25 Investigates: Grand jury blocked new charges against Karen Read in March

An attempt to add more criminal charges to Karen Read and Aidan Kearney, the Massachusetts blogger known as “Turtleboy” failed earlier this year.

Kearney’s attorney Mark A. Bederow was the first to publicly reveal in court documents that a Norfolk County grand jury returned a “no true bill” for Read and Kearney.

A “no true bill” means the grand jury determined there was not enough evidence to support charges.

A law enforcement source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed a grand jury declined to process the indictments.

Attorney Ken Mello, a special prosecutor working for the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office, asked the secret panel to indict Read and Kearney in March on allegations they directly conspired to intimidate witnesses in Read’s murder case. Read is charged with 2nd-degree murder for the death of her then-boyfriend John O’Keefe in Canton. Her first trial ended with a hung jury in July.

As a part of Mello’s investigation, state police seized 2 iPhones from Read in January. A search warrant for the seizure alleged Read worked with Kearney, “by providing information, photography, material relative to her criminal defense, and editorial oversight of blog posts and videos intended to harass, intimidate, and cause emotional harm.”

Another attorney for Kearney, Tim Bradl said, “the only crime here is the robbery of privacy,” when the search warrant was released in February.

Kearney already faced numerous charges for his aggressive activism in the Read case and spent 60 days in jail prior to the March attempt to indict him and Read.

Kearney’s trial is scheduled for December. According to court documents from his case, the transcripts from the grand jury proceedings Kearney and Read were the joint focus of have been turned over to his defense team.

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