CANTON, Mass. — The Town of Canton issued a lengthy statement on Friday after its police department, along with the Massachusetts State Police, was named in a new lawsuit filed by Karen Read that alleges a system-wide failure of law enforcement led to her wrongful prosecution over three years.
[ New police texts in Karen Read lawsuit are ‘objectively terrible,’ ‘deeply concerning,’ expert says ]
The 87-page lawsuit filed Thursday alleges negligence, civil conspiracy, and misconduct tied to the investigation into the death of Read’s Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe. Her attorneys claim investigators deliberately focused on Read from the start while ignoring other possible suspects in a “biased and predetermined” case against her.
“This case is about two institutions — the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department — and a culture of bias and corruption that they built, tolerated, and hid from the public for years," Read’s attorneys said in a statement.
The civil suit specifically names fired Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor and newly resigned Canton Police Sergeant Sean Goode, accusing both men of misconduct and describing them as “misogynist bigots.”
“Michael Proctor and Sean Goode did not slip through the cracks; they are emblematic of the failure to responsibly exercise the trust and faith the public puts in these institutions,” Read’s attorneys said. “Proctor and Goode were unfit for positions of public trust, and yet they were handed badges, promotions, and ultimately control of homicide investigations despite harboring deep-seated and abhorrent anti-woman, racist, antisemitic, and homophobic ideologies for more than a decade.”
At the center of the suit is a series of offensive text messages exchanged between Proctor and Goode that investigators obtained. Some of those messages, which are not directly tied to the Read case, include racist, misogynistic, and antisemitic language. In one exchange, Proctor allegedly made hateful remarks, while in another, he referenced delaying response to an incident involving a racial slur.
Goode, who responded to the scene of O’Keefe’s death, submitted his resignation from the Canton Police Department this week. He also testified during Read’s first trial. He was suspended from the department in October 2025 and placed on leave shortly after investigators uncovered the additional troubling text messages on Proctor’s phone.
“The internal affairs investigation involving Sgt. Sean Goode was initiated after the Town became aware of inappropriate text messages through the District Attorney’s Office on Oct. 24, 2025. Upon learning of the messages, the Town placed Sgt. Goode on administrative leave, opened an internal affairs investigation, and retained an outside investigator,” the Town of Canton said in a statement.
The Town of Canton also called the messages revealed in Read’s lawsuit “abhorrent, deeply offensive, hateful.”
The town’s full statement reads as follows:
“The internal affairs investigation involving Sgt. Sean Goode was initiated after the Town became aware of inappropriate text messages through the District Attorney’s Office on Oct. 24, 2025. Upon learning of the messages, the Town placed Sgt. Goode on administrative leave, opened an internal affairs investigation, and retained an outside investigator. However, the Town did not and still does not possess the messages themselves. The Town’s outside investigator was granted access to the messages in December 2025, subject to a court-issued protective order that strictly restricted dissemination of the messages.
The outside investigator was required to review more than 200,000 voice notes and text messages dating back to 2013. As part of the internal affairs process, Sgt. Goode’s union counsel was also permitted to review the messages in full. The scope of that review, combined with the limitations imposed by the protective order, made the process time-intensive.
Sgt. Goode was subsequently scheduled for an internal affairs interview but refused to appear. The Town then initiated termination proceedings and placed the appointment of a hearing officer on the June 2, 2026, Select Board meeting agenda. However, Sgt. Goode tendered his resignation on May 29, 2026, effective June 2, before those proceedings could be completed.
Under Massachusetts Civil Service law, the Town was required to conduct a full adjudicatory hearing before terminating Sgt. Goode. His resignation occurred before that hearing could take place.
The internal affairs report will be released when finalized and will be a public record, subject to legally required redactions. The report will also be provided to the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission.
Claims that the Town knowingly ignored misconduct or failed to take these allegations seriously are inconsistent with the actions taken. Upon learning of the allegations, the Town promptly removed Sgt. Goode from the workplace, retained an independent investigator, and pursued appropriate personnel action based on the information available throughout the investigative process.
The messages are abhorrent, deeply offensive, hateful, and do not reflect the values of the Canton Police Department or its members. The men and women of the Canton Police Department are entrusted with serving every member of the community fairly, professionally, and with respect. Preserving that trust requires accountability, transparency, and adherence to the highest standards of public service.
The Town of Canton wants the community to know that allegations involving conduct that calls into question the professionalism, integrity, or impartiality of a police officer are taken seriously and addressed in accordance with applicable law and POST requirements.”
Proctor, who served as the lead investigator in the Read murder case, was fired from his role within the state police in March 2025. He was relieved of his duty without pay after a mistrial was declared in Read’s first trial, and his last day with the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office followed soon thereafter.
Proctor came under fire for a series of disparaging texts he sent about Read, which he read aloud in court during her first trial. Proctor admitted on the stand that the texts were “unprofessional.” He called Read things like a “whack job” and other derogatory words. He also talked about her medical issues and wrote, “No nudes so far,” while going through her phone.
Read, 46, was previously charged with second-degree murder after prosecutors alleged she backed over O’Keefe with her SUV and left him for dead during a snowstorm in Canton in January 2022. She was ultimately acquitted in June 2025 after a mistrial was declared in her first trial the year prior.
In a statement, Massachusetts State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble called the lawsuit “disturbing,” noting the “racist, sexist, and abhorrent comments absolutely do not reflect the values of the Massachusetts State Police.”
Read currently faces a wrongful death civil lawsuit filed by John O’Keefe’s family. She has also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against multiple people who testified against her in her two murder trials.
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