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Turtleboy blogger Aidan Kearney held without bail following new assault, witness intimidation charges
Kearney could be held in jail for up to 90 days after a judge revoked his bail on separate witness intimidation charges.
A judge on Tuesday revoked Aidan Kearney’s bail and ordered the Turtleboy blogger held after Kearney was arraigned on new charges of witness intimidation and domestic assault and battery.
Kearney is accused of grabbing a woman’s arm and pushing her into a couch during an argument in her Medfield home over the weekend, according to Worcester’s Telegram & Gazette. In an affidavit obtained by the newspaper, the woman wrote that the argument was related to separate witness intimidation charges Kearney is facing in connection with his coverage of the Karen Read murder case.
The Holden man was just arraigned on those Norfolk Superior Court charges last Friday and was released on personal recognizance with no bail conditions.
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Kearney’s freedom, however, was short-lived.
He pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of witness intimidation and assault and battery on a family or household member, and a Dedham District Court judge revoked his previous bail in light of the new allegations. Kearney could be held for up to 90 days.
Boston.com has reached out to Kearney’s lawyer, Tim Bradl, and special prosecutor Kenneth Mello for comment.
The allegations against Aidan Kearney
The woman at the center of the new charges is allegedly Kearney’s ex-girlfriend.
Boston 25 News reported on Monday that Medfield police had issued a BOLO (“be on the lookout”) notice for Kearney in connection with an incident between the blogger and a woman with whom he was allegedly in a relationship. According to Boston 25, the woman had previously shared information about Kearney with Massachusetts State Police investigators and is considered a witness in the ongoing prosecution over his reporting on the Read case.
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According to NBC10 Boston, the woman alleged that Kearney threatened to release her personal information and explicit photos after she received a subpoena related to that investigation.
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Speaking in court Tuesday, Bradl called the allegations against Kearney “a complete set of lies from a troubled woman,” according to Boston 25.
Kearney, who turned 42 on Tuesday, previously pleaded not guilty in Norfolk Superior Court to charges of witness intimidation, picketing witnesses, and conspiracy to intimidate witnesses in connection with his controversial coverage of Read’s case.
The Mansfield woman is accused of striking and killing her boyfriend — Boston police officer John O’Keefe — with her SUV while dropping him off in Canton following a night out in January 2022.
Prosecutors say Read left O’Keefe to die in the snow outside a fellow Boston police officer’s home, but Read’s lawyers argue that she’s being framed and that other afterparty guests were to blame. Kearney has promoted the defense team’s coverup claims throughout hundreds of blogs, videos, social media posts, and in-person rallies.
While prosecutors argue that his approach to witnesses in Read’s case crossed the line into harassment, Kearney and his attorney maintain that the blogger’s actions were protected under the First Amendment.
Turtleboy releases audio clip of purported confrontation
Kearney turned himself in to police on Tuesday, according to a post on the official Turtleboy Facebook page.
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“Attention: Aidan has been framed for A&B. He can prove his innocence, but he also currently has strict bail conditions,” read the post, which was signed “admin.”
Kearney was unusually quiet on his online platforms over the holiday weekend, though he posted a 15-minute audio clip on YouTube Monday titled “Medfield woman verbally abuses Turtleboy, endangers her 4 children.”
The clip — which was reportedly played in court Tuesday — appears to contain part of a heated conversation between Kearney and an unidentified woman, who claims at various points that the blogger blackmailed and threatened her. At one point, she claims that Kearney threatened her children, an accusation that he repeatedly denies.
“I’m not lying. I’m not going to lie for you,” the woman says at one point.
“I don’t want you to lie for me,” Kearney replies.
“Oh yeah, that’s why you’re telling me that I need to f–ing side with you, and you’ll protect … me and you won’t put my s–t out there,” the woman says. “That’s why you’re blackmailing me.”
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Toward the end of the recording, Kearney points out that the woman’s raised voice is waking her children, telling her, “This is child abuse.”
“No, what you’re doing is abuse,” she retorts. “That’s abuse, what you just did to me.”
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