An legal professional for Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney says that prosecutors are responsible of “doctoring evidence” in opposition to the Karen Learn-focused blogger when securing indictments in opposition to him for witness intimidation.
“Mr. Kearney has been prejudiced by the nondisclosure and/or destruction of exculpatory and discoverable evidence,” legal professional Mark Bederow writes in a brand new submitting.
He provides that the proof is “in support of the claim that the DA’s biased and shoddy investigation relied upon unvetted and possibly tampered evidence from a source with a patently obvious motive to falsely accuse Mr. Kearney and with a track record of doctoring evidence against him on at least two occasions.”
Kearney, 43, faces six felony expenses of witness intimidation and 4 misdemeanor counts of picketing jurors or court docket officers associated to his activism within the Learn case. Two counts of witness intimidation, three counts of conspiracy and a rely of picketing have been dismissed since he was indicted in December 2023.
Learn, 45, was acquitted in June of three expenses associated to the killing of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, on Jan. 29, 2022. The jury convicted her of solely drunken driving.
Kearney latched on early to a principle offered in an April 2023 court docket submitting by Learn’s protection group that advised others had killed O’Keefe and moved on from there, publishing greater than 500 articles in his “Canton Cover Up” sequence on Turtleboy Day by day Information and releasing a whole lot of hours-long movies additionally protecting the case.
In a brand new submitting, Kearney legal professional Mark Bederow says that Kearney reportage featured “relentless, blistering criticism of” the Norfolk district legal professional, the Massachusetts State Police, “and the civilians whom Mr. Kearney (and many others) believe concealed the truth about Mr. O’Keefe’s death” and that his prosecution is a reprisal for the protection.
Throughout an 88-page affidavit, Bederow makes quite a few allegations relating to the prosecution of his consumer in help of motions to have the indictments dismissed and to disqualify particular Assistant District Legal professional Kenneth Mello from the case.
One name for dismissal hinges on his allegation that the state has repeatedly rebuffed protection efforts to acquire evidentiary supplies vital for a correct protection.
The opposite arguments need to do with Mello’s habits. Bederow argues that Mello’s actions make him a doable witness within the case — which cited case legislation says ought to bar him from prosecuting it. He additionally alleges that Mello and legislation enforcement had been meddling with the proof offered to the grand jury that indicted Kearney on the witness intimidation expenses.
“Mr. Mello’s direction of the grand jury proceeding made a mockery of Mr. Kearney’s right to due process, the cumulative impact of which impaired the integrity of the grand jury proceeding and prejudiced Mr. Kearney,” Bederow wrote.
Bederow accuses Mello of giving the grand jury “improper legal instructions,” that he “failed to give appropriate limiting instructions” and made different authorized errors, together with allegations of a criminal offense for which he “did not seek an indictment.”
The Norfolk DA’s workplace didn’t instantly return a Herald request for remark despatched Thursday afternoon.
This can be a growing story.
