Outside courthouse, hundreds of people, including Turtleboy, await Karen Read verdict

DEDHAM ― Hundreds of people, many wearing pink — the color supporters of Karen Read have chosen to symbolize their support — milled about Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham on Tuesday afternoon awaiting a verdict.

The jury in Read's murder trial began deliberating early Tuesday afternoon. They were dismissed shortly after 4 p.m. and will resume deliberations on Wednesday.

“This is beyond a travesty of justice,” Suzanne Arundale, who identified herself as a paralegal from New Hampshire, said outside the courthouse, as she ticked off the reasons she believes Read is innocent.

Arundale said she believes the investigation was suspect from the beginning, and that a large number of loose ends in the state’s case demand a not-guilty verdict.

“One or two odd things, you can deal with,” she said, but in this case, “there’s zero that’s clear.”

Arundale said she believes an accident happened and that those responsible for John O’Keefe’s death panicked and didn’t call 911.

She said testimony from witnesses inside or near the home was not believable, and that for her, the testimony of a plow driver who testified to not seeing a body on the lawn while driving his routes on Jan. 29, 2022, was vital.

Arundale said the driver struck her as a man incapable of lying, and that she believed him. She said she didn’t believe evidence and experts the state presented to rebut some of the alleged elements of the conspiracy — including a 2:27 a.m. Google search — were persuasive.

As Arundale spoke, Aidan Kearney, the Holden blogger known as Turtleboy, said hello to her by name and posed with fans for pictures.

Kearney, who is facing felony charges of witness intimidation regarding his interactions with witnesses he accuses of helping to frame Read, told the Telegram & Gazette around 3:20 p.m. that he was hopeful the jury would return a verdict of not guilty by day’s end.

Kearney said he believed Read’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, made it “plainly obvious” that Read was framed by a “corrupt” district attorney’s office he has said is coming after him to silence him.

There were many “Free Turtleboy” signs peppered in with "Free Karen Read” signs along the side streets near the Dedham courthouse Tuesday.

Despite intense sun and temperatures above 80 degrees, hundreds milled about the area, at one point craning their necks and screaming support for Read when she made an appearance.

Cameras abounded, with TV reporters not only interviewing others but also, in at least one instance, being interviewed by men who said they were making an independent documentary.

On the back of a truck where a tent was set up, about a dozen pizzas and two huge buckets of chicken were brought in around 2:30 p.m. for Read supporters.

Lisa Ochs, a Read supporter who was cutting up slices for others, said a fellow supporter has been raising money online and buying lunch every day for those who surround the courthouse.

“I’m nervous, but I’m confident they will make the right choice with a not guilty,” Ochs said.

Ochs said she first thought Read was guilty but changed her mind after reading Kearney’s coverage.

“All these things do not add up,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Outside courthouse, hundreds of people, including Turtleboy, await Karen Read verdict