Mass law enforcement misconduct news, June 1-7

Karen Read reveals two officers’ sickening racist text messages, Hanover cop indicted for fatal crash, and more

If you missed my story about the Brian Peixoto case published on Saturday, please check it out here:

And without further ado, here are the media reports of alleged law enforcement misconduct in Massachusetts that I’ve tracked during the last week.

State and local

The never-ending Karen Read saga

“A Canton police sergeant who worked the initial investigation in Karen Read’s murder case has resigned following allegations that he exchanged eyebrow-raising messages with the case’s lead investigator, former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor. Sgt. Sean Goode submitted his resignation to the Canton Police Department effective [June 2], town officials said in a statement. Goode had been on paid leave since last fall amid an internal affairs investigation into alleged misconduct.” (Boston.com)
“Karen Read, acquitted for the murder of Boston cop John O’Keefe, has filed suit alleging that obscene and racist text messages between two cops who investigated her [former Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor and former Canton Police Sergeant Sean Goode] reveal a “culture of bias and corruption that they built, tolerated, and hid from the public.’ … The examples included in the complaint are uniformly full of racial slurs and crude words for women, making most of them unfit for publication, even in censored form.” (Boston Herald) You can read the complaint with the uncensored text messages here.
“Karen Read says her late boyfriend is ‘the reason we’re doing this’ after she filed a lawsuit against the law enforcement agencies that investigated the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe. Read, 46, spoke June 5 in an exclusive live interview on TODAY about her goals for the lawsuit that in court documents alleges a culture of ‘institutional rot.’” (TODAY)

“Defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio told WBZ-TV that all criminal cases handled by Michael Proctor should be dismissed after a lawsuit, filed by Karen Read’s legal team, allegedly revealed thousands of racist and misogynistic texts written by the disgraced, former Massachusetts State Trooper.” (WBZ)
“Former U.S. Attorney and Suffolk DA Rachael Rollins is urging criminal defendants investigated by disgraced and former cops Michael Proctor and Sean Goode to have their attorneys review their cases.” (Boston Herald)
“The Norfolk County District Attorney’s office pledged [on June 5] to ‘ensure a fair and ethical prosecution of all defendants’ whose cases involved former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, a day after a new lawsuit from Karen Read publicly revealed shocking texts sent by the fired investigator.” (MassLive)
“Candidates for Norfolk district attorney are calling on current office holder Michael W. Morrissey to resign in the wake of bigoted text messages from a former state trooper in his investigative unit and another officer that were revealed [on June 4] in a Karen Read lawsuit.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
“Former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor has filed an emergency protective order, stating that he is unavailable to be questioned as a witness in the wrongful death lawsuit involving Karen Read on [the morning of June 8]. The emergency protective order was filed on [June 5], citing the previously agreed upon date was no longer workable for him.” (Boston 25 News)

More misconduct allegations

“Newly obtained video in a case more than seven years old is raising questions about the way Massachusetts State Police handle excessive force investigations involving one of their own. Former state Trooper Paul Conneely fired his weapon while subduing a suspect in Brookline. An investigation of that shooting determined the actions of Conneely, and five other officers, were justified. However, at the time of that incident in 2020, Conneely was already under investigation for – and ultimately indicted for – allegedly kicking a suspect in the head a year earlier.” (NBC10 Boston)

According to a new inspector general report: “Massachusetts sheriffs failed to report to the state tens of millions of dollars in transactions made through private accounts that were not subject to oversight — one of the numerous factors that prompted a watchdog to warn that the county law enforcement officers’ budgeting is rife with ‘chaos.’” (CommonWealth Beacon)
“A Hanover police officer has been indicted on felony charges after prosecutors say he drunkenly struck and killed a young father, then drove away without stopping. A Plymouth County grand jury returned the indictment against 36-year-old Thomas Hayes on May 28, court records show.” (Daily Voice)
“The trial for a suspended Massachusetts State Police trooper [Terence Kent] accused of pressuring a man to perform a sex act on him in exchange for agreeing not to tow his car was delayed just before it was set to begin after the trooper’s lawyers got information that upended the case. … [Defense attorneys] said prosecutors revealed to them that the man Kent is accused of assaulting was the suspect in an unrelated sexual assault that took place while the case was pending. Prosecutors say Boston Police closed its investigation without bringing charges.” (MassLive)
“Surrounded by a sea of badges and clutching his wife’s hand, Boston Police Officer Nicholas O’Malley stepped into a downtown courtroom [on June 4] and pleaded not guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a carjacking suspect.” (Boston.com)
“A federal judge on [June 5] rejected former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell’s request to toss evidence against him in his trial for the death of Sandra Birchmore. Chief District Judge Denise J. Casper’s decision was recorded in Farwell’s case docket, but she filed the order and memorandum under seal for now.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
“Evidence closed in the double-homicide trial of Christopher Burns Friday, June 5, after lawyers resolved a document issue that had paused the trial and a [Worcester] police sergeant admitted to violating a court order. Sgt. Eric Boss, in a lengthy cross-examination, admitted to speaking to a fellow police officer witness about his testimony the prior day in violation of a court order.” (Telegram & Gazette)

Federal

“A federal judge said [on June 1] she’s inclined to order the regime to reimburse the attorney for an Angolan man wrongfully thrown in jail for 2 1/2 months by ICE, under a federal law that allows for reimbursement in civil cases involving unjustified government legal actions.”(Universal Hub)
The details of this story are horrific: “A Boston federal judge who ‘temporarily’ freed a Honduran woman in February after months of being detained and shipped around New England and Louisiana made the woman’s freedom permanent [on June 3] after ICE proved unable to provide any proof it had ever given her a required ‘custodial’ interview.” (Universal Hub)
“A federal judge [on June 5] ordered the [Trump] regime to pay $14,967.18 to the lawyer of an Ecuadorean woman it kept locked up for months, whom it lied about repeatedly in court and violated her Constitutional right to be treated like a human being instead of being shunted around the country and deprived of medication for debilitating medical problems before he ordered her freed.” (Universal Hub)
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested two men outside Sabores Latinos, an Ecuadorian restaurant on North Main Street in Brockton early on Thursday, June 4. Tony Heredia, a U.S. citizen from Brockton, said he was detained, handcuffed and punched in the face by an agent during the incident.” (Enterprise)

Other News

Controversy over Flock surveillance cameras in Framingham and Agawam

Framingham (MetroWest Daily News):

The city Police Department has until June 30 to decide whether it will renew its contract with Flock Safety, a license plate reader system that many argue works like a type of “Big Brother” by monitoring people and possibly being used by federal immigration officials.

A group of residents calling themselves “Framingham Fights Back” have started a grassroots effort to convince police officials against renewing the contract.

Agawam (Republican):

Somewhere in Agawam, up to six cameras are watching and recording the license plates of every car that drives by.

City councilors have spent the past month trying to find out where that information goes. …

The council’s skepticism comes about nine months after the body approved the funds. Since then, residents have complained, councilors said.

There’s more on Flock from the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism here:

Group warns visitors to be wary of federal immigration officials ahead of World Cup (GBH)

Immigrant groups are warning visitors to be wary ahead of the largest World Cup in FIFA history.

On [June 4], the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition put out a travel advisory warning that travelers at Logan Airport could face entry denial, arrest, and deportation.

Massachusetts House of Representatives passes bill to restrict state auditor’s ability to audit legislature (New Bedford Light)

The Massachusetts House passed a bill [on June 3] that would give the state auditor access to the Legislature’s fiscal records, but not to all information required by the 2024 ballot measure. The bill would also prevent the auditor from taking any audit-related disputes to court.

House leaders have framed the bill as a significant step toward a more transparent state government and a turning point in the long-running audit dispute. Still, Auditor Diana DiZoglio and some advocates say it falls far short of meaningful transparency reform. …

“The People have a co-equal right with the Legislature to create laws, and the courts have a constitutional right to adjudicate laws,” DiZoglio said in a statement provided to The Light. “With this proposed bill, and under the guise of transparency, your state representatives are not only throwing the 72% voter-mandated law in the dumpster — they’re taking a match and lighting that dumpster on fire, violating the People’s constitutional rights and undermining democracy.”

Judge declines to award legal fees to New Bedford Light after it wins public records lawsuit (New Bedford Light)

The City of New Bedford will not be required to pay legal fees to The New Bedford Light’s attorneys for work on The Light’s 2025 lawsuit over withheld public records.

The city issued a press release on [June 1] noting Superior Court Justice Raffi Yessayan’s May 12 decision that denied The Light’s request for the city to pay roughly $116,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.

This ruling is rather unfortunate, to say the least. The New Bedford Light proved that the city illegally withheld public records, and its lawyers deserve to be paid for their work. Rulings like this will discourage attorneys from taking on public records cases in the future, even when it’s clear the records at issue should be released.

See supposedly purged "Justice" Dept. press releases about Jan. 6 rioters. Select Massachusetts to read about the arrests of our local rebels without a clue: lawfaremedia.github.io/jan6-doj-arc... Or see our local putschists in action that day: www.universalhub.com/2025/they-ma...

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— Universal Hub (@universalhub.com) June 3, 2026 at 10:03 AM

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