‘Turtleboy’ Lawyer Claims Norfolk County Prosecutors Are Lying, Hiding Evidence

Lawyers for blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney say special prosecutors in his case accusing him of intimidating pro-Karen Read witnesses are lying about not having evidence from his cellphones.

“For approximately a year, the Commonwealth has claimed or implied that Mr. Kearney’s cell phones were not searched,” attorney Mark Bederow wrote in a court filing Thursday. “These representations are patently false.”

Kearney, 42, faces eight counts of witness intimidation and eight misdemeanor charges – five of witness picketing and three of “conspiracy” – related to the Read murder case. Kearney covered the case and trial from a pro-Read perspective on his blog, TB Daily News, as well as on an assortment of social media accounts branded as “Turtleboy.”

Bederow said Det. Lt. Brian Tully of the Massachusetts State Police Detective Bureau stationed in the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office extracted information from at least one of the phones last October – and that the defense team Kearney “recently came into possession of several pages” of the extraction report.

“It is outrageous that the defense obtained evidence in your possession regarding allegations of intimidation of witnesses named in the indictments against Mr. Kearney from a third party rather than the Commonwealth, which was obligated to disclose this evidence to the defense several months ago. but he repeatedly denied its existence,” Bederow wrote in the complaint.

Bederow says Tully seized Kearney’s phones during his arrest on Oct. 11, 2023, and that morning MSP investigators gained access to the device. Kearney’s phones are still in MSP’s possession, according to the filing.

Bederow says special prosecutor Kenneth Mello repeatedly assured Kearney’s attorney, Timothy Bradl, and the judge that the devices had not been searched, pending further instructions from Superior Court.

“Mr Mello gave the court and the defense the clear impression that Mr Kearney’s phones had not been searched or photographed for extraction when he knew it was exactly the opposite,” wrote Bederow. “It strains credulity that Mr. Mello, who frequently discussed the investigation with DL Tully in October 2023, did not know on November 28, 2023 that DL Tully had, in fact, searched the devices. of Mr Kearney and that at least one phone had previously been extracted.

The case highlights that everything Kearney did in connection with his coverage of the Read affair, including the coverage “which created the global ‘Free Karen Read’ movement almost overnight,” is fully protected in under the First Amendment.

Additionally, Bederow claims that he and his team believe Kearney “is being sued to stifle his First Amendment rights to report and express publicly — and loudly — allegations of corruption and misconduct in the matter Read by the Commonwealth, the MSP and the civilians who are now witnesses against him.

“The Commonwealth’s obfuscation harmed Mr. Kearney professionally and harmed him as a defendant,” Bederow wrote. “He is entitled to the data on his phones that is necessary for him to pursue his journalism and he has the absolute right to review the evidence to which he is legally entitled.”

Read, 44, of Mansfield, was charged on June 9, 2022, with second-degree murder, manslaughter OUI and leaving the scene of an accident causing the death of John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer and his boyfriend, on January 29, 2022.

The Norfolk district attorney’s office did not return a request for comment from the Herald by Thursday’s deadline.

Originally published: October 17, 2024 at 4:17 p.m.