Lawyers for former Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor wrote in a court filing Friday that he denies participating in a conspiracy to frame Karen Read for the death of her boyfriend and claimed that his actions as a law enforcement officer were protected by qualified immunity.
Proctor is the first of the eight defendants to respond to the lawsuit. Read has sued over supposed civil rights violations during the criminal investigation and prosecutions of her. The case is pending in federal court for the District of Massachusetts.
Along with Proctor, Read has sued two of his bosses, Yuriy Bukhenik and Brian Tully, as well as five other people who testified against her: Brian and Nicole Albert, Jennifer and Matt McCabe and Brian Higgins. All five were with Read and her boyfriend, Boston Police officer John O’Keefe, in the hours leading up to his death…