New York Times April 30th ,2003

April 30, 2003, Wednesday
METROPOLITAN DESK
Main Witness to Murder, Briefly Held, Isn't Helping
By SHAILA K. DEWAN (NYT) 628 words
The central witness to a killing on the Lower East Side in January has refused for more than three months to assist investigators in solving the case, even though he was a close friend of the victim, the victim's family said yesterday.
Asked to comment on the family's assertions about Forrest Bloede, the witness, the Police Department's chief spokesman, Michael P. O'Looney, said only, ''We would appreciate any cooperation Mr. Bloede could provide in this investigation.''
Mr. Bloede, 24, was with his friend Burke O'Brien, 25, early in the morning of Jan. 12 when Mr. O'Brien was shot and killed on Orchard Street.
Much to the surprise of Mr. O'Brien's family and friends, the police arrested Mr. Bloede a day after the killing, but released him the same day, when the Manhattan district attorney decided there was not enough evidence to charge him.
Mr. Bloede's lawyer complained that his client had been subjected to ''hours of abusive interrogation'' during his arrest. Since then, Mr. Bloede has not responded to repeated requests to give a description of the two men who he said robbed him and his friend of $12 and then shot Mr. O'Brien, and has not looked at photographs of possible suspects, Mr. O'Brien's family said.
''He's been uncooperative, and I think it's an outrage,'' said Barbara Burke, the mother of the slain young man, from her home in York, Pa. ''I can't understand why he wouldn't do that if he calls himself my son's friend. He keeps saying that he will do it, and he doesn't.''
Mr. Bloede, reached at work at the advertising agency Young & Rubicam in New York, referred all questions to his lawyer, Glenn A. Wolther.
Mr. Wolther said yesterday afternoon that he had been in discussions with the district attorney's office and was ''hours away'' from an agreement that would allow his client to cooperate in the investigation.
Mr. Bloede's refusal to cooperate was first reported yesterday in Newsday.
Asked if Mr. Bloede was seeking a guarantee that he would not be charged in the crime, Mr. Wolther said, ''We were seeking to have a generalized understanding before we went in that Forrest was not going to be considered a suspect.''
He added, ''Forrest has very much wanted to cooperate for quite some time, but upon the advice of counsel he has waited for the appropriate moment.''
But Mark O'Brien, the father of the victim, said that he did not believe there was any agreement in the works between Mr. Bloede and investigators. ''It's the total opposite of what I know to be true,'' said Mr. O'Brien, as he traveled by car to New York City from his home near Chicago for the first time since his son's death. ''Our attempts to get Forrest to cooperate have gone on for 10 weeks.''
A spokeswoman for Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, declined to comment.
Mr. O'Brien said that Mr. Bloede could cooperate without any contact with the detectives who arrested him. He said his family had agonized about whether to contact Mr. Bloede directly, but had communicated only through intermediaries.
One of those was David Newell, who was a friend of both men in college. ''I got off the phone with him a number of times thinking that something was going to happen with him that week,'' Mr. Newell said of Mr. Bloede yesterday.

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