Aidan Kearney, who writes the “Turtleboy” blog and advocates for accused murderer Karen Read, was charged with witness intimidation on Wednesday. During an arraignment, a judge ordered him not to have any contact with the witnesses he’s accused of intimidating. (WFXT/YouTube)
A Massachusetts judge ruled a blogger known as Turtleboy who is facing witness intimidation charges related to his coverage of the Karen Read murder case can attend court hearings but must otherwise stay away from and not contact the witnesses he’s accused of harassing.
The blogger, Aidan Kearney, is charged with witness intimidation, unlawful picketing to influence a witness and conspiracy to intimidate a witness. Kearney, 41, has advocated for the release of Read, who is accused of running over her husband, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe in January 2022 and leaving him for dead outside a home in Canton. Authorities allege Read and O’Keefe, 46, were out for a night of drinking when they went to the home of fellow police officer. In the midst of a blizzard, Read is accused of running O’Keefe over after she dropped him off at the home. He was found unresponsive hours later and rushed to a hospital where was pronounced dead.
She’s charged with second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a crash while causing death and is awaiting trial. Kearney has argued in blog posts and YouTube videos that Read is innocent and the people inside the police officer’s home are responsible for his death with law enforcement officials covering it up, a theory also peddled by Read’s defense team. He says the people who police describe as witnesses are actually suspects.
In the course of his coverage of the case, Kearney has reportedly organized 100-car caravans to drive by the homes of witnesses with him on a loudspeaker calling them “cop killers” and has told people to call a restaurant owned by one of the witnesses and order food but not pay for it. Kearney also showed up to a high school sporting event of one of the witnesses’ children. He proudly wrote of the incident on his blog, saying he got kicked out because he kept calling the witness a cop killer.
Kearney’s attorneys asked the Norfolk Superior Court to rescind the no contact and stay away orders, arguing they violate his First Amendment rights to cover the case as a journalist. But Judge Peter B. Krupp in his 22-page ruling denied that request, writing that Kearney’s actions go well beyond what’s protected in the First Amendment.
“Journalism generally involves eliciting from sources who may be witnesses in a case, not attempting to have witnesses change their testimony or inciting others to pressure witnesses to change their testimony,” Krupp wrote. “Defendant has no license, in the name of journalism, to intimidate or harass witnesses and jeopardize the integrity of judicial proceedings. For another citizen, such actions would not be tolerated.”
Krupp wrote that to say Kearney has taken a pro-Read position would be to “understate the level of his partisanship and advocacy.” Kearney in a piece in Boston Magazine said Read is “completely innocent” and described the people he believes are responsible for O’Keefe’s death as “useless maggots.”
“The constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press, however, do not protect ‘advocacy’ that is ‘directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action,”” Krupp wrote.
John O’Keefe and Karen Read. (Images via BPD portrait and WBZ-TV screengrab, respectively.)
As Law&Crime previously reported, special prosecutor Kenneth Morro in an Oct. 11 court hearing following his arrest alleged Kearney has attempted to taint the jury pool and has subjected witnesses to “constant harassment, intimidation and public attacks.”
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.
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 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 neither 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.
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