‘Turtleboy’ scores ex-girlfriend’s Verizon records and bill of particulars in Karen Read case
Pro-Karen Read blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney got what he asked for at his last hearing: a full “bill of particulars” on what he’s charged with and phone records pertaining to missing and possibly deleted text messages of an ex-girlfriend accusing him of intimidation.
“We look forward to getting to the bottom of the issue regarding the missing text messages. We were confident the judge would see the relevance and importance of going to a third-party for an objective determination of what evidence would be there,” Kearney’s defense attorney Timothy Bradl told the Herald.
“Likewise, it was very gratifying that the court required the Commonwealth to honor its agreement to actually specify, in a substantive response to our motion for a bill of particulars, what journalistic activity now constitutes a crime in Norfolk County under the (DA Michael) Morrissey administration,” he continued.
Kearney, 42, of Holden, faces indictments on eight felony counts of witness intimidation and eight misdemeanor counts — five of picketing witnesses and three of “conspiracy” — related to the Read murder case. Kearney has covered the case and trial from a pro-Read perspective on his blog, TB Daily News, as well as an assortment of social media accounts under the “Turtleboy” brand.
Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, by striking him with her car after a night out in Canton in late January 2022. Her original trial ended in mistrial on July 1 and a fresh trial date was scheduled for Jan. 27.
Kearney also faces another witness intimidation charge as well as an illegal wiretapping charge related to an alleged Christmas Eve 2023 incident with an ex-girlfriend. On Friday, Superior Court Judge Michael A. Cahillane filed rulings regarding both cases.
In a July 11 hearing, Bradl argued that prosecutors were for no reason trying to prevent the defense from obtaining cell phone records to see what messages the accuser may have deleted, with Bradl indicating that the content of those texts as well as their recipients could have standing for the defense.
Bradl filed a motion for a Bill of Particulars — in which prosecutors must spell out exactly what crimes Kearney is accused of doing and to whom — for the primary witness intimidation case on Feb. 23. Prosecutors filed the Bill on the due date: June 13, but the defense found it, in the words of Cahillane’s order, “insufficient.”
“(T)he Commonwealth’s bill of particulars falls short in advising the defendant, and the court, of the time and place, manner and means of the defendant’s conduct for each of the alleged incidents,” Cahillane wrote in his order, which was dated the day after the July 11 hearing. “Therefore, the Commonwealth is ORDERED to supplement its bill of particulars no later than Friday, August 1, 2024.”
Juror’s fears
Kearney was back in the news since his last court appearance, as a juror in the Read murder trial implicated him and his followers — though not by name — of instilling fear of “personal harm.” The unidentified juror’s affidavit was filed in support of a motion to indefinitely impound the jury list — which Read case Judge Beverly Cannone approved.
“The blogger who has been charged with witness intimidation has characterized any jurors who did not vote to acquit the defendant as ‘idiots’ who ‘helped cover up a murder. … This accusation is of course absurd, but it is noteworthy because the blogger has demonstrated how he treats those whom he believes ‘cover up murder,’” the juror’s attorney Andrew DiCenzo of Worcester firm Christopher Hays, Wojcik & Mavricos LLP wrote in the motion.
“He has been accused of, and essentially admits to, harassing witnesses and has made statements to the effect of, ‘murders and those who cover for them, do not deserve to live a comfortable life,’” the memo continued. “The blogger has gleefully admitted to obtaining a public jury list in a different criminal case and ‘shaming’ the juror who did not deliberate in the manner he preferred.”
Kearney expressed in a statement to the Herald that the police and prosecutors are biased in this case and do not take into account his own liberty and safety. He said that members of the Albert family — the Canton family at the heart of the Read defense’s claim of a third-party killer conspiracy — have threatened him.
“All of this was filmed and shown to police, and to this day no criminal charges have been filed,” he wrote through his attorney. “Someone killed a turtle and hung it from my parents’ house two days after my mother died. Men with guns came to my house, arrested me in front of my kid’s school bus, and stole my phones and computers.”
“Supporters of Karen Read in Canton are constantly harassed, intimidated, and have had their property vandalized,” he continued. “ALL of the ‘intimidation’ in this case comes from their side. Yet Judge Cannone and the Commonwealth want to push the false narrative that I am a threat to this unnamed juror, who sounds like they were coached by the Commonwealth to push these lies about me being dangerous.”
Supporters of John O’Keefe rally outside court during a hearing in the Karen Read Case Monday. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)