The circumstances of Karen Learn and pro-Learn blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney may have been extra tied up collectively than they already are if a prosecutor had his method with a grand jury earlier this yr.
Particular prosecutor Kenneth Mello, a Fall River-based legal professional introduced in to deal with a number of circumstances towards Kearney together with felony witness intimidation expenses associated to the Learn homicide case, introduced expenses that Learn and Kearney had conspired to intimidate witnesses in her case to a Norfolk Superior Court docket grand jury.
These expenses weren’t authorized following his grand jury presentation. Jurors returned a “no true bill” on the matter — which implies they didn’t discover sufficient proof to assist the fees.
A Norfolk Superior Court docket clerk confirmed to the Herald the case existed and that was the result, however mentioned the entire supplies concerned in it are impounded and are usually not obtainable for public view.
Mello had dropped hints alongside the way in which that he was making an attempt to indict the brand new expenses. In January, a search warrant filed in Kearney’s case was unsealed and revealed that Massachusetts State Police investigators had seized two iPhones from Learn.
The warrant alleged that Learn and her protection group supplied Kearney with private supplies and orchestrated his protection of the case and his alleged witness intimidation marketing campaign. It alleges that Learn dedicated the crime of conspiracy to intimidate a witness.
Kearney’s legal professional Timothy Bradl on the time advised the Herald that this was “an investigation without a crime.”
“It appears to me that there is zero evidence that Karen Read intended or had anything to do with any witness intimidation or interference, and rather is a woman fighting for her life as a target of a murder charge,” he mentioned on the time.
Whereas Learn protection legal professional David Yannetti mentioned he couldn’t touch upon the failed indictment, Bradl did give the Herald a brief remark concerning how Mello hinted on the alleged conspiracy between Learn and Kearney.
“The timing of the release of the information that there was an attempt to indict Mr. Kearney and Ms. Read is extremely troubling,” he advised the Herald Thursday.
Learn, 44, of Mansfield, faces expenses together with second-degree homicide within the dying of John O’Keefe, her boyfriend and a Boston Police officer on the time of his dying. Prosecutors say she struck him along with her SUV after heavy consuming and yet one more argument of their troubled relationship and left him to freeze and die on a Canton entrance yard.
A primary trial ended with a hung jury and a brand new trial is scheduled for Jan. 27. Her attorneys have argued that in post-mistrial disclosures, the jury was unanimously able to acquit her on the homicide cost in addition to leaving the scene of an accident inflicting dying, and had been solely held on a manslaughter cost however didn’t know the way to convey that in trial. They requested that the 2 expenses be dropped within the upcoming trial. Trial Decide Beverly Cannone denied the movement however they’ve since appealed to the state Supreme Judicial Court docket.
The O’Keefe household filed a civil go well with towards her and she or he has requested that matter wait till the tip of her legal proceedings.
Her case has develop into a lightning rod for true crime junkies within the Larger Boston area and all through the nation.
Maybe no individual greater than Kearney, a Holden-based reporter who blogs independently on his personal web site, YouTube channel and varied social media platforms beneath the “Turtleboy” banner, has performed extra to maintain the case entrance and middle — from an completely and vehemently pro-Learn viewpoint.
He serves because the de facto chief of a really seen group calling to “Free Karen Read,” which has taken the protection’s claims of a large legislation enforcement and prosecutorial cover-up within the case and run with it.
However prosecutor Mello alleges that Kearney, 42, stepped far over the road of activism and into the realm of felony witness intimidation. Kearney was slammed with a 16-count indictment final December: eight counts of witness intimidation, three counts of conspiracy to intimidate witnesses, and 5 counts of picketing a witness.
Kearney has pleaded not responsible to the fees and he and his legal professional have defended his actions on First Modification grounds, with Kearney nonetheless not shy to talk for himself on the subject.
