DEDHAM, Mass. — Aidan Kearney, a Massachusetts man who runs the blog “Turtleboy News,” has hired legal representation and will return to court Thursday for a bail modification hearing after he was arraigned earlier this month on witness intimidation charges in connection with the Karen Read murder case, Boston 25 News has learned.
Kearney was arraigned in Stoughton District Court on Oct. 11 on charges including eight counts of intimidation of a witness, juror, police, or court official and one count of conspiracy in connection with the ongoing Read case after the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office appointed a special prosecutor to investigate his alleged actions.
Read is charged with second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. Read is accused of backing over O’Keefe and leaving him to die in a January 2022 blizzard outside a home in Canton.
The special prosecutor in this case, Kenneth Mello, of Fall River, said Kearney harassed witnesses and often filmed himself as he would try to confront them or call them at their homes, children’s sports games, or places of work. Kearney is also accused of sharing personal information online, including a state trooper’s phone number while saying he would never stop.
After a judge presiding over the arraignment released Kearney on personal recognizance, he professed his innocence to reporters, saying justice would prevail. Days later, he released a statement that said, “This is a battle of good vs. evil.”
Kearney’s new legal representation, The Law Office of Timothy J. Bradl, announced earlier this week that they plan to fight the “scurrilous prosecution mounted against him [Kearney] by the Norfolk County District Attorney” during Thursday’s hearing in Norfolk Superior Court.
“In unleashing its unprecedented, retaliatory, misguided prosecution, the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police have opened up a new, dark chapter in the annals of censorship and suppression of those on the front lines of investigating and criticizing the government,” Bradl’s office said in a statement. “We call on the MSP and the NCDAO to immediately halt this prosecution and bury these censorious tactics. We cannot allow the government to selectively weaponize criminal statutes to suppress the legitimate voices of its political enemies.”
Terms of conditions of Kearney’s release set by the judge included a stay-away order that prohibits him from direct or indirect contact with any of the named witnesses in the Read case — whether through mail, email, social media, or other mechanisms.
During the bail hearing, Bradl said his office plans to argue that Kearney is a journalist and that the non-contact restrictions hinder his reporting.
“They have trampled on Turtleboy’s civil rights, stolen his ability to earn a living, and upped the ante to new levels in the multi-front censorship war on the public’s entitlement to good government and our right to know. This will not stand,” Bradl’s office added. “We have appealed the District Court’s overbroad stay-away orders to the Norfolk Superior.”
Massachusetts State Police seized 11 items from Kearney following his arrest, including six Apple iPhones, two computers, two SD cards, and a silver USB drive, according to court documents filed at Stoughton District Court obtained by 25 Investigates.
“We have demanded the return of Mr. Kearney’s phones and computers, the tools of his trade. We have requested early production of all search warrants, discovery, and exculpatory evidence,” Bradl’s office said.
Thursday’s hearing is slated to begin at 9 a.m.
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