Aidan Kearney, the blogger behind the Turtleboy website and social media accounts, appeared in court Wednesday on multiple charges amid a special prosecutor's investigation.
It's just the latest twist in a case that has drawn national attention. Karen Read, 42, of Mansfield, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe. She is accused of backing her SUV into O'Keefe in January and leaving him to die in the snow outside a home in Canton.
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The case is set to go to trial in March, though "Dateline" is already working on an episode about the saga.
Protesters believe that a cover-up is hiding who really killed O'Keefe, and they have been making their voices heard at public protests, rallies, Canton Select Board meetings and online.
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Kearney is among the people who have led that charge. A longtime presence in the Massachusetts news scene, he has been reporting on the Read case and rallying supporters who believe she has been wrongly accused. Special prosecutor Kenneth Mello said in court Thursday that Kearney has written at least 164 articles about the case.
On Wednesday, Kearney was charged with six counts of witness intimidation and one count of conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty and was released on personal recognizance bail, with conditions that he stay away from contacting any of the victims in the case, including Juliana Nagle, Christopher and Colin Albert, Michael and Elizabeth Proctor, and Jennifer and Matthew McCabe. If he violates those conditions, he would be subject to incarceration for up to 90 days without bail.
In court Thursday, Mello, one of the special prosecutors investigating the alleged witness intimidation, outlined the series of events that led to the charges against Kearney:
- Beginning in April, Mello said, Kearney wrote multiple blog posts about Elizabeth Proctor, the wife of Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in O'Keefe's death. The blog posts told his followers that she worked as a human resources manager at a local company and gave the main phone number for that company, asking them to post "reviews" on the company's Facebook and Twitter accounts.
- On May 10, in a YouTube video, the prosecutor says Kearney talked about Elizabeth Proctor, giving out her cell phone number on the broadcast and using speakerphone to call her. He left a message saying, "Hi, Elizabeth. This is Aidan Kearney calling you from Turtleboy. We briefly spoke yesterday. I introduced myself and you hung up on me. I just wanted to see how your day at work went, if it went well. I noticed your employer took down their social media pages. Was it awkward? Were you afraid to go in? Just tell me about your day. You seem to be OK calling other people's workplaces and interfering with their ability to make a living for themselves. When it happens to you maybe it's not as fun. Do you like that? That's what I want to know. Do you like that?"
- In a YouTube video on June 13, Mello said, Kearney displayed the phone records of Jennifer McCabe from the day O'Keefe was killed. During the broadcast, Kearney cold-called some of the phone numbers without names, one of which was the work phone of Michael Proctor. He left a voicemail saying, "Hi Trooper Proctor, this is award-winning journalist Aidan Kearney calling. I'm calling to talk to you. I do have some questions about you. I have a lot of questions, actually. For starters, why didn't you tell anyone before doing the investigation that you were good friends with the Albert family? Why did you in a report say you were introduced to Chris Albert on Feb. 10 when you have known him for a decade prior to that? Why did you lie about what time they towed Karen Read's car? Why did you intentionally misspell the names of several key witnesses in your report? And you know, I'm just wondering about all those things. Then maybe you and I can meet for coffee. Boy, do I have a lot of questions for you... Give me a call man, you and I have a lot of catching up to do." Kearney then broadcast Michael Proctor's work cellphone number to his followers, which led to Proctor getting about a dozen calls alleging he was involved in a conspiracy, which ultimately led him to change his number.
- In a June 27 video posted to his YouTube channel, the prosecutor said, Kearney talked about how he just returned from visiting the homes of several witnesses in the case, saying, "This is not my last trip to Canton. I will be back. I'll be back. Get used to this. These people think I'm [expletive] around. You haven't seen the last of me. Get used to it. Get used to it."
- In another YouTube video posted on July 16, Kearney allegedly says Chris Albert, one of the witnesses in the case, "had his head on a swivel looking for Turtle Riders," the term Kearney uses for his supporters. "I've got bad news for you, Chris, I've got really bad news for you," he continued. "They are literally everywhere. You guys should just stop going out in public. It's only going to get worse from here. I know where you all were today. You were in Agawam, weren't you. You guys were at some sort of Little League thing in Agawam -- Alberts, McCabes, all you people were there. Just know that life as normal is over. Life as normal, you had normal for a while there, from Jan. 29 to about April 2023. You guys literally got away with murder." While discussing a video of Chris Albert being confronted outside a Canton restaurant, Kearney says, "We are getting them," referring to Albert an other witnesses. "When you act this way, that's like a green light. I've got pictures of you. You can't leave the country, you can't hide any more. Your private life is officially over. You leave your house, you're going to have your picture taken, so you need to get used to the new normal -- your normal."
- On July 22, Mello said, Kearney broadcast a live video on YouTube of a "rolling rally" involving 100-200 vehicles, in which he stated that the purpose was to protest the "murder cover-up and framing of an innocent woman." During the rally, he stopped outside the Canton home of Nagle, a witness in the case, and said, "Nothing can stop me from telling the truth. You know what happened that night. You can't get away with it anymore. Too many people know. You're going down."
- In an Aug. 13 YouTube video, Kearney allegedly said, "I said from the beginning, I don't want this to go to trial," in reference to the Karen Read case.
- In another YouTube video a week later, prosecutors said, Kearney made comments about the jury pool: "I want the world to know what happened here. They want to be able to find a jury pool that never heard any of this, and I'm not allowing it."
- On Sept. 13, the prosecutor said, Kearney posted a blog post about a "Free Karen Read" billboard that went up on Route 1 in Foxborough, just outside Gillette Stadium. Kearney reportedly praised those who donated money to the billboard, saying, "It's really time for the people of Norfolk County to know about this story because that is where the jury pool will be chosen from," which Mello said was "essentially just an admission that he is seeking to taint the jury in the case."
- On Sept. 25, Kearney allegedly used a Facebook account to ask people in Canton to "take a couple pics for me" asking anyone who could help to direct message him. A short time later, he posted an update, saying, "All set, thanks." Later that night, a Twitter account associated with Kearney allegedly posted a photograph taken outside the Proctors' home with Jennifer McCabe's vehicle in front of it. In a YouTube video the following day, he said he ran the license plates of the vehicles parked out front, showed the vehicles and stated the owners by name -- Michael and Elizabeth Proctor and Jennifer McCabe. A state police investigation later determined that an Avon police dispatcher who followed Kearney's website illegally accessed the Registry of Motor Vehicles database to look up the license plates for Kearney. That dispatcher has since been placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
A lawyer for Kearney said that the blogger considers himself "a news person" who is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.
"He feels as if, that he should be allowed under his First Amendment right to pursue his story," the lawyer said, adding that being prevented from contacting the witnesses could lead to unlawful police interventions.
Kearney left court to applause from his supporters, and even after his arrest, he vowed not to change a thing: "I will not be intimidated, I will not be silenced and we will continue on our journey."
