Attorneys for blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney say that particular prosecutors assigned to his case accusing him of pro-Karen Learn witness intimidation are mendacity about not having proof from his cell telephones.
“For approximately one year, the Commonwealth has claimed or implied that Mr. Kearney’s cellular phones have not been searched,” legal professional Mark Bederow wrote in a Thursday submitting. “These representations are patently false.”
Kearney, 42, faces eight felony counts of witness intimidation and eight misdemeanor counts — 5 of picketing witnesses and three of “conspiracy” — associated to the Learn homicide case. Kearney has coated the case and trial from a pro-Learn perspective on his weblog, TB Every day Information, in addition to an assortment of social media accounts below the “Turtleboy” model.
Bederow says that Det. Lt. Brian Tully of the Massachusetts State Police detective bureau stationed on the Norfolk District Legal professional’s workplace extracted data from at the least one of many telephones final October — and that Kearney’s protection staff “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 within the grievance.
Bederow says that Tully seized Kearney’s telephones upon his arrest on Oct. 11, 2023, and that morning the MSP investigators had entry to the gadget. Kearney’s telephones are nonetheless in MSP possession, in accordance with the submitting.
Bederow says that particular prosecutor Kenneth Mello repeatedly assured each Kearney’s legal professional Timothy Bradl and the choose that the gadgets had not been searched, pending additional instructions from the Superior Court docket.
“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 no matter Kearney did in furtherance of his protection of the Learn case, together with protection “which almost overnight created the worldwide ‘Free Karen Read’ movement,” is totally protected below First Modification grounds.
Additional, Bederow says he and his staff imagine 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.”
Learn, 44, of Mansfield, was indicted June 9, 2022, on fees of second-degree homicide, OUI manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident inflicting the demise of John O’Keefe, a Boston Police officer and her boyfriend, on Jan. 29, 2022.
The Herald has reached out to the Norfolk DA’s Workplace for remark.
This can be a growing story.
