Brian Walshe, the Cohasset, Massachusetts, man accused of killing his wife, Ana, and dismembering her body in 2023, appeared in court on Wednesday as his lawyers question the integrity of Norfolk County's murder investigations.
Walshe looked neat as he was led into Norfolk Superior Court, dressed in a suit and restrained by handcuffs. Judge Beverly Cannone presided over the hearing, which was brief and continued to Dec. 2 to give the parties additional time to review a large amount of discovery.
Walshe's defense team, headed by established Massachusetts attorney Larry Tipton, filed a motion requesting a large amount of documents pertaining to Norfolk County law enforcement, in response to the scandals that have rocked the county recently: the Karen Read murder trial and the alleged killing of Sandra Birchmore by a Stoughton detective.
In the filing, Walshe's lawyers request from the Commonwealth data from Trooper Michael Proctor's cell phone — who was the lead investigator in both the Read and Walshe cases — correspondence between the Department of Justice and the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office regarding the death of John O'Keefe, records regarding Proctor's performance, correspondence between federal and local authorities regarding the Birchmore investigation, among many other items.
State prosecutors responded to the Sept. 24 motion on Wednesday, apparently hours before Walshe's hearing, responding to each item requested by the defense. The Commonwealth objected to many of the requests.
In the request, Walshe's lawyers said they are not alleging wrongdoing by the Norfolk DA's office. They instead are addressing "serious questions about the conduct, decisions and bias in its investigations," the motion said.
"There exists a lack of supervision, that biased decisions, conclusions and opinions are allowed to flourish and that these biases infect the myriad of decisions made during the investigation and prosecutions handled by these law enforcement personnel and the DA," the motion said, citing "evolving factual record" about Proctor.
The motion makes special note that Proctor and his colleagues were investigating the Walshe murder while the Read investigation was ongoing.
Proctor has been suspended without pay from Massachusetts State Police amid the continuing fallout from the Read trial, where he admitted to unprofessional behavior that included disparaging comments about Read and her medical condition.
NBC10 Boston has requested a comment from the Norfolk DA's office regarding the statements made in this defense motion.
The question of whether to release those records has now become part of the ongoing Read case, tied to Proctor's testimony as the lead investigator during the first trial.
In a filing last month, the Norfolk DA said they were provided with the data from Proctor's work cell phone in August, as well as content from his work cloud account in September. However despite heightened public interest in the case, they say the release of the information as discovery in the Read case could "jeopardize open investigations, compromise the privacy and safety of civilians, and thus be contrary to the interests of justice."
