The Holden man known as “Turtleboy” can attend the Karen Read murder trial, a Dedham District Court judge ruled on Friday, The Boston Globe reported.
Aidan Kearney, 42, appeared in Dedham District Court for a pre-trial hearing. Unrelated to the Read trial, he was charged separately with violating a restraining order with his former girlfriend.
During his court appearance, the judge “vacated the restraining order whenever Aidan is within 50 yards of any Massachusetts courthouse,” Kearney’s lawyer, Tim Bradl, told the Globe.
“He’s allowed to cover the Read case and every other courthouse and she won’t be able to go there and flush him out with the restraining order,” Bradl added.
In a “post-court live stream” on Facebook, Kearney called the ruling “a complete victory,” although he said the restraining order was “amended” so he could attend the trial.
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“I can go to any courthouse in Massachusetts…,” he said while he drove his car. “They f***ed with the wrong person. What were they thinking?”
Kearney turned himself into Medfield Police on Dec. 26 after the woman sought a restraining order against him for shoving her into a couch, the Telegram & Gazette reported. He was charged with intimidating a witness and assault, with the latter charge later dropped.
On Tuesday, Kearney also appeared in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham for pre-trial hearings in two separate cases brought by Special prosecutor Kenneth Mello, a criminal defense lawyer tapped by Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey to investigate allegations of intimidating witnesses in the Read case.
Bradl accused Mello of “delay and obfuscation” to keep Kearney from covering the Read trial.
Bradl described the charges against Kearney as a “destruction of the 1st Amendment” due to them being connected to his coverage of the Read case.
“I’ve never received any direction whatsoever from the district attorney’s office in the performance of my duties and my obligations,” Mello said. “We have never exchanged one piece of information and it’s intentional that I’m keeping distance from the district attorney’s office in that regard because I don’t want there to be any allegations that we’re conspiring with each other to move these cases together .”
