Judge scolds attorneys as sealed medical leak surfaces

Judge pauses – In Karen Read’s wrongful death case, Judge Beverly Gildea paused all discovery after what he described as sealed medical information being posted publicly shortly after it was filed and emailed to attorneys. At Wednesday’s hearing in Plymouth, he sharply criti

The judge didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to.

In Plymouth, Judge Beverly Gildea looked out at a courtroom filled with more than 20 attorneys who had filed papers denying a leak—and then he told them, plainly, that court orders had still been violated.

The backdrop was Karen Read’s long legal fight after her former boyfriend. former Boston police officer John O’Keefe. died in January 2022. Read was accused of killing him by hitting him with her car. She alleged a law enforcement cover-up and was acquitted in a second criminal trial last year after the first jury deadlocked.

Now. Read faces a wrongful death lawsuit brought by O’Keefe’s family. one of several ongoing civil proceedings in the sprawling case that has drawn a large following on social media and elsewhere. Dozens of Read’s supporters showed up for Wednesday’s hearing. Read was there as well, accompanied by her parents.

What pushed the hearing from ordinary procedure into something more severe was an apparent breach tied to sealed medical records.

On June 8, Proctor filed an emergency motion to delay his deposition in the wrongful death matter, citing “medical documentation.” He also requested an impoundment order to keep those records sealed, and the court granted it.

About 30 minutes after the “sensitive and private medical” material was filed and emailed to the attorneys on June 8, similar information appeared on an X account, Gildea said.

Gildea did not elaborate on the details of the leak itself or on what exactly had been shared. But he was clear about the breach: “Orders of the court have been violated, either directly, or at the very least, in spirit,” he said.

In explaining why he had previously granted the impoundment request, Gildea cited a “legitimate expectation of privacy.”

After the apparent leak, he issued an order pausing all discovery in the case involving Proctor. He threatened to make that pause permanent if the attorneys cannot follow the rules.

For the judge, the problem wasn’t only about one sealed document. It was about what the case’s modern, public attention has turned into.

Earlier in the hearing. he said he called the in-person session to convey “the seriousness of the matter at hand” — in the “quiet solemnity of the courtroom.” He decried the impacts of social media on the judicial process. describing a modern environment in which “the courtroom has become content and the law has become a spectacle.”.

The rebuke landed with particular force on the attorneys in attendance, especially because the sealed information became public “somehow,” even after the lawyers filed court papers denying a leak, Gildea noted.

He also made clear he was not going to excuse anyone’s conduct.

“All people deserve fair and equal treatment in our system of justice, regardless of any personal characteristic, as abhorrent as some of them may be,” he said.

The discovery pause, however, was not the only procedural consequence. Gildea directed the parties involved to propose an agreement to govern the process moving forward. He warned that if the agreement is not followed, it could lead to a contempt finding or other sanctions.

He connected the seriousness of the moment to the wider stakes, too—framing the rules of the court as something meant to serve the justice system rather than be used as a weapon.

Gildea called for assurance that the ongoing discovery process will “serve justice — and not any desire to weaponize the rules for pettiness and profit.”

Before leaving the bench, he also referenced the upcoming July 4 holiday and the 250th anniversary of America’s democratic system of governance, saying: “May it continue to succeed, with all of us working to maintain the rule of law.”

Read is not the only person in the spotlight here. Proctor. who served as the lead investigator in Read’s criminal case. was fired from the Massachusetts State Police for misconduct after her first trial. That firing followed when he was forced to share a series of crude and misogynistic comments he made.

Since then, even more racist and bigoted messages have surfaced in court papers, raising bigger questions about other criminal investigations he touched.

Proctor took the stand to testify on June 10, 2024, during Karen Read’s first murder trial.

In the wrongful death case, Proctor is not a defendant—but his deposition schedule and discovery obligations still put him at the center of the dispute.

The timing of his rescheduling request is part of the tension in the courtroom record. The emergency motion to delay his deposition was filed just one day after Read filed another lawsuit against State Police and the Town of Canton. That complaint alleged they hired corrupt and biased police officers. pointing to a host of hateful messages recovered from Proctor’s personal phone.

In those communications, both Proctor and former Canton police sergeant Sean Goode expressed bigoted views of women, Jewish people, the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized groups.

But Proctor’s lawyers did not cite the new litigation in the rescheduling motion. The request was ultimately denied, yet it triggered impoundment orders that led to Wednesday’s hearing.

When the judge finished speaking, he left the bench. One of Read’s attorneys, Alan Jackson, then requested an opportunity to be heard. The clerk agreed to ask, but the resulting answer was “no.”

What remains now is the question that hung in the courtroom after the discovery pause: whether the parties can regain control of a process that has repeatedly collided with public attention.

The wrongful death case itself continues to sit on a knife edge of procedure and trust—between sealed records meant to protect privacy and the speed with which those protections appear to be broken.

(Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Lea Skene can be reached at lea.skene@globe.com. Follow her on X @lea_skene.)

Karen Read John O'Keefe wrongful death lawsuit Beverly Gildea Michael Proctor sealed medical records discovery pause Plymouth hearing impoundment order social media leak