Boston-area blogger Aidan Kearney, aka “Doctor Turtleboy,” has been charged with witness intimidation in connection with the case of a Mansfield woman accused of killing a Boston police officer.
Kearney, of Holden, appeared in the dock wearing a “Free Karen Read” hoodie, a design that matched signs displayed by followers of his blog that staunchly supports her innocence and floats conspiracy theories in the death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
Several of those Turtleboy readers, who call themselves “Turtle riders,” picketed on the sidewalk outside Stoughton District Court ahead of his arraignment Wednesday.
Prosecutors filed nine complaints against Kearney, each with lengthy but similar narratives. In total, he faces eight counts of witness intimidation, four counts of picketing a court officer or juror and one count of conspiracy. While a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf, outside of court he vehemently denied the charges and even the idea that he should be charged for what he believes to be within his First Amendment rights.
“I’m here right now because I’m exposing corruption. I’m exposing what really happened to John O’Keefe and the powerful and well-connected people who murdered him and covered up his murder. And this is what the state does to you when you do that,” Kearney told members of the media from the courthouse steps.
Judge Daniel W. O’Malley released Kearney on personal recognizance and did not impose GPS, but did allow the prosecution’s request that Kearney have no contact, either direct or indirect, with all the named alleged victims. The judge said the order was “broad on purpose” and that should Kearney violate it in any way then he would be subject to being held without bail.
Special prosecutor Kenneth Mello, who is not actually a prosecutor by trade but a private attorney from Fall River, read out two of the complaints in court and requested another hour to read the additional complaints, but O’Malley stopped him early as he had enough for the initial appearance.
The complaints begin with the same scene: John O’Keefe’s body discovered on the lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, which, according to past Herald coverage followed a night out at two bars in Canton with O’Keefe, Read, and a few of the witnesses in the prosecution’s case against Read and who Mello says are among the number of people who Kearney has either directly harassed or welcomed his followers to harass.
Chief among these is Massachusetts State Police Detective Michael Proctor, who has been a consistent focus of Kearney’s ire in blog posts, YouTube videos and social media postings and whose phone number, Mello said, was shared by Kearney leading to so much harassment from Turtle riders that Proctor had to get a new phone number.
The first complaint focused on Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, who Mello said was the focus of her own harassment campaign directed by Kearney that forced her employer to shut down some of its internet presence.
Kearney’s supporters and his detractors alike packed the courtroom, but many of those deeply interested in the case also tuned in via videoconferencing service Zoom, several of whom didn’t remain quiet.
Mello’s readings were punctuated by quotations from Kearney’s postings, like this one from the Turtleboy YouTube channel’s “Episode 598: *Breaking* Karen Read Defense Files Motion to Recuse” in which Kearney tells one of the alleged victims in this case: “You can’t leave the (expletive) country. Turtle riders, we’re gonna find you, they’re gonna find you. You can’t hid anymore, your private life is officially over, over. You can’t leave your house, you’re gonna have your picture taken.”
The criminal charges followed an extraordinarily rare public statement on an ongoing case by Norfolk DA Michael Morrissey in August, which he said was the “first statement of its kind in my dozen years” on the job: “The harassment of witnesses in the murder prosecution of Karen Read is absolutely baseless. It should be an outrage to any decent person — and it needs to stop.”
Morrissey did not name Kearney in his statement, but went on to refute a number of points of evidence raised by Kearney in his “Turtleboy blog.”
