On Monday, special prosecutor Hank Brennan addressed the public about the Karen Read case, expressing concern that the actions of her most ardent supporters pose a risk to the American legal system as we know it.
“The efforts of intimidation and harassment being carried out, financed, and publicized both in public forums and on social media run counter to the essence of justice. Should such behavior become widespread, it will jeopardize the fairness of our judicial system, impacting victims and those accused of crimes alike,” he stated in a release.
“We cannot condone witness abuse causing participants to worry for their own safety or that of their families.”
Among Read’s prominent advocates, Aidan Kearney, a Canton-based blogger known as Turtleboy, is currently facing charges related to witness intimidation in this case.
“I want to acknowledge the greatest team of attorneys,” he told a crowd after her acquittal on the most serious charges. “Our first one that we found was David Yannetti. We added Alan Jackson and Liza Little. Bob Alessi you know about, all right. It was a fantastic team, but we needed them all to defeat this.”
In a new interview with NBC’s Boston affiliate, he put on a Lexus golf shirt and said his daughter would have told him if she had killed O’Keefe.
“We know Karen as our daughter. Had she done something and struck John O’Keefe, we would have been the first to be notified,” he told the station. “She would have said, ‘Mom and dad, I will take my medicine,’ and it was quite the opposite.”
As for her mother, Janet Read, she thanked her daughter’s supporters and said she intended to pay it forward.
William Read, like his daughter’s defense attorneys, is urging her supporters to go out and vote.
O’Keefe’s family has not responded to requests for comment.
