DEDHAM, Mass. — Karen Read wants access to “staggeringly” offensive texts between disgraced former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor — who investigated her for murder — and Canton Police Sgt. Sean Goode.

That is to support her lawsuit against the MSP and one she will be filing “in the coming weeks,” according to her attorney, against the town of Canton.

“These communications are not private, they’re not personal, they’re not confidential, and they’re not privileged,” Read attorney Aaron Rosenberg said. “But what they are is staggeringly anti-woman, racist, homophobic, antisemitic, among other things.

“And that description applies to messages both from Mr. Proctor and Sgt. Goode of the Canton Police Department,” Rosenberg continued. “So it’s understandable why Mr. Proctor wants to keep that secret, but he has no right or basis to do so.”

Proctor was an MSP detective assigned to Norfolk County whose career ended when his untoward behavior during his investigation into Read for the murder of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022. That behavior surfaced during the first of Read’s two trials, leading first to Proctor’s removal from duty and ultimately his firing. Read was acquitted of O’Keefe’s murder last summer.

The hearing on Thursday at Norfolk Superior Court was a bit of a free-for-all, as attorneys representing various interests all weighed in on the requests for information. Defense attorneys for other clients investigated by Proctor say that his phone could reveal bias that affects their own cases.

“Why are we protecting him? Why’s the commonwealth protecting him? Why was anyone protecting him?” defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio, who represents two clients investigated by Proctor, said, adding that he has demonstrated bias not only against women but against “black and brown people.”

“It’s who this man is. He’s really a racist person from the beginning. Some of the things that he’s said,” Scapicchio continued, “include ‘it’s kill an n-word in Canton day.’ This is what we’re dealing with here, judge.

Likewise, defense attorney Joseph Krowski Jr. said that his client “does not object to the free flow of information, any and all relevant information being turned over to Ms. Read’s counsel” and that his client “will benefit from the more information that is shared related to Trooper Proctor and the contents of his cellphone.”

Krowski said that the material he had seen from Proctor’s phone “is breathtaking, upsetting, and unnerving.”

A prosecutor said that “The commonwealth has no interest in protecting former trooper Proctor’s statements that are contained on these phones and we have engaged in providing expedient discovery,” and that protective orders were made out of necessity to provide defense attorneys with needed information while still protecting innocent people included in the text message threads.

Proctor’s attorney, Thomas DiGangi, said that Proctor’s phone data lacked relevance to Read’s claims of negligent hiring and supervision at the MSP since what is on Proctor’s personal phone has no bearing on that.

“This is nothing but a fishing expedition, your honor, and I think it should stop here,” DiGangi said.

Judge Michael P. Doolin said he would take the arguments under advisement.

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