Letter appears to confirm end of federal investigation tied to Karen Read case
A letter from federal prosecutors filed in a number of state court cases on Tuesday appears to confirm that a federal investigation linked to the Karen Read case has concluded.
The Aug. 5 letter is authored by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Ferguson and represents the first publicly released communication from the federal government since state prosecutors announced the close of the federal investigation.
Ferguson, writing to First Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Lisa Beatty, says her office's investigation "pertained to the circumstances underlying the Read matter."
Federal prosecutors have never publicly confirmed the investigation's existence, and it's not clear who, if anyone, was the target of the investigation. But Ferguson's letter, and other correspondence between state and federal prosecutors, verified that the federal government had collected evidence connected to the Read case.
In the context of the Read case, the feds turned over 3,000-plus pages of evidence, including more than 100 pages of communications from former Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor. Defense attorneys in several cases investigated by Proctor now have access to those communications and have been lobbying the district attorney's office to review the remaining material for possible evidence related to their cases.
But Ferguson indicated no such evidence existed.
"There is no reason why the non-Proctor records within the Confidential Materials would be relevant to the Other Matters, given the scope of my Office's investigation," Ferguson wrote. "As mentioned previously, my Office's investigation focused on the circumstances underlying the Read matter, and the Confidential Materials included only those materials from that investigation that were highly relevant to that matter."
Since Ferguson's letter, federal prosecutors have softened their position and allowed state prosecutors to disclose materials generated in the Read investigation not related to a grand jury convened by the feds. State prosecutors will be allowed to review the grand jury materials, but not turn over evidence relevant to other cases they may find.
Hank Brennan, the special prosecutor assigned to the Read case, said in open court in early March that federal prosecutors had closed the investigation . No indictments were ever filed in connection with the Read case in federal court.
"They (the federal government) made clear that I could inform the court, there is no longer any federal investigation," Brennan said on March 4. "It is closed. It is over."
Alan Jackson, Read's lead defense attorney, has disputed that representation.
"I've never heard of such a thing," he said during an appearance on The Greg Hill Show . "As a prosecutor, especially a federal prosecutor, you don't look at the target, call the target, and say, 'we're done.'"
"You don't 'close investigations,'" Jackson continued.
The district attorney's office has disputed that it was ever the target of an investigation, despite representations from Read's lawyers.
Ferguson's letter refers questions to Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian LaMacchia , the chief of the Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit. That unit works to "enforce federal regulatory requirements and to recover damages against those who submit false claims or commit fraud against the government," according to the U.S. Attorney's office .
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