questions around whether Roberts admitted to committing perjury during her testimony. A retired Massachusetts judge isn't so convinced. He said the admission amounted to a prior inconsistent statement, but perjury? 'If they prosecuted this person for a prior inconsistent statement, there would have to be hundreds and hundreds of perjury cases,' said Jack Lu, a mediator and adjunct law professor at Boston College who served as a Massachusetts Superior Court judge for 16 years. Perjury charges are 'fairly unusual,' Lu said, and they are difficult to prove. State law makes it a crime for someone to 'wilfully' give false statements in a 'material' matter while under oath. In other words, to make 'intentional, material misstatements … to intentionally lie under oath,' according to Lu. Those misrepresentations must be consequential. In a recent case of convicted perjury, a Worcester County man was found guilty following a three-day trial after prosecutors argued he lied to protect himself and his girlfriend, who was convicted of murder in November 2021. Here's how Wednesday's testimony in the Read trial compares. Roberts was with Read and another witness when they found O'Keefe's unresponsive body in the snow in front of a Canton home on Jan. 29, 2022. The cross-examination by Jackson delved into whether Roberts personally heard Read ask the other witness, Jennifer McCabe, to Google search hypothermia after they discovered O'Keefe in the snow. The Google search will become more significant later in the trial, since the defense contends that McCabe also searched 'ho(w) long to die in cold' at 2:27 a.m. based on cell phone records. Roberts agreed she told a grand jury in April 2022 that she heard Read ask McCabe to make the Google search, but she later told Massachusetts State Police investigators that she did not personally hear that. 'I did not hear her ask that. I was told she (McCabe) was asked that,' Roberts said on Wednesday. Jackson, however, read what Roberts told the grand jury: 'At one point she (Read) asked her (McCabe) to Google hypothermia and how long — Google hypothermia.' Roberts explained she told the grand jury that statement because she wrote out a timeline of events with McCabe before speaking to investigators. Roberts denied that McCabe influenced her testimony, however. Asked whether Wednesday's testimony rose to potential perjury, Lu said, 'No, that is not perjury.' 'I wish the defense all the luck, but that is not an Earth-shattering score,' Lu said. 'If I were analyzing legal merits, I would hope that the defense has more than that.' The retired judge said that Roberts made some mistakes during her testimony, but pointed out that she likely does not have meaningful experience in courtrooms. He said she seemed eager in trying to convict Read, but added that in civil or criminal cases, 'it's a terrible idea' to jointly come up with timeline with another witness. 'She shouldn't have done that,' Lu said. 'If she's losing sleep for claims of perjury, (however) they should sleep well,' since he said there needs to be more than her misstatement for perjury. Another legal expert, Daniel Medwed, is a professor at Northeastern University. He said he could not weigh in on Roberts's specific testimony, but described perjury more broadly. 'Accidents, mistakes, or slip-ups about minor things typically don't rise to the level of perjury,' Medwed said. The Worcester County man convicted on a single count of perjury last year, Jonathan Lind, was convicted of lying to a grand jury investigating the death of Brandon Chicklis. He was sentenced to seven to nine years in prison. Lind's girlfriend, Julia Enright, was convicted of killing Chicklis and disposing of his body after she stabbed him to death in an Ashburnham treehouse in 2018. After killing Chicklis, Enright enlisted Lind's help in disposing of the body. The pair wrapped Chicklis in trash bags and drove his body to Rindge, New Hampshire, where they dumped him in a wooded area along the side of Route 119. Prosecutors said at trial that Lind failed to tell the grand jury about his role in disposing of Chicklis' body. In 1997, Suzanna D'Amour, a woman from South Hadley, was convicted of perjury and sentenced to 10-12 years in prison in connection with a plot she hatched to kill her husband to collect a $3.3 million life insurance policy. The killer, Alex Rankins, was convicted and sentenced to a life sentence. D'Amour was convicted of lying to a grand jury about communications she had with Rankins. 'Knowing that Rankins was the prime suspect in her husband's murder, the defendant lied about the true nature of her relationship with Rankins to hinder the investigation of the murder of her husband,' according to court filings. Lu said the D'Amour is a good example of a perjury case because it describes the 'materiality requirement,' meaning it had meaningful consequences. '(It) gives a good feel for the gravity of the alleged crime to satisfy materiality and constitute perjury,' Lu said. '(It) shows that in D'Amour, there were false statements about communications with a witness made to avoid a prosecution for murder. Yikes.' Read, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death in connection with O'Keefe's death. Norfolk County prosecutors say Read struck O'Keefe with her SUV while driving intoxicated and then fled the scene in January 2022. Read's lawyers contend that her SUV never struck O'Keefe, and on Tuesday, Jackson said, 'There was no collision,' and repeated it three times to emphasize for the jury. Read's trial continues Friday with testimony and a site visit where O'Keefe's body was found. Here's a recap of Thursday's testimony. Karen Read trial recap: Tense text exchange between Read, O'Keefe shown to jury Karen Read trial recap: 'You just left him there?' John O'Keefe's mother testifies on 2nd day New trial, new approach: No 'framed' arguments, but Karen Read defense hammers fired investigator Judge scolds Karen Read's defense for discovery violations on federal crash experts Karen Read trial live updates: Key witness testifies about frantic search for John O'Keefe Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive.
