Aidan Kearney, who writes the “Turtleboy” blog and advocates for accused murderer Karen Read, was charged with witness intimidation on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. During an arraignment, a judge ordered him not to have any contact with the witnesses he’s accused of intimidating. (WFXT/YouTube)
A blogger advocating for the release of Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend with her car and leaving him for dead in the snow last year, has been charged with witness intimidation, according to a special prosecutor.
Aidan Kearney, who runs the blog “Turtleboy News,” faces six counts of witness intimidation of a juror, police officer and court official and one count of conspiracy.
Kearney is known for wearing “Free Karen Read” shirts and has written extensively about the case, claiming officials have participated in a cover-up while investigating the death of 46-year-old John O’Keefe.
In a court hearing streamed by Boston Fox affiliate WFXT, special prosecutor Kenneth Morro alleged Kearney has attempted to taint the jury pool and has subjected witnesses to “constant harassment, intimidation and public attacks.”
According to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, O’Keefe was found unresponsive outside of a residence in Canton early in the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
After his body was found, the officer was taken to the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton. He was pronounced dead several hours after that. Read was arrested a couple of days later and was charged with second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a crash while causing death.
Morro said Kearney began covering the case in April 2023. But Kearney’s coverage has gone well beyond what a typical reporter would do while covering a story, Morro alleged.
For instance, in a video posted to YouTube titled “Turtleboy Returns to Canton: Door Knocking, Grilling Public Officials & Cops Called On Me,” Kearney relayed a message to witnesses involved in the case.
“This is not my last trip to Canton, I will be back. Get used to this. These people think I’m f—— around. These people haven’t seen the last of me,” Kearney said, according to Morro.
Kearney also helped raise funds for “Free Karen Read” billboards outside Gillette Stadium, where the New England Patriots play. He wrote that “half the population of Norfolk County,” where the case is being tried, has never heard of the case before, but the billboards would help change that.
“Essentially, judge, it’s an admission that he’s seeking to taint the jury pool in this case,” Morro said in court.
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Morro also said that Kearney divulged the cellphone number of the Massachusetts State Police trooper investigating the case.
But Kearney’s attorneys said in court he is a “news person who is using his First Amendment rights to cover a story.”
Section 13B of Chapter 268 of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts law addresses witness intimidation. It qualifies witness intimidation as “anyone who willfully threatens, attempts or causes physical, emotional or economic injury or property damage” to someone testifying in a case.
Canton police Chief Helena Rafferty and District Attorney Michael Morrissey have been critical of Kearney’s tactics, though they haven’t called him out by name. Kearney addressed the statements in a Tuesday blog post. Rafferty said at a Canton Select Board meeting that intimidating tactics could prevent witnesses from coming forward in future cases.
“I embrace the fact that we live in a country that people can have different viewpoints,” she said. “I accept everyone’s rights to voice those viewpoints under the First Amendment. I can appreciate that some people have questions on the O’Keefe case based on the limited amount of information they have seen thus far. However, what I cannot accept is witnesses — let me repeat that — witnesses. These are residents who have not been charged with any crime being bullied in their home, at their children’s schools or on vacation, all under the guise of the First Amendment.”
Kearney argued that he nor his supporters, known as “Turtle Riders,” have sought to influence or prevent anyone from testifying.
Morrisey said in a video released on Aug. 25 that the intimidation of witnesses in the case is unacceptable and needs to stop. He said there was a “false narrative” that O’Keefe entered the home where there was a struggle and he was killed. But O’Keefe never entered the home and was found dead outside, Morrissey said. The people associated with the home did not partake in a cover-up, according to Morrissey.
“To have them accused of murder is outrageous,” he said. “To have them harassed and intimidated based on false narratives and accusations is wrong.”
Kearney wrote that he was following the facts.
“I will never stop doing what I’m doing until Karen Read is free, and the people who killed John O’Keefe and covered up his murder are held responsible,” he wrote.
The judge Wednesday ordered him not to contact any witnesses he’s accused of intimidating. Following his release on personal recognizance, Kearney came out of the courthouse wearing his “Free Karen Read” hoodie and holding up two peace signs.
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