Blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney’s defense attorney could be in some hot water.
The Norfolk special prosecutor assigned to Kearney’s case alleges that defense attorney Timothy Bradl contrived a plan for Kearney, a blogger currently in lockup in a Norfolk County jail, to speak to one of his followers on a privileged phone line legally intended only for attorneys.
Special Prosecutor Kenneth Mello is asking that Bradl be ordered to pay a fine of $10,000 for this alleged offense. He’s also seeking further restrictions on Kearney’s communications: that only Bradl be allowed on the privileged calls, and that a “master” responsible only to the court monitor Bradl’s calls in case there are any further breaches of protocol.
Kearney is charged in Norfolk Superior Court with 16 counts of witness intimidation and conspiracy related to his coverage on his blog and YouTube channel of the case of Karen Read, a Mansfield woman charged with second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. O’Keefe’s body was found outside of a Canton home in January 2022.
The case is back in court Friday, when the motion is likely to be argued.
Kearney appeared for a brief hearing Thursday morning for a related restraining order case in Dedham District Court, but that was continued until Feb. 26 at 9 a.m., ensuring he will remain in lockup for at least another 30 days — meaning 60 of the total 90 days allowed under the initial order.
Mello’s motion claims that Bradl left a voicemail with security officers at Norfolk County Correctional Center, 200 West St. in Dedham, to set up who should be allowed unmonitored and unrecorded communications with Kearney — in other words, privileged lines reserved for attorneys in the case and their employees. In the voicemail message, he allegedly added a woman named Jennifer Altman and gave her phone number.
“At all times relevant hereto, Attorney Bradl was aware that Jennifer Altman was not and has never been an attorney. In fact, Jennifer Altman is widely known as a follower and minion of the Defendant … known as a ‘Turtlerider.’ Altman is also an administrator of one or more Facebook pages and/or internet blogs belonging to or created by the Defendant,” Mello wrote in the motion filed Wednesday.
Mello said that Altman and Kearney shared more than 60 privileged telephone calls between Dec. 28 and Jan. 12.
“The Commonwealth contends that Attorney Bradl’s conduct constitutes an outrageous and egregious violation of professional ethics and was designed to afford the Defendant the means to communicate with his followers and to continue to vicariously harass and intimidate, and to direct his ‘Turtleriders’ to intimidate and harass, (sic) his victims directly and/or indirectly via the internet and possibly by other means,” Mello’s motion continued.
Bradl did not return a request for comment on this motion by deadline.
