Aidan Kearney, known for his advocacy of Karen Read’s innocence on a collection of websites and social media accounts under the “Turtleboy” brand umbrella, appeared this morning for the first of two of his own hearings scheduled for today in Dedham.

The morning hearing regarding an alleged restraining order violation was called at Dedham District Court at around 9:30 a.m. and lasted roughly 2 minutes before being rescheduled for Aug. 22 at 9 a.m. He is scheduled to appear in Norfolk Superior Court across the street at 2 p.m. for a hearing on felony charges.

Kearney, 42, of Holden, faces indictments in the superior court on eight felony counts of witness intimidation and eight misdemeanor counts of picketing witnesses related to the Read murder case.

Kearney was confident and defiant when speaking to reporters outside the district courthouse following the morning hearing on an alleged restraining order violation.

“It’s all just a lie and it’s a distraction from the real important case, which is across the street where the First Amendment is on trial in Norfolk Superior Court,” he said. He added that he believes the woman who has the restraining order against him is using it to prevent him from being able to attend hearings in the Read case.

“She knew I would be here outside of court waiting for the verdict, and she was one of the five people who showed up and forced me to leave my own protest because she can’t stop coming around me and I just want to do my job and be left alone and not have this order weaponized against me,” he added.

Kearney’s defense attorney, Timothy Bradl, said he received a folder of evidence from prosecutors and that they would need to review it and get “the raw data.”

“The Commonwealth, in an effort to revoke my client’s bail, filed a pretty thick submission that had screenshots of videos and obviously cherry-picked in the favor of the (Commonwealth),” Bradl said after court. “The defense needs the raw data so that we can see what exactly is on there.”

This is a developing story.