Almost a 12 months after she was acquitted of killing her boyfriend, Karen Learn informed ABC Information she is on a “campaign” to show corruption, bigotry and misogyny in two Massachusetts police departments that she claims framed her for homicide.
“I’ve to make some good come of the ache,” Learn mentioned. “I’ve realized one thing in regards to the underbelly of those establishments that I really feel I’ve to do one thing with, I’ve to make one thing good come of this.”
Learn, 46, was discovered not responsible final June of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe. Prosecutors accused her of hitting O’Keefe together with her automotive outdoors of one other officer’s house and leaving him to die in a blizzard in January 2022. She argued that the collision by no means occurred.
Learn filed a new lawsuit on Thursday accusing the Massachusetts State Police and the City of Canton Police Division of hiring “virulent bigots,” naming former Massachusetts Police Officer Michael Proctor and former Canton Police Officer Sean Goode who had lead roles within the case.
The lawsuit contains beforehand unseen textual content messages allegedly from Proctor and Goode disparaging girls, Black Individuals, Asian Individuals, Jews, Hispanics, Arabs and the LGBTQ neighborhood.
Karen Learn interviews with “20/20” from the lodge room the place she was making ready for her trial.
ABC Information
“America sucks…Hitler was actually on to one thing, then the [expletive] US needed to step in and spoil it,” one textual content message allegedly from Proctor mentioned, in line with the lawsuit.
The lawsuit additionally quoted Proctor allegedly describing a lady as an “absolute pig” and utilizing a wide range of different vulgar phrases.
In different textual content messages, Goode allegedly makes use of racial and antisemitic slurs and makes sexualized and dehumanizing feedback about Learn.
“The messages present who he’s as a human being,” Learn mentioned within the interview referencing Proctor’s textual content messages. “It is not simply phrases, it is his mind-set, it is how he appears to be like on the world, it is how he appears to be like at people who find themselves not like him, who aren’t white American males, that individual of their core can not logically objectively examine somebody.”
In an announcement to ABC Information, an legal professional for Proctor pushed again towards the allegations within the lawsuit saying, “The give attention to something aside from Ms. Learn’s personal conduct on the evening Officer O’Keefe was killed is as telling as it’s predictable.”
“Occasions in Mr. Proctor’s private life have been reviewed, advert nauseum, by a grand jury, the District Lawyer and the Massachusetts State Police. It’s a matter of undisputed proven fact that something Mr. Proctor did or mentioned in his private life, years earlier than Officer O’Keefe was killed, had no bearing by any means on the investigation of Karen Learn,” Matthew Hamel, Proctor’s legal professional within the Learn case, informed ABC Information.
The homicide retrial of Karen Learn continues in Norfolk Superior Courtroom, in Dedham, MA., on June 9, 2025.
Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Photographs, FILE
Proctor was fired from the Massachusetts State Police after comparable vulgar textual content messages between him and Goode got here to mild.
Referencing textual content messages beforehand launched that led to his firing, Proctor mentioned he developed sturdy detrimental emotions about Learn “because the case went on,” in a June 2025 interview with ABC Information. He mentioned he “should not have” expressed his feelings in that means and shouldn’t have texted his pals in regards to the case, calling the texts “regrettable.”
Proctor denied fabricating proof within the interview with ABC Information, saying “there isn’t any proof of it.” He mentioned the textual content messages “do not outline him as an individual.”
Goode mentioned throughout his testimony on the trial that he stood by his investigation within the case.
After the lawsuit was introduced, Massachusetts State Police known as the messages “disturbing” in an announcement Thursday.
“These disturbing messages are totally inconsistent with any fundamental commonplace of decency and positively with the expectations of a Massachusetts State Trooper. These racist, sexist and abhorrent feedback completely don’t mirror the values of the Massachusetts State Police and aren’t tolerated inside our ranks. They underscore and totally assist my choice to terminate Michael Proctor,” state police Col. Geoffrey Noble mentioned in an announcement to ABC Information.
The city of Canton mentioned it put Goode on administrative depart and launched an inside investigation, retaining an outdoor investigator, after the district legal professional’s workplace knowledgeable the city in October 2025 of inappropriate textual content messages he and Proctor allegedly despatched one another.
“Claims that the City knowingly ignored misconduct or didn’t take these allegations significantly are inconsistent with the actions taken. Upon studying of the allegations, the City promptly eliminated Sgt. Goode from the office, retained an impartial investigator, and pursued acceptable personnel motion primarily based on the data obtainable all through the investigative course of,” the city mentioned in an announcement Friday.
“The messages are abhorrent, deeply offensive, hateful, and don’t mirror the values of the Canton Police Division or its members. The women and men of the Canton Police Division are entrusted with serving each member of the neighborhood pretty, professionally, and with respect,” the city mentioned.
The city additionally mentioned it initiated termination proceedings for Goode and set a listening to for June 2, however Goode tendered his resignation on Could 29, efficient June 2, earlier than these proceedings could possibly be accomplished.
On this June 10, 2024, file photograph, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor takes the stand throughout Karen Learn’s homicide trial at Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, MA.
Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Photographs, FILE
“The inner affairs report will probably be launched when finalized and will probably be a public document, topic to legally required redactions. The report will even be supplied to the Peace Officer Requirements and Coaching (POST) Fee,” the city mentioned.
Learn’s lawsuit claims Proctor and Goode have “deeply held biases,” significantly towards girls, that drove them to border her for O’Keefe’s homicide. One among her attorneys, Charles Waters, claims Learn’s authorized crew uncovered 13,000 “messages of bias.”
“It implies that there was a consolation degree inside the ranks of the Massachusetts State Police, inside the ranks of the Canton police division that can’t stand. That is what we wish to take down,” mentioned Alan Jackson, one other of Learn’s attorneys.
Within the interview with ABC Information, Learn addressed those that disagreed with the jury’s verdict and consider she obtained away with homicide.
“I’ve not met a kind of folks. I do not doubt that they exist,” Learn mentioned. “I’ve simply been met with an awesome, to the purpose that generally I do not even wish to exit as a result of the assist is fixed, and it tells me that folks, particularly girls, establish with what they’ve seen me undergo.”
Goode didn’t instantly reply to ABC Information’ request for remark.
