'Turtleboy' will be excused from courtroom during certain testimony during murder trial

DEDHAM, Mass. (WJAR) — The judge in the Karen Read murder trial ruled Friday that blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney will be excused from the courtroom when certain witnesses testify, including members of the Albert and McCabe families.

The ruling comes after the commonwealth filed a motion. Kearney is facing witness intimidation charges in the case.

Mr. Kearney has covered this case and written about 350 news articles on this case. He developed evidentiary scoops on this case that have added to the quantum of evidence in the matter. He has never caused a problem. He wishes to be in the gallery of journalists like everyone else and cover the case," Kearney's attorney Timothy Bradl said.

The judge said Kearney has all the necessary paperwork to be in the courtroom.

The number of reporter seats are limited. The judge said his seat will not be filled when he has to leave the courtroom.

The trial centers around the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe during a blizzard in 2022.

Read's defense team said she is being framed. Her attorneys also have been focusing heavily on connections between police and the family that owned the home in the Boston suburb of Canton where O'Keefe's body was found. They are trying to argue that these relationships biased the investigation and blinded state and local law enforcement officials to the possibility that someone else killed the 46-year-old O'Keefe.

Defense attorneys first went after Katie McLaughlin, a firefighter who responded to the scene and who had been friends with family member Caitlin Albert. The house was owned at the time by Albert's father, Boston Police Officer Brian Albert.

McLaughlin confirmed on Friday that she and Caitlin Albert went to high school together, were friends on social media and were photographed together at a local beach about a decade ago. But she insisted they were only acquaintances and that she didn’t know it was Albert’s home when she responded to the call. She also said she hadn’t talked to Albert for a few years.

The case has gotten outsized attention as those who subscribe to the conspiracy theory have protested outside the courthouse.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.