AIDAN ‘TURTLEBOY’ KEARNEY FREE MAN
Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney, a blogger who has been intensely focused on the Karen Read murder case, was released on personal recognizance after 60 days in jail on charges including witness intimidation.
Kearney supporters, known as “Turtle Riders,” erupted into thunderous applause outside the Dedham courthouse moments after Judge Debra A. Squires-Lee ordered Kearney released at yesterday afternoon’s hearing with the only stipulation that he not break any laws.
The release came after Kearney, 42, of Holden, was indicted on two additional counts related to a domestic assault case out of the nearby Dedham District Court. Those charges are intimidation of a witness and disclosure of a wiretap related to an alleged Christmas Eve 2023 incident with an ex-girlfriend.
Despite the new serious charges, Kearney walked down the courthouse steps toward a throng of ardent followers — who carried “Journalism is not a crime,” “Free Karen Read,” and “Free Turtleboy” signs — with a large smile on his face, his fist thrown in the air and many words of thanks to the assembled mass, whose cheers and howls drowned out some of his message.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you to everyone who showed up, who messaged me … who talked to me on the phone, who donated, or did whatever to help out. You made me feel awesome, you made me feel remembered, importantly, you made me feel like I’m not alone in there,” Kearney said, adding that the 60 days he spent in the Norfolk Correctional Center were the hardest days of his life.
“I could have gotten out anytime I wanted by taking a plea, but I specifically chose to stay in jail because sometimes principles matter more…” he added, with the last bit drowned out by the crowd.
He also alluded to his release conditions: “I’m going to keep obeying the law and I’m going to keep reporting diligently on the Karen Read case.”
Kearney appeared for the 12:30 p.m. hearing dressed in a navy suit and blue shirt but remained handcuffed as he sat beside defense attorney Timothy Bradl.
Kearney was indicted Dec. 21, 2023, on 16 counts related to Kearney’s writing — and ardent defense activism — in the case of Mansfield’s Read, who authorities accuse of murdering her boyfriend of two years, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, by striking him with her car after a night out in Canton in late January 2022.
Kearney’s charges are eight counts of witness intimidation, three counts of conspiracy to intimidate witnesses, and five counts of picketing a witness. He has pleaded not guilty.
Kearney is known for taking the Read team’s third-party culpability defense and running with it nearly exclusively on his blog and YouTube account under the header “Canton Cover Up.” But the special prosecutor in the case, Kenneth Mello — who was out sick and in the hospital according to his fill-in, Fall River attorney Robert Novack — accuses Kearney of going too far.
Mello says that Kearney has directly harassed eight witnesses in the case and has enjoined his followers to do the same.
Yesterday’s hearing was scheduled as a bail review in that case but instead began with Kearney’s arraignment on the new charges, which are related to an early morning incident last December in which an ex-girlfriend said that Kearney — who had just been released following on the witness intimidation case — came over after she informed him she had been called to testify at a grand jury hearing.
She wrote in her restraining order application that he had promised her legal protection if she leaked whatever information she had to him but that if she didn’t he would leak nude videos of her as well as old probate records that could affect her children.
She said she did as he said and that they then had sex. Things went sour and she grabbed the notes he had taken from materials on her phone and in response, she wrote, he threw her down on a couch.
That is the impetus for the new witness intimidation charge. The disclosure of a wire tap charge comes from an audio recording of the pair’s encounter that defense attorney Bradl had played in court at Kearney’s arraignment. The government contends the alleged victim was not aware she was being recorded and thus Kearney’s actions violated Massachusetts’ twoparty consent law regarding recordings.
Read has pleaded not guilty to all charges against her. The Kearney and Read cases were recently intertwined when Massachusetts State Police seized two of Read’s phones and alleged conspiratorial communications between the two defendants. The feds have taken an investigative interest in the case, confirmed by recently released letters between the U.S. Attorney’s office and the Norfolk District Attorney’s office.
Her case remains pending in Norfolk Superior Court with a trial date set for March 12.