Massachusetts State Police professionalism in the crosshairs in Karen Read retrial

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on May 12, 2025

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DEDHAM, Mass. — Fired Karen Read investigator Michael Proctor’s supervisor rated his professionalism a four out of five in a quarterly review even after knowing Proctor called Read a “vile” name and joked about searching for nudes on her phone.

“I believe that as a U.S. citizen he has the right to comment. That’s his First Amendment right. We uphold the Constitution and it’s unfortunate, unprofessional what he said in the private text message communication,” Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik testified Monday, his third and final day on the stand in Read’s retrial.

But defense attorney Alan Jackson countered that it was not a “private text message communication” but a text thread that included only fellow law enforcement officers including Bukhenik, who was Proctor’s own supervisor, as well as Bukhenik’s superior, Lt. John Fanning.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, faces charges including second-degree murder in the death of John O’Keefe, a Boston Police officer she had dated for roughly two years at the time of his death on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors say that Read struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV sometime after midnight and left him to freeze and die on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton.

The message thread began with another member of the group texting a still image of Read defense attorney David Yannetti from a Fox News appearance from years ago — so long ago that his co-panelist is current U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi back when she was a line prosecutor in Florida.

“Funny, I’m going through his retarded client’s phone,” Proctor wrote of Yannetti, a comment that Bukhenik responded to with a virtual “thumbs up.” Proctor follow that message up with “I hate that man, I truly hate him.”

“He put it in writing and you liked it, right?” Jackson asked.

But Bukhenik denied that’s what his own action meant: “I acknowledged the message. I did not see the vile term.”

The lack of professionalism on the part of these investigators dominated the first hour of cross-examination. Jackson hammered the issues repeatedly enough to warrant a “let’s move on” from Judge Beverly J. Cannone.

While the majority of the cross has been designed to make Proctor — who Jackson calls the “lead investigator” and who Bukhenik called “a subordinate and the case officer” — look bad, it is Bukhenik’s oversight of Proctor that is increasingly in the crosshairs.

Jackson established that Bukhenik’s quarterly performance of Proctor following these text messages rated the junior detective a four out of five for demeanor and professionalism.

“You wrote in that same review that ‘He handled himself and all of the case with utmost professionalism … and with strict integrity,’” Jackson said, to which Bukhenik confirmed: “That sounds very accurate.”

“Do you believe that text message shows integrity?” Jackson asked.

“That text message does not show integrity,” Bukhenik responded.

“Do you believe that text message shows honor?” Jackson asked.

“That text message does not show honor,” Bukhenik responded.

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