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Authorities seize Karen Read’s phones, request sanctions in Turtleboy case
A special prosecutor confirmed that authorities are looking into whether Karen Read might be involved in Turtleboy blogger Aidan Kearney’s alleged witness intimidation.
Authorities seized two phones belonging to murder defendant Karen Read Wednesday in connection with the witness intimidation charges against Turtleboy blogger Aidan Kearney — the latest development in two intertwined criminal cases that have rocked Norfolk County.
Special prosecutor Kenneth Mello, who is bringing the charges against Kearney on behalf of the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, confirmed that Massachusetts State Police seized two cell phones from Read Wednesday.
Asked if prosecutors suspect that Read might have been involved in the alleged witness intimidation at the heart of Kearney’s criminal cases, Mello replied: “It’s part of our investigation.”
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Read’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.
Who are Karen Read and Turtleboy?
The Mansfield woman is accused of backing her SUV into her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, while dropping him off at a home in Canton following a night of drinking. Prosecutors allege that Read left O’Keefe to die in the snow early on Jan. 29, 2022, but her lawyers have pointed the finger at other afterparty guests.
Kearney has since become the face of the “Free Karen Read” movement, adopting the defense team’s coverup claims and speaking prolifically about the case through his blogs, livestreams, and social media accounts.
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Yet prosecutors say that somewhere along the way, Kearney’s advocacy crossed a line.
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When Kearney was initially charged in October, Mello accused the Holden man of harassing witnesses who were at the home where O’Keefe’s body was found. He alleged that Kearney confronted witnesses at their children’s sporting events, visited their homes, and encouraged his followers to harass them. In one notable instance, he’s accused of working with a local police dispatcher to look up the registration information for vehicles parked outside the home of a state trooper investigating Read’s case.
Asserting that his actions were protected under the First Amendment, Kearney pleaded not guilty to charges of witness intimidation, picketing witnesses, and conspiracy to intimidate witnesses in Norfolk Superior Court last month.
Days after his arraignment, a judge revoked Kearney’s bail after the blogger was arraigned on new charges of witness intimidation and domestic assault and battery. Kearney has remained in jail since then, trading in his usual blogs and livestreams for “Prison Journals.”
But Turtleboy’s coverage of the Read case didn’t grind to a halt with Kearney’s jail time; in fact, Kearney recently narrated a report on Read’s Jan. 5 court appearance through the power of artificial intelligence.
Why prosecutors are seeking sanctions against Turtleboy’s lawyer
Meanwhile, controversy continues to follow Kearney’s case. Mello filed a motion Wednesday alleging that Kearney’s attorney, Tim Bradl, misrepresented a woman as another lawyer on the defense team and enabled her to have unmonitored communication with Kearney.
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In reality, Mello alleged, the woman is a Turtleboy “follower and minion” who helps manage Kearney’s online presence. He contended that the move “was designed to afford [Kearney] the means to communicate with his followers and to continue to vicariously harass and intimidate, and to direct his ‘Turtleriders’ to intimidate and harass” his alleged victims.
In addition to $10,000 in sanctions against Bradl, Mello is asking a judge to bar Kearney from electronic communication with anyone other than his lawyer. He’s also requesting an independent party to monitor communications between Bradl and Kearney.
That “extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented” step is meant to “ensure that Attorney Bradl is not making his telephone available to third parties or is not engaging in communications with [Kearney] that will be transmitted to third parties in yet another attempt to circumvent the security restrictions identified above,” Mello wrote.
Bradl could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday morning, as Kearney was due back in Dedham District Court for a pre-trial hearing. However, Bradl told The Boston Globe Wednesday that he didn’t mean to mislead anyone about the woman, a volunteer with a civil law firm aiding Kearney’s defense.
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“It was an honest mistake,” Bradl told the Globe, adding, “If I knew at the time, I would have certainly properly characterized her as a paralegal, and would have asked that her calls be under the umbrella of the legal team anyway.”
A Norfolk Superior Court judge is set to hear the motion for sanctions at noon on Friday.
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