Reporter Grant Smith Ellis took to twitter over the weekend with a series of attacks on Masshole Troll Mafia leader Kate Peter, equating her actions in helping organize the movement in support of the family of John O’Keefe, the victim in the Karen Read murder trial, with that of Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney, the former leader of the “Free Karen Read” movement.
His latest twitter message read:
The reporter had spent the weekend attacking Peter for her involvement in raising money for lunch on July 2, 2024, at a hearing in the Karen Read murder case. She gave out her Venmo QR code for donations, then asked for donations to stop once the amount needed to cover lunch was raised.
Okay, let's talk details;#KatePeter AKA MadiaMasshole is a confirmed Private Investigatior, with close ties to a number of players in the #KarenReadTrial.
— Grant Smith Ellis (@GrantSmithEllis) August 11, 2024
I believe the plan was to get #TurtleBoy charged, as a way to force him to flip on #KarenRead.
However, that became… https://t.co/18aPSVYvzc
Ellis had previously been criticized by both Peter and Kearney for crowd sourcing to cover his lunches when he was reporting on-scene at the Karen Read murder trial. He also accused Peter of conspiring with former Kearney girlfriend Lindsey Gaetani to force Kearney to flip on Read by having him charged with crimes against Gaetani.
In continued tweets about the subject, Ellis accused Peter of damaging the movement through these allegations and by supporting the family of O’Keefe through her crowd sourcing efforts to cover dinner. He revealed the message from Peter asking for donations to stop as his “smoking gun” that she was destroying the movement.
Peter and Ellis had once been friends, with Ellis eventually falling out with Peter over their friendship with Lindsey Gaetani Ellis, from reports, had an on-going friendship with Gaetani which ended when Peter and Gaetani became close friends.
Ellis has also essentially been barred from covering the on-going Karen Read murder trial, as he was allegedly targeted by Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney and cohort Jessica Machado in an incident in which Machado had a physical altercation with Smith Ellis that saw her be granted a protection order against Smith Ellis that prevents him from being 100 yards from her.
The reporter had been in daily conflict with Kearney over standing in line for one of the limited seats for press each day at the Karen Read murder trial. The protection order, with Machado then a daily presence at the court, eliminated Ellis from providing daily live coverage of the trial and ended his on-going conflict with Kearney.
While Kearney no longer leads the “Free Karen Read” movement, Peter is a rising star of the counter protestors who gather to support the family of victim John O’Keefe. The movement started with a handful of supporters, including Peter, showing up to counter protest during jury deliberations at the trial last month, to large crowds showing up in support of the family at the most recent hearing in the case.
Ellis continues to report from home, as Machado frequents all hearings in the case, preventing him from covering it live.
