Mass. State Police lieutenant who oversaw Karen Read investigation retires

DEDHAM, Mass. — The Massachusetts State Police lieutenant who oversaw the Norfolk County detective unit that was assigned to investigate the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe is no longer on the job.

According to The Boston Globe, Lt. Brian Tully retired last week.

During Karen Read’s first trial in 2024, Tully was asked about disparaging messages fellow trooper Michael Proctor sent about Read. Tully testified that he was not on the chain of offensive texts read in court, and said he immediately reported Proctor’s texts to state police command when he learned of them.

Tully was later transferred out of the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office and was the subject of an internal affairs investigation. He was ultimately stripped of six personal days for failing to supervise members involved in inappropriate texts regarding the homicide case.

Read was acquitted of murder and manslaughter last summer after a hung jury failed to reach a verdict in her first trial.

She is now suing Tully in a sweeping lawsuit, along with several others connected to the investigation and prosecution.

Read’s 46-page complaint accuses multiple Massachusetts State Police troopers and several Canton residents of conspiring to frame her for a crime she says she did not commit. Her attorneys, in the suit, claim “gross misconduct” shielded O’Keefe’s real killer.

Tully‘s most recent post was part of the state police field services division, the Boston Herald reported.

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