Karen Read and Turtleboy fight defamation suit over O'Keefe case claims

Karen Read and Aidan Kearney are trying to get a Barnstable Superior Court defamation suit dismissed, arguing their public accusations about the killing of Boston police Officer John O’Keefe were protected petitioning activity tied to the criminal case. The fight was argued in court on July 14, 2026.

The lawsuit was filed April 17, 2026, by Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert, Colin Albert and Brian Higgins. Their 14-count complaint seeks damages for defamation, conspiracy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiffs say Read and Kearney repeatedly accused them of involvement in O’Keefe’s death, even though Read was acquitted on June 18, 2025, of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene, and convicted only of operating under the influence of liquor.

Read’s lawyers argue those statements were part of her defense and fall under Massachusetts’ anti-SLAPP law, which protects petitioning activity. They also argue the plaintiffs cannot show her comments were “devoid of any reasonable factual support,” pointing to the evidence presented in the criminal case and the not-guilty verdicts on the homicide counts. They also argue the same protection should cover later comments tied to the civil fallout from the case.

The plaintiffs push back that some of the alleged defamation happened outside protected courtroom activity, including statements made to a documentary filmmaker and in post-verdict interviews. Their lawyer, James Tuxbury, argued those remarks do not become immune simply because they reference a case that already went to trial. The witnesses also said in a joint statement that they had been subjected to “relentless false accusations, harassment, and intimidation.”

Read’s first trial ran eight weeks and included 74 witnesses and 657 exhibits before a deadlocked jury. On February 11, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that mistrial did not bar a retrial. Her second trial began April 22, 2025, lasted 31 days and featured 49 witnesses before the June verdict.

Known online as Turtleboy, Kearney is accused of conspiring with Read to defame witnesses. He pleaded not guilty on July 8, 2025, to two witness-intimidation charges tied to a May 2025 incident outside a pizza shop owned by Chris Albert, and a judge later dismissed some counts while rejecting his First Amendment defense.