Attorneys for blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney say that special prosecutors assigned to his case accusing him of pro-Karen Read witness intimidation are lying about not having evidence from his cell phones.
“For approximately one year, the Commonwealth has claimed or implied that Mr. Kearney’s cellular phones have not been searched,” attorney Mark Bederow wrote in a Thursday filing. “These representations are patently false.”
Kearney, 42, faces 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.
Bederow says that Det. Lt. Brian Tully of the Massachusetts State Police detective bureau stationed at the Norfolk District Attorney’s office extracted information from at least one of the phones last October — and that Kearney’s defense team “recently came into possession of several pages” of the extraction report.
“It is outrageous that the defense obtained evidence in your actual possession related to alleged intimidation of named witnesses in the indictments against Mr. Kearney from a third party rather than from the Commonwealth, who was obligated to disclose this evidence to the defense several months ago but instead has repeatedly denied its existence,” Bederow wrote in the complaint.
Bederow says that Tully seized Kearney’s phones upon his arrest on Oct. 11, 2023, and that morning the MSP investigators had access to the device. Kearney’s phones are still in MSP possession, according to the filing.
Bederow says that special prosecutor Kenneth Mello repeatedly assured both Kearney’s attorney Timothy Bradl and the judge that the devices had not been searched, pending further directions from the Superior Court.
“Mr. Mello gave the court and defense the clear impression that Mr. Kearney’s phones had not been searched or imaged for extraction when he knew the exact opposite was true,” Bederow wrote. “It strains credulity that Mr. Mello, who frequently discussed the investigation with DL Tully in October 2023 didn’t know on November 28, 2023, that DL Tully had, in fact, searched Mr. Kearney’s devices, and that at least one phone had been previously extracted.”
The case stresses that whatever Kearney did in furtherance of his coverage of the Read case, including coverage “which almost overnight created the worldwide ‘Free Karen Read’ movement,” is completely protected under First Amendment grounds.
Further, Bederow says he and his team believe that Kearney “is being prosecuted to stifle his First Amendment rights to report and opine publicly — and loudly — about alleged corruption and misconduct in the Read case by the Commonwealth, MSP, and civilians who are now witnesses against him.”
“The Commonwealth’s obfuscation has harmed Mr. Kearney professionally and it has prejudiced him as a criminal defendant,” Bederow wrote. “He is entitled to data on his phones that is necessary for him to continue his journalism and he has an absolute right to review evidence to which he is legally entitled.”
Read, 44, of Mansfield, was indicted June 9, 2022, on charges of second-degree murder, OUI manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident causing the death of John O’Keefe, a Boston Police officer and her boyfriend, on Jan. 29, 2022.
The Norfolk DA’s office did not return a Herald request for comment by deadline Thursday.
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