Tuesday’s latest pre-hearing in the Karen Read murder case saw blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney (Turtleboy) mentioned in arguments during the defense’s motions to dismiss the case and/or disqualify District Attorney Michael Morrissey.
Karen Read has been accused of murdering boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, by backing into him and leaving him for dead during a snowstorm in 2022. Kearney became involved with the defense in 2023 and led the “Free Karen Read” movement over the summer and early fall of 2023, which resulted in several charges of witness intimidation against the blogger.
In the defense’s attempt to disqualify District Attorney Morrissey, they focused on the statement made by Morrissey to the public in late summer that stated that vouched for his witnesses and assured the public that Karen Read would be fairly prosecuted.
The defense eliminated the reason that Morrissey felt the need to make the statement as the defense had been doing news shows giving their “theories” of the case and stating “facts” without evidence, leaking information to Turtleboy, and having Turtleboy organize “rolling rallies” in front of witnesses’ houses while telling the witnesses that the rallies would stop if they changed their testimony. All points brought up in the prosecution rebuttal.
Also in play was the defense’s half-hearted attempt to have the case dismissed. Knowing that the burden to prove irreparable damage to the case that would result in dismissal was fairly high, defense lawyers argued that prosecution witnesses did not disclose prior relationships with investigators.
They also made claims that the FBI concluded that John O’Keefe was not hit by Read’s car, that glass from her taillight was planted on the scene and that witness Jen McCabe, according to their expert, definitively did a search for inquiring how fast someone would die of exposure in the 2AM hour.
Turtleboy pounced on these statements, going to twitter to declare that “the FBI’ had proven Read’s innocence and that the case would soon be dismissed. The blogger continued his spin on the case on social media and in YouTube broadcasts and even gave a surprised reaction when today’s hearing ended without a ruling by Judge Beverly J. Cannone.
In what may be a devastating blow to the defense, Cannone indicated that trial dates would remain as they are currently set with the plan to have full day sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and half day sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the morning hours. She also denied Read’s request to appear via Zoom at the next hearing on March 20, 2024.
No rulings have been made on the defense motions as of press time.
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