Fired Karen Learn investigator Michael Proctor’s supervisor rated his professionalism a 4 out of 5 in a quarterly assessment — even after understanding Proctor referred to as Learn a “vile” identify and joked about trying to find nudes on her cellphone.
“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 ultimate day on the stand in Learn’s retrial.
However protection lawyer Alan Jackson countered that it was not a “private text message communication” however a textual content thread that included solely fellow regulation enforcement officers together with Bukhenik, who was Proctor’s personal supervisor, in addition to Bukhenik’s superior, Lt. John Fanning.
Learn, 45, of Mansfield, faces fees together with second-degree homicide within the demise of John O’Keefe, a Boston Police officer who she had dated for roughly two years on the time of his demise on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors say that Learn struck O’Keefe along with her Lexus SUV someday after midnight and left him to freeze and die on the entrance garden of 34 Fairview Highway in Canton.
The message thread started with one other member of the group texting a nonetheless picture of Learn protection lawyer David Yannetti from a Fox Information look from years in the past — so way back that his co-panelist is present U.S. Lawyer Common Pam Bondi again when she was a line prosecutor in Florida.
“Funny, I’m going through his retarded client’s phone,” Proctor wrote of Yannetti, a remark that Bukhenik responded to with a digital “thumbs up.” Proctor comply with that message up with “I hate that man, I truly hate him.”
“He put it in writing and you liked it, right?” Jackson requested.
However Bukhenik denied that’s what his personal motion meant: “I acknowledged the message. I did not see the vile term.”
The shortage of professionalism on the a part of these investigators dominated the primary hour of cross examination. Jackson hammered the problems repeatedly sufficient to warrant a “let’s move on” from Decide Beverly J. Cannone.
Whereas the vast majority of the cross has been designed to make Proctor — who Jackson calls the “lead investigator” and who Bukhenik referred to as “a subordinate and the case officer” — look dangerous, it’s Bukhenik’s oversight of Proctor that’s more and more within the crosshairs.
Jackson established that Bukhenik’s quarterly efficiency of Proctor following these textual content messages rated the junior detective a 4 out of 5 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 stated, to which Bukhenik confirmed: “That sounds very accurate.”
“Do you believe that text message shows integrity?” Jackson requested.
“That text message does not show integrity,” Bukhenik responded.
“Do you believe that text message shows honor?” Jackson requested.
“That text message does not show honor,” Bukhenik responded.
Proof reexamined
Jurors watched surveillance video from the Canton Police Division’s sallyport storage. After establishing that the video was inverted, or “a mirror image,” as Bukhenik put it, as offered, Jackson had the video put into its proper state. In it, jurors watched a person that Bukhenik recognized as Proctor walked to and stayed close to the passenger-side taillight of the SUV.
Jackson requested if this occurred earlier than the MSP SERT group discovered items of taillight at 34 Fairview Highway — a query thread borne out of the protection’s concept that proof was planted there. Bukhenik stated he couldn’t be certain with out taking a look at time stamps. He additionally stated that he and Proctor stayed on the police division through the search and he by no means noticed Proctor depart.
Below redirect, particular prosecutor Hank Brennan had Bukhenik convey out the denims O’Keefe was sporting on the time of his demise. The denims had inexperienced staining across the “left glute,” which Bukhenik stated prompt that O’Keefe “impacted the grass area” there when thrown by a automobile strike.
The protection countered that the staining may additionally symbolize being dragged by others throughout the grass to that space. Bukhenik stated that “common sense” dictates that would not be so as a result of “both buttocks would be engaged in contact with the ground while being dragged.”
Pat Greenhouse/ Pool photograph
Homicide defendant Karen Learn in courtroom Monday along with her protection attorneys Alan Jackson, left, and David Yannetti. (Pat Greenhouse/ Pool photograph)
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