Embattled Trooper Michael Proctor not more likely to testify in Brian Walshe homicide case, prosecutor says

The long-dormant homicide case in opposition to Cohasset’s Brian Walshe will sooner or later go to trial possible with out one more and more recognizable determine: Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor.

“As of the time of this filing, the Commonwealth does not intend to call Michael Proctor to testify in this matter,” Norfolk Assistant District Lawyer Greg Connor states in a discover filed with the court docket.

Proctor was considered one of two designated case officers in investigating the disappearance and homicide of Ana Walshe in Cohasset in January 2023. It’s the identical function he had within the investigation of the murder of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe in Canton a yr earlier.

O’Keefe’s girlfriend Karen Learn, a university lecturer and monetary analyst from Mansfield, was charged with O’Keefe’s homicide.

Proctor grew to become a humiliation to the Massachusetts State Police and to prosecutors within the Learn case when he admitted to significantly inappropriate conduct — together with describing Learn, the girlfriend and suspect in O’Keefe’s demise, in textual content messages as a “whack job,” “a babe” who had “no (butt).” He additionally texted his sister that “hopefully (Read) kills herself.”

Hours after the Learn homicide trial led to mistrial, the MSP introduced it had pulled Proctor off responsibility. He would quickly be suspended with out pay. Learn is scheduled to be retried in January.

Then on Friday, prosecutors introduced throughout a number of instances he was concerned in as an investigator that the Norfolk DA’s workplace had an extraction of Proctor’s work cellphone and his cloud storage account and that the knowledge they contained, if subpoenaed, might have critical penalties to quite a few outdoors instances, because the Herald beforehand reported.

The model of the discover filed within the Walshe case indicated that prosecutors don’t have any intention of calling Proctor — the “case officer,” or officer who organizes the investigation — to the stand. He served on this capability alongside Cohasset PD Sgt. Harrison Schmidt, whose personal participation in a future Walshe trial was not commented on within the disclosure, however who doesn’t have identified controversy surrounding him.

“Trooper Proctor testified in (the Read case) on June 10 and 12, 2024, and was subject to cross-examination relating to alleged conflicts of interest, communications with non-involved civilian persons regarding the Read case, and statements regarding the defendant from which defense counsel argued a bias could be found,” prosecutor Connor wrote within the discover.

Brian Walshe

Brian Walshe, husband to Ana Walshe, was initially stated to be cooperating effectively with the police relating to her disappearance on Jan. 1, 2023, however that rapidly modified and by mid-January he was arrested. He was indicted on March 30, 2023, on costs together with murdering his spouse of their Cohasset residence and pleaded not responsible to the fees the next month throughout his arraignment earlier than Norfolk Superior Court docket Decide Beverly J. Cannone — the identical decide within the Learn matter.

The Walshe case was purple scorching even earlier than his indictment, as the general public realized of alleged Google searches relating to physique disposal and cleansing up proof after they had been learn in court docket by the prosecutor at his decrease court docket arraignment. These searches had been preceded by others together with, which states are finest for males to divorce in. Prosecutors say Brian Walshe suspected his spouse of having an affair.

The case cooled after that preliminary burst of exercise.  Brian Walshe was discovered indigent in December and his non-public lawyer Tracy Miner, who had represented him in a federal artwork fraud case he misplaced and is now interesting, withdrew. The court docket appointed lawyer Larry Tipton as Walshe’s new lawyer. Walshe final appeared in court docket for a quick listening to in the identical room because the Learn homicide trial simply hours after the protection rested their case.

Whereas each the Learn case and the Walshe case had been scorching, the curiosity ranges within the time since are a lot completely different. A easy look on the case dockets, that are the sheets monitoring filings and occasions in every case, present the distinction: 389 whole entries in Learn in comparison with 17 in Walshe, together with the Friday filings in every.

Initially Revealed: September 10, 2024 at 5:20 p.m.