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Turtleboy blogger encouraged ‘minions’ to intimidate witnesses in Karen Read case, prosecutor says
A superior court judge released Aidan Kearney on personal recognizance and declined to impose any new conditions of his release.
Turtleboy blogger Aidan Kearney pleaded not guilty to 16 criminal charges Friday as prosecutors accused him of encouraging his “minions” to harass witnesses in the Karen Read murder case.
The Holden resident was ultimately released on personal recognizance — without any of the conditions of release that previously barred him from contacting or coming near several witnesses in the case against Read.
Kearney’s arraignment in Norfolk Superior Court followed his indictment earlier this week on charges of witness intimidation, picketing witnesses, and conspiracy to intimidate witnesses. He was previously arrested and charged in Stoughton District Court in October in connection to his prolific — and controversial — coverage of Read’s case.
More on the case:
The Mansfield woman is accused of backing into her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a blizzard in January 2022.
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Prosecutors allege that Read killed O’Keefe while dropping him off at a fellow Boston officer’s home in Canton following a night of drinking, but Read’s lawyers argue that she’s being framed and that other guests at the home were to blame. Kearney has adopted the defense team’s coverup claims, promoting the theory in hundreds of blogs, videos, and social media posts.
Although a district court judge previously ordered Kearney to stay away from and have no contact with several witnesses in the Read case, special prosecutor Ken Mello alleged Friday that the 41-year-old violated his release conditions by suggesting that his followers harass those witnesses.
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“It’s clear that Mr. Kearney is encouraging his minions, his followers, in the context of his blogs and YouTube, et cetera to continue to harass witnesses,” Mello told the court.
The Fall River lawyer, who was appointed by Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, asked Judge Peter B. Krupp to bar Kearney from encouraging his followers to “continue this pattern of intimidation.”
Objecting to the request, Tim Bradl, Kearney’s attorney, told the court, “Mr. Kearney has a First Amendment right to encourage people to exercise their First Amendment rights.”
Bradl added: “He can share his views with his readers or his viewers and they can do what they want. He’s allowed to encourage them to speak out against what he sees as corruption, what he sees as mismanagement of the Read case, et cetera.”
Speaking from the bench, Krupp explained that while state law allows district court judges to issue conditions to defendants released on personal recognizance, superior court judges cannot do so over the defendant’s objection.
Krupp largely upheld the district court release conditions in a decision last month, though he amended the stay-away orders and allowed Kearney to attend Read’s court proceedings even if it brought him near the named witnesses.
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Reflecting on those conditions Friday, the judge told Mello, “I think it’s an appropriate condition to be imposed, in this case in the Superior Court, but I don’t know if I have the power to do it under the statutes and I’m looking for some authority that you might have indicating that I have the power to do it.”
Krupp ultimately released Kearney on personal recognizance without granting Mello’s requested conditions.
“He knows that if he commits a crime, he’ll be back in front of the court in quick order,” the judge said. “You’ll make sure of that, Mr. Mello, I’m sure.”
Mello previously accused Kearney of going to great lengths to harass witnesses in Read’s case, alleging that the blogger held rallies outside witnesses’ homes, “made scenes” at their children’s sporting events, confronted them at their places of work, and conspired with an Avon police dispatcher to check the registration on vehicles parked outside the home of a Massachusetts State Police trooper who investigated O’Keefe’s death.
Kearney declared Friday’s outcome a “huge victory” in a post on the social media platform X, asserting that his previous release conditions kept him from investigating Read’s case “in the effective manner I’ve been doing it.”
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In a phone interview after the arraignment, Bradl likewise celebrated Krupp’s decision not to impose new conditions of release.
“We welcome it,” he said of the outcome, calling the prosecution’s case “an absolute perversion of journalistic standards.”
Bradl added: “It’s an absolute victory for the First Amendment and Aidan Kearney that the court refused to rein him in in any shape or form.”
Kearney is due back in court on Feb. 16.
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