Karen Read case-focused blogger Turtleboy indicted on 16 counts
A blogger who has almost completely dedicated his work toward the case of Karen Read, the Mansfield woman accused of murdering her Boston cop boyfriend last year, has been indicted on 16 charges.
Aidan Kearney, who is known as “Turtleboy” and by various related monikers like “Dr. Turtleboy,” who will turn 42 next week, is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges — eight counts of witness intimidation, three counts of conspiracy to intimidate witnesses, and five counts of picketing a witness — at noon tomorrow at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham.
A Norfolk Grand Jury returned the indictments on Wednesday.
Kearney, of Holden, has been blogging for years under the “Turtleboy” brand, which is known for personality-driven coverage of a medley of subjects in the greater Worcester and Boston areas. He still occasionally dives into the topics of past coverage but a review Thursday evening of the “latest” archive on his website shows topics outside the Read case are few and far between the now 259 posts related to the singular case, which he labels “Canton Coverup” — and hundreds more on his YouTube channel.
“I knew this day would be coming, and always assumed I would be indicted,” the outspoken blogger wrote on his website. “But let me be very clear — I am not deterred in the least. I will not give in, I will not surrender, and I will never plea. I will fight these charges, I will be victorious, and it will go down in the history books as the greatest defense of the First Amendment in the history of journalism.”
Kearney appears to have struck gold with his writing on the case of
The charges are related to Kearney’s writing — and ardent activism — in the case of Mansfield’s Read, who authorities accuse of killing her boyfriend of two years, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, by backing into him after a night out on the town in late January 2022.
She was charged in the lower Stoughton District Court on Feb. 2, 2022, on charges of manslaughter, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing death and motor vehicle homicide. By that June, prosecutors announced she had been indicted for a much more severe charge: murder.
But her defense has aggressively pushed back, and in April introduced two people they believe are actually responsible for O’Keefe’s death, in a theory they wrote at the time “must reverse the trajectory of this case”: Brian Albert, a fellow Boston cop who owned 34 Fairview Rd., where O’Keefe would die and later be found in the snow in the front yard; and Albert’s sister-in-law Jennifer McCabe — both of whom have since retained their own lawyers to represent them in the ever-aggressive case.
Kearney picked this thread up on his blog and ran with it to the exclusion of almost everything else. He’s amassed a rabid following of “Turtle Riders” who follow his every word — and seemingly ignore every other outlet’s coverage of the case — and turn every court appearance into a carnival of protest, signs, and costumes emblazoned with “Free Karen Read” or other case-related words or imagery.
Kearney has himself contributed to the defense’s legal arguments with a crusade against Massachusetts State Police detective Michael Proctor, as well as Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, who Kearney is accused of inciting his followers to harass. The campaign’s evidence made it onto the Read case’s official docket on Dec. 15, where it notes Elizabeth Proctor has hired her own attorney.
Dedham, MA – September 15: Aidan Kearney, aka “Turtle Boy” sits behind William and Janet Read, Karen Read’s parents as Karen Read appears in court. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)