The attorney for Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney is upset with the special prosecutor’s delays in his client’s witness intimidation case — saying that they amounted to “obfuscation.”

Kearney, 42, of Holden was indicted on eight felony counts of witness intimidation and eight misdemeanor counts of picketing witnesses. Special prosecutor Kenneth Mello accuses him of not only taking an interest in the murder case of Mansfield’s Karen Read — Kearney strongly advocates for her innocence in his blog and YouTube posts — but went out of line and directly harassed state witnesses in the case and encouraged his followers to do the same.

The case has been marked by a level of animosity between defense attorney Timothy Bradl and special prosecutor Kenneth Mello. Mello fired off a motion to have Bradl sanctioned in January and Bradl returned suit the next month. Mello’s motion was denied but Bradl’s will be argued at the next court date, set for May 23 at 2 p.m.

Bradl said in a pre-trial hearing at Norfolk Superior Court that Mello is dragging out the process of sharing evidence in the case, which the defense needs to file a motion to dismiss the case. But Bradl went further, saying that the fact prosecutors in the Read murder trial received copies of the minutes of his own client’s grand jury testimony before he did points to something more nefarious.

Bradl said he learned the minutes, which would demonstrate exactly what the prosecution is alleging against his client, were available only after he found them filed in the Read case.

“So if that’s not a smoking gun that shows that counsel for the Commonwealth here is intentionally withholding documents from us, I don’t know what is,” Bradl said with visible and audible annoyance. He also accused Mello of being “hired” to delay Kearney’s case to keep his client away from the Read case.

Mello did not attend the hearing in person, but appeared via internet telecommunications platform Zoom, and the audio in the courtroom was very faint. Mello is suffering from an unspecified illness for which he has previously been hospitalized and indicated Thursday he would be needing surgery in the near future.

“I take some offense to the accusation that I am trying to delay,” Mello said. “I can say I haven’t provided a single page of anything with prosecutor (Adam) Lally on the Karen Read case.”

Mello said he believed he had shared all the grand jury minutes with Bradl, to which Bradl shook his head.

Judge Michael Cahillane, who usually sits in Bristol County, gave Mello until May 8 to provide required discovery.