Former Massachusetts US Attorney Rachael Rollins recently praised Aidan Kearney, the controversial blogger known as “Turtleboy,” for his reporting on the Karen Read criminal case, which ended last week with her acquittal on charges she killed her boyfriend in 2022 in Canton.
“Without [turtle emoji] boy, does anyone know or care about the KR trial? His relentless reporting — in the face of repeatedly being told by law enforcement that he was wrong & there was ‘nothing to see here’ —cracked this case wide open,” Rollins wrote on X on June 18, the day Read was cleared. “That should not be lost in all of the reporting.”
Kearney, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of harassing and intimidating witnesses in the Read case, responded on Monday via X. Some of his charges have been dropped, and he was acquitted of violating a restraining order.
“I can’t believe I’m just seeing this now (and didn’t have it on my bingo card) but Rachael Rollins made a post publicly thanking me for my relentless reporting,” Kearney wrote. “I have criticized her extensively over the years (to the point where she blocked me and I can’t retweet this), but at least she has the dignity to put aside our differences and say this.”
Rollins was the US Attorney for Massachusetts in 2023 when federal authorities began investigating state law enforcement’s handling of the Read case. A federal grand jury was convened but no one was charged with any federal crimes.
Rollins resigned in May 2023 after government watchdogs determined she’d repeatedly committed ethical breaches and misused the power of her office, particularly by trying to influence the 2022 election for her successor as Suffolk district attorney.
Norfolk County prosecutors had alleged that Read, 45, backed her Lexus SUV in a drunken rage into John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside home in Canton.
Her lawyers told jurors she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the property, owned at the time by a fellow Boston police officer, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a German Shepherd before his body was planted on the front lawn.
Jurors last week cleared Read of second-degree murder, manslaughter while OUI, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death. They convicted her only of a lesser misdemeanor of OUI, for which she received a year’s probation.
Read still faces a wrongful death lawsuit brought by O’Keefe’s family in Plymouth Superior Court.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.