Aidan Kearney: Charges, Karen Read Case, and Defamation Lawsuit

Aidan Kearney, the Massachusetts blogger who writes under the name Turtleboy, faces multiple pending felony charges in Norfolk County, most of them for witness intimidation tied to his coverage of the Karen Read murder case. Since his first arrest in October 2023, the charges against Aidan Kearney have grown, shrunk, and shifted through a series of indictments, dismissals, and prosecutor disqualifications. As of mid-2026, two criminal dockets remain active, a trial is set for December 2026, and Kearney is also defending a defamation lawsuit filed by four of the witnesses he covered.

The Charges He Faces

Kearney’s criminal exposure has come in three waves.

The first arrest, on October 11, 2023, brought six counts of witness intimidation and one count of conspiracy. He was released on personal recognizance under a no-contact order covering eight witnesses in the Read case, with violation carrying up to 90 days in jail.¹

In December 2023, a Norfolk County grand jury returned a 16-count indictment: eight counts of witness intimidation, three counts of conspiracy to intimidate witnesses, and five counts of picketing a witness. Kearney pleaded not guilty on December 22, 2023.²

Days later, on December 26, 2023, prosecutors added an assault and battery charge after his then-girlfriend Lindsey Gaetani alleged he assaulted her at her Medfield home on December 23. Prosecutors said the alleged assault was itself an act of witness intimidation because Gaetani had been summoned to a grand jury. A judge revoked his bail, and Kearney sat in jail for about two months before being released on personal recognizance on February 23, 2024. That same day he was arraigned on two more counts: intimidation of a witness and disclosing the contents of a wiretap.³² Kearney has called the Gaetani incident a “setup.”⁴

A third wave came in May 2025, during Karen Read’s second murder trial, when a grand jury indicted Kearney on two additional felony counts of witness intimidation involving Chris Albert and his son Colin Albert. Kearney was arraigned in July 2025 and pleaded not guilty.⁵⁶

Not everything has stuck. Two counts of witness intimidation, three counts of conspiracy, and one count of picketing were dismissed from the December 2023 indictment. In October 2025, the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office filed a nolle prosequi closing one of the three criminal dockets entirely, including the Gaetani-related charges and a wiretapping count. Two dockets remain active.⁷

Who the Alleged Victims Are and What He’s Accused of Doing

The no-contact order at his first arraignment named eight witnesses in the Read case, among them Jennifer McCabe, Christopher Albert, Colin Albert, and former state trooper Michael Proctor.¹

The alleged conduct includes publishing witnesses’ personal addresses, filming himself confronting witnesses in public, and organizing rallies outside their homes.² The 2025 charges arose from an incident at a Canton pizza shop owned by the Alberts. Surveillance video captured Kearney gesturing and yelling at the shop window with another man beside him. Prosecutors alleged he acted to cause physical, emotional, or economic injury to the Alberts to impede criminal proceedings.⁵

The Karen Read Connection

The charges exist because of Read. Read was accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022. Her defense alleged that officers and witnesses conspired to frame her, and Kearney became the loudest public voice for that theory, publishing article after article, running rallies, and building the case into a national spectacle on his blog.²

His contact with Read herself became evidence. An unsealed affidavit showed the two exchanged 189 phone calls in 2023 totaling more than 40 hours, plus messages on the encrypted Signal app and communications through an intermediary. Prosecutors alleged Read fed him non-public case information, including grand jury minutes, autopsy photos, and witness details, to encourage the pressure campaign on witnesses.² In March 2025, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Adam Sisitsky ruled prosecutors could access data from two of Kearney’s phones covering April through October 2023.⁸

Read’s own case ended on June 18, 2025, when a jury acquitted her of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene, convicting her only of operating under the influence. She received one year of probation.⁹ Kearney’s charges did not go with her acquittal.

Why the Prosecution Keeps Stalling

The cases have moved slowly in part because prosecutors keep having to step aside. The Norfolk County District Attorney’s office, under DA Michael Morrissey, brought in special prosecutors. Special prosecutor Ken Mello was disqualified by Judge Michael Doolin in September 2025 over alleged improper communications with Gaetani.¹⁰

His replacement, retired judge Robert Cosgrove, was granted permission on September 24, 2025 to withdraw from one of the three cases. Gaetani had filed a counterclaim against Cosgrove in a separate defamation lawsuit Kearney had brought, alleging Cosgrove improperly turned over her personal information to Kearney during pretrial proceedings. Cosgrove himself doubted another special prosecutor would be willing to step in.¹¹¹²

In January 2026, the defense moved to disqualify Cosgrove from the two remaining cases as well. At a January 30, 2026 hearing in Suffolk Superior Court, Judge Christopher Belezos suggested the conflict might be handled by adding a separate lawyer to deal with Gaetani-related issues rather than removing Cosgrove outright. The motion is under advisement.¹³

The First Amendment Defense

Kearney’s lead attorney, Timothy Bradl (previously Mark Bederow), treats the prosecution as a press-freedom case. Bradl has called Kearney a “professional member of the press” and described the rallies outside witnesses’ homes as “time-honored journalistic tactics for newsgathering.” The defense moved to vacate his bail conditions on First Amendment and overbreadth grounds, arguing the no-contact order was an unconstitutional prior restraint on his reporting.¹⁴

On the 2025 pizza shop charges, Bradl argued the surveillance audio was itself illegal wiretapping under Massachusetts law because Kearney had not consented to being recorded, and he called claims of emotional harm to the Alberts a “farce.”⁵ The defense has also accused the DA’s office of misconduct, alleging that Morrissey used a personal email account to communicate with a judge about a harassment prevention order to dodge public records scrutiny, and that investigators searched Kearney’s seized phones despite telling the court they had not.¹⁵

Prosecutors reject the press framing. Ken Mello argued the First Amendment “is not a license to violate state or federal law and does not confer any special dispensation to journalists… should they violate criminal statutes,” contending that publishing witnesses’ addresses was meant to incite harassment, not to inform.¹⁴

The Defamation Lawsuit Against Him

On April 17, 2026, four witnesses from the Read case — Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert, Colin Albert, and Brian Higgins — filed a 14-count civil suit against Kearney and Karen Read in Barnstable County Superior Court. The complaint alleges defamation, conspiracy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, describing a “deliberate campaign of lies” that subjected the plaintiffs to “relentless false accusations, harassment, and intimidation.” The suit claims Kearney coordinated with Read to spread “elaborate and false narratives” for personal notoriety and income.¹⁶

Bradl responded that “proving the truth of the allegedly defamatory statements is an absolute defense” and said Kearney would use the suit to “defend the suit by prosecuting them in civil court for the murder of John O’Keefe.” Read’s legal team called the suit “retaliation.”¹⁶

Both defendants are preparing anti-SLAPP motions to dismiss, which pause discovery once filed. A hearing on the motions is set for July 14, 2026 before Judge Mark Gildea.¹⁷

Where the Cases Stand Now

Two criminal dockets remain active in Norfolk County. The defense filed a motion to dismiss in fall 2025, the motion to disqualify Cosgrove is under advisement, and a follow-up hearing was set for March 27, 2026. Trial is scheduled for December 2026.¹³ The witnesses’ defamation suit sits in its opening phase, with anti-SLAPP motions and the July 14, 2026 hearing ahead.¹⁷

1
NBC Boston. Timeline: The Series of Events That Led to the Arrest of Turtleboy Blogger Aidan Kearney
2
CBS News Boston. Karen Read Trial Aidan Kearney Turtleboy
3
Telegram.com. Turtleboy Aidan Kearney Faces New Assault and Battery Charge
4
Telegram.com. Prosecutors Drop Aidan Turtleboy Kearney Case
5
Telegram.com. Turtleboy Aidan Kearney Witness Intimidation Indictment
6
Court TV. Blogger Aidan Kearney Pleads Not Guilty to New Witness Intimidation Charges
7
Boston Herald. Norfolk DA Drops Intimidation Charge Against Turtleboy Blogger
8
Yahoo News. Prosecutors Data Turtleboy Phones Show
9
NPR. Karen Read Acquitted at Trial
10
Yahoo News. Case Against Turtleboy in Limbo
11
Telegram.com. Turtleboy Prosecutor Robert Cosgrove Withdraws
12
WCVB. Turtleboy Prosecutor Withdraws
13
MassLive. Judge Questions Need to Remove Prosecutor in Turtleboy Witness Intimidation Case
14
Boston.com. Turtleboy Blogger First Amendment Battle Witness Intimidation Charges
15
NBC Boston. Turtleboy’s Defense Claims DA Lied About Evidence, Improperly Used Personal Email
16
CBS News Boston. Karen Read Turtleboy Aidan Kearney Defamation Lawsuit
17
MassLive. Karen Read Turtleboy Prepping Motions to Dismiss Witnesses Defamation Lawsuit