Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as “Turtleboy” who’s charged with intimidating witnesses in the Karen Read case, was hit with an additional count Wednesday alleging similar conduct, records show.
Kearney, 43, of Holden, allegedly harassed Canton Selectman Chris Albert at his local pizza shop on Tuesday, one day before he appeared in Norfolk Superior Court for a hearing on a motion to dismiss the other witness intimidation charges, records show.
A police report filed in Stoughton District Court said Albert provided video footage of Kearney outside his business, D & E Pizza, in which the blogger “places his face next to the front glass window” of the pizza parlor and speaks into an interior camera.
“It was Colin, Chris,” the report quotes Kearney as saying in part, referring to Albert’s son Colin Albert, who Kearney has publicly accused of being involved in the death of Read’s boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
Only Read has been charged in connection with O’Keefe’s death, and Colin Albert testified at her first trial that he left the home that she and O’Keefe pulled up to about 20 minutes before their arrival.
“The statements made by Kearney and his conduct of standing outside is the same conduct that was the basis for his indictment” in Superior Court, the report said. “When Chris saw the video shortly after the incident, he became upset. He stated he is upset for his son Colin and the possibility that Kearney would continue to come to the restaurant to confront him or his son.”
A lawyer for Kearney, Mark Bederow, told reporters Wednesday outside Superior Court, where the defense had argued their dismissal motion for the prior charges, that the government continues to target his client unjustly.
“Obviously they have been coming after him for a period of time,” Bederow said, according to a clip uploaded to X that Kearney reposted. “There have been allegations of witness intimidation again and again. It’s an ever-repeating cycle. ... Speech is protected with rare exceptions.”
In Norfolk Superior Court Wednesday, Judge Michael Doolin took the dismissal request under advisement.
Doolin on Thursday also ordered Kearney to stay away from witnesses he is accused of harassing in the Read case and to behave in court.
“Additional Conditions of Release: 1. Stay-away / no contact direct or indirect with the named witnesses in his Superior Court cases,” said an order Doolin issued Thursday. “2. Stay 100 yards away from D & E Pizza in Canton, MA and 3. Behave in an appropriate manner while in any court house or within 300 feet of the building.”
Kearney’s legal team has said in court papers that Doolin should toss the charges because they “implicate only protected speech,” and because prosecutors compromised “the integrity of the Grand Jury by misrepresenting the state of the evidence and the law.”
By ordering Kearney to act in an “appropriate manner” while in the courthouse, Doolin effectively cleared the way for the blogger to cover Read’s second trial, slated to begin April 1, in person as he did during her first go-round.
Kearney has loudly championed Read’s claims of innocence in the death of O’Keefe, accusing investigators of a coverup and sparking national interest in her case.
Read, 45, is charged with second-degree murder and other counts for allegedly backing her SUV in a drunken rage into O’Keefe early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Canton home following a night of bar hopping.
Her lawyers say she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the house, owned at the time by a fellow Boston officer, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a German Shepherd before his body was planted on the front lawn.
Read’s first trial ended in a hung jury in July. She remains free on bail pending the highly anticipated retrial.
During Kearney’s October 2023 district court arraignment, special prosecutor Kenneth Mello said that the blogger had posted at least 164 articles on his website about what he called the “Canton Coverup” and multiple videos to YouTube in which he accused witnesses of participating in a crime.
He also “doxxed” some of those witnesses, publicizing their home addresses and their work and private phone numbers and encouraging his audience to harass them, Mello said.
“This is not my last trip to Canton. I’ll be back,” Kearney allegedly said in one profanity-strewn video, adding later, “These people think I’m [expletive] around. They haven’t seen the last of me. Get used to it.”
In another video, Kearney allegedly addressed one of the witnesses directly, saying the witness could not avoid Kearney’s followers, Mello said.
“I got really bad news for you,” Kearney said, according to Mello. “They are literally everywhere. You guys should just stop going out in public. It’s only going to get worse from here. I know where you all were today. You were in Agawam, weren’t you? You guys were at some sort of Little League thing in Agawam.”
Court papers said Kearney also allegedly confronted Albert at his pizza palace and urged his online followers to call in orders without picking them up.
But in the dismissal motion, Kearney’s lawyers said the government failed to present evidence that he’d engaged in any criminal wrongdoing.
Instead, the defense said, prosecutors have “merely” alleged that Read witnesses have suffered emotional or economic harm, or were placed in fear by Kearney’s reporting and advocacy.
“The First Amendment does not cease to protect a journalist’s non-threatening opinions simply because such speech allegedly caused economic or emotional harm,” the motion said. “If anything, it is precisely in these situations in which the First Amendment must protect a person’s right to report on and express their opinion on a matter of public concern.”
The next hearing in Kearney’s case is scheduled for April 30, records show. A trial date hasn’t been set.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.