Crime
“This case … at this point in time, is essentially stateless,” one of the blogger’s lawyers said Wednesday.
An attorney for Aidan Kearney declared one of the Turtleboy blogger’s three witness intimidation cases officially “stateless” after the sole remaining prosecutor dropped out Wednesday.
Special prosecutor Robert Cosgrove withdrew after the alleged victim in the case — Kearney’s ex-girlfriend — named him in response to a defamation suit the blogger filed against her in Worcester County.
“The situation does not seem to me personally, and I’m not speaking for the [Norfolk County District Attorney’s] Office, conducive to enticing a special prosecutor to assume my position,” Cosgrove told the court Wednesday, per CourtTV video. “So we’ll have to see what develops.”
A leading figure in the “Free Karen Read” movement, Kearney shot to prominence as a staunch defender of Read’s innocence in the 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. Read’s supporters have long maintained she was framed in a vast law enforcement conspiracy.
But while Read was ultimately acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges, prosecutors say Kearney’s outspoken activism and confrontational antics crossed the line into witness intimidation. For their part, the blogger and his attorneys are adamant his actions were protected under the First Amendment.
Cosgrove’s withdrawal now leaves one of Kearney’s criminal cases in limbo. Judge Michael Doolin previously disqualified the other special prosecutor, Ken Mello, after determining that Mello made himself a potential witness in the case by communicating with Kearney’s ex-girlfriend during the alleged incident. Now, the same woman, who wasn’t a witness in Read’s case, is accusing Cosgrove of improperly releasing sensitive information to Kearney’s legal team during the pretrial process.
“This case … at this point in time, is essentially stateless,” one of the blogger’s lawyers, Mark Bederow, said Wednesday. Bederow said the alleged victim also sent a demand letter to Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey threatening possible legal action.
His co-counsel, Tim Bradl, urged Doolin to stop Kearney’s ex from filing more third-party motions, which he argued “are creating a serious risk of denying Mr. Kearney of a fair trial.”
“This is outrageous,” Bradl added. “She can’t keep taking potshots with the court. Your honor has to read this stuff. It should be stricken. It shouldn’t even be accepted, is our position.”
Doolin ultimately gave Morrissey’s office 30 days to appoint a new special prosecutor, “whether that’s the Attorney General’s Office or another prosecutor’s office or somebody.” Boston.com has reached out to the DA’s office for comment.
Cosgrove is still prosecuting Kearney in his two other witness intimidation cases, though a pending motion to dismiss could further upend the state’s game plan.
The blogger’s attorneys are asking for his initial 2023 indictment to be tossed on the grounds that prosecutors impaired the integrity of the grand jury proceedings and failed to disclose certain evidence to the defense. The request largely rests on the claim that authorities conspired with one of Kearney’s online rivals — a former employee who purportedly has an “unhealthy fixation” on the blogger — to present doctored evidence to grand jurors.
“The primary evidence used to secure Mr. Kearney’s indictments were shortened, edited and renamed segments from his hours-long YouTube episodes, which had the effect of skewing the true context of Mr. Kearney’s episodes,” the 88-page motion reads.
Kearney’s lawyers allege authorities gave those cherrypicked, out-of-context clips titles such as “enjoying watching witnesses squirm” and “trying to destroy Colin’s life” — a reference to a key witness from Read’s case. Their motion to dismiss further accuses Mello of making “improper comments” to the grand jury and introducing irrelevant evidence for the purpose of “dirtying up” Kearney.
“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,” the court filing reads.
While Cosgrove hasn’t yet filed a response to the motion to dismiss, the strongly worded filing from Kearney’s camp sets up a potentially explosive debate when both sides argue the matter Dec. 5.
“The Commonwealth’s misconduct has fueled its misguided obsession to ‘get Turtleboy,’” Kearney’s attorneys wrote in a memorandum accompanying their motion. “It has stained the Norfolk DA’s Office, Mr. Mello, and the [Massachusetts State Police], all of whom have been directed and/or influenced by civilians upset with the fact that Mr. Kearney’s reporting has exposed their alleged involvement in the death of John O’Keefe.”
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