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Turtleboy blogger avoids jail time after restraining order violation charge
A judge on Thursday rejected prosecutors' attempts to send the controversial blogger back to jail.
A judge on Thursday rejected prosecutors’ attempts to send Aidan Kearney back to jail, instead releasing the Turtleboy blogger on personal recognizance following his arraignment on a restraining order violation charge.
Previously:
The Dedham District Court case centers on a restraining order brought by Kearney’s ex-girlfriend following an alleged domestic dispute back in December. Prosecutors say Kearney, 42, had an altercation with the woman after she received a summons to appear before a grand jury regarding the blogger’s alleged intimidation of witnesses in the Karen Read case.
Read, 44, is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a home in Canton in January 2022. Her lawyers have alleged a widespread cover up, and Kearney has championed Read’s innocence throughout countless blog posts and media appearances.
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Kearney spent 60 days in jail after a judge revoked his bail in the witness intimidation case in light of his alleged domestic dispute. Days after his release, Read was back in court for a Feb. 26 hearing, and Kearney — the de facto face of the “Free Karen Read” movement — announced his plans to attend.
But the Holden man was ultimately forced to leave the courtroom after his ex-girlfriend showed up and put the restraining order into play.
What are the latest allegations against Turtleboy?
From there, accounts differ. Prosecutors say Kearney remained within 100 yards after exiting the courthouse, and the woman told police she could hear Kearney yelling at her and calling her a “liar” from across the street.
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Kearney, however, denies saying anything to the woman. His lawyer, Tim Bradl, said in a court filing that the blogger “followed police directions and left the Courthouse to a location approved by the police, and took all good faith effort to comply with the order.”
Pointing to videos and affidavits from bystanders, Bradl asserted that Kearney’s ex-girlfriend orchestrated the run-in and lied to police.
“It is clear from the affidavits that the complainant engineered the entire encounter and had to resort to lying to police when Mr. Kearney acted appropriately and did not violate the order,” Bradl wrote in the filing. “She showed up to the Karen Read Court proceedings for the first time, and used the order to flush Mr. Kearney out of the Courtroom.”
Kearney pleaded not guilty to violating the restraining order, and Judge Michael J. Pomarole denied prosecutors’ motions to revoke Kearney’s bail and detain him due to dangerousness — requests that could have sent the blogger back to jail for months.
What happened this week in the Karen Read case?
Thursday’s hearing marked the end of an eventful week for Kearney and Read’s dual legal sagas.
On Tuesday, Read’s lawyers argued that newly available evidence from a federal probe reveals that O’Keefe’s injuries were “inconsistent” with the damage to Read’s car, and that several investigators may have had undisclosed personal relationships with witnesses in the case.
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The defense alleged that one investigator in particular, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, had close ties with the family of Brian Albert, who owned the home where O’Keefe’s body was found. The lawyers pointed to text messages about Albert’s sister-in-law possibly babysitting for Proctor and wanting to give the trooper a gift shortly after O’Keefe died.
According to Bradl, the revelations from Read’s latest court hearing vindicate Kearney.
“Aidan was right all along and has suffered greatly. We should all thank him for facing down this dragon,” Bradl said in a statement. “This has been the most disgraceful chapter in Norfolk County law enforcement history since Sacco and Vanzetti.”
Later in the week, State Police confirmed an internal affairs investigation into Proctor regarding a potential department policy violation. Notably, a State Police spokesperson declined to state whether the alleged violation was connected to Read’s case.
Proctor’s attorney, Michael DiStefano, said in a statement that the trooper has been cooperating with the investigation.
“To be clear, Trooper Proctor remains steadfast in the integrity of the work he performed investigating the death of Mr. John O’Keefe,” DiStefano said. “To the extent that Trooper Proctor’s personal text messages are alluded to in court proceedings regarding Ms. Read, he respectfully submits that the objective investigative steps he and members of his unit took are in no way undermined by the content of the personal messages.”
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The spectacle and chaos surrounding Read’s case — and Kearney’s, by extension— have heightened in recent weeks as the Mansfield woman inches closer to her April 16 trial date.
“It’s coming to an end, man,” Kearney said during a Friday morning livestream.
“This was the best week,” he continued. “And there’s going to be so many more good weeks to come, because I’m not going to jail ever again, and Karen Read’s not going to jail ever again. And a lot of people on the other side hopefully are going to jail. That’s the only question: Who’s it going to be?”
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