Assault and battery charge against 'Turtleboy' Aidan Kearney is dropped

An assault and battery charge filed in Dedham District Court in December against Aidan Kearney of Holden, known as Turtleboy, has been dropped, court records show.

Electronic Dedham District Court records show the charge, which related to an allegation Kearney assaulted an ex-girlfriend Dec. 23 at her apartment, was dropped Friday along with a second charge of witness intimidation.

Kearney was indicted Friday into Norfolk Superior Court on a witness intimidation charge and a separate wiretapping charge related to the same ex-girlfriend.

It is common in district court to drop charges as “indicted and arraigned” upon a Superior Court indictment, since the higher court will now hear the charges.

However, Kearney was not indicted on an assault and battery charge in Norfolk Superior Court last week. Prosecutors filed a nolle prosequi on the charge, which means they are no longer pursuing it but can still refile it.

Kenneth Mello, the special prosecutor who brought Kearney’s case, did not immediately respond Monday to an email query regarding the assault and battery charge.

Timothy Bradl, Kearney’s lawyer, wrote in an email that the charge was abandoned by virtue of the filing of the nolle prosequi.

“They left it open in District Court for a time,” he wrote, adding that only the prosecution could speak to why.

“I’ve never seen a prosecutor do that before,” Bradl wrote.

Kearney denied assaulting his ex-girlfriend in testimony he gave in January in a separate but related restraining order case the woman brought against him.

The woman had alleged the two struggled over notes she had let him take regarding conversations she had with a rival of Kearney’s on social media.

The woman testified Kearney “kind of pushed me in the process of trying to wrestle me for the notes.

“My knees were at the couch level, so I — he pushed me into the couch and I thereafter fell onto the couch,” she said. She said she was not hurt.

Kearney denied any assault, and Bradl alleged in court that prosecutors and police conspired with the woman to send him back to jail.

Kearney was released on recognizance Dec. 22 on a separate Norfolk Superior Court indictment related to his coverage of the murder prosecution of Karen Read.

Bradl alleged in court that authorities made the ex-girlfriend a witness and conspired with her, noting it was a state police detective, not the woman, who informed Medfield police of the alleged Dec. 23 incident.

The woman denied conspiring with authorities in testimony in her restraining order case, saying she was put in touch with prosecutors because of information she had regarding Kearney and the Read case.

A Dedham District Court judge ordered Kearney jailed for 60 days in late December following his arraignment on the assault and battery and witness intimidation charges. A Norfolk Superior Court judge ordered Kearney released on personal recognizance Friday following arraignment on the new charges.

In a post on his blog Monday, Kearney alleged the charges related to his ex-girlfriend were "completely bogus and made up," and brought in order to send him to jail.

Kearney alleged prosecutors dropped the charge because pursuing it would expose his ex-girlfriend as a liar and jeopardize the "other bogus charges in Superior Court" he faces related to her.

Aside from the new charges in Norfolk Superior Court related to the ex-girlfriend, Kearney faces 16 counts — including eight felony counts of witness intimidation — relative to his blog’s coverage of, and his advocacy surrounding, Read’s case.

Read is facing a second-degree murder charge tied to allegations she struck and killed her boyfriend, Boston police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV after a night of drinking in Canton.

Kearney has blogged extensively about her case, arguing evidence points to a massive coverup orchestrated after O’Keefe was allegedly beaten and attacked by a dog inside the home of another police officer.

He has accused people inside the home of being part of the cover-up and traveled to their homes to host protests, preceding the witness intimidation charges.

Kearney was first to report that federal authorities were looking into the Karen Read case, an unusual step in state murder cases that intensified public attention on the case.

Norfolk County prosecutors allege in recent court documents that Kearney was fed information by Read and her lawyers, and that her lawyers unethically and improperly cited that information when making claims prosecutors allege to be false in her defense.

Prosecutors wrote in court documents that forensic testing and testimony will show there is no evidence of canine DNA on O'Keefe's clothing and dispel other alleged evidence of a conspiracy.

At a court hearing in Read’s case Monday in Norfolk Superior Court, prosecutors said that thousands of pages of long-awaited information about Read’s case recently turned over by federal prosecutors were about “90 to 95% consistent” with their theory of the case.

A jury trial for that case is slated for April 16, though lawyers for Read are requesting to delay it.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Assault and battery charge against 'Turtleboy' Aidan Kearney dropped