New York times May 1st, 2003

May 1, 2003, Thursday
METROPOLITAN DESK
Witness in January Killing Of Friend Speaks to Police
By SHAILA K. DEWAN (NYT) 672 words
A young advertising executive who witnessed the killing of his friend on the Lower East Side on Jan. 12 spoke with police detectives for more than an hour yesterday after refusing to do so for more than three months.
The witness, Forrest Bloede, 24, had initially been arrested in the killing of his friend, Burke O'Brien, 25, but was released less than a day later when the Manhattan district attorney's office declined to prosecute him. Mr. O'Brien had been shot dead in front of Mr. Bloede's apartment building on Orchard Street as the two men were returning from a night out.
While Mr. Bloede's lawyer, Glenn A. Wolther, said that prosecutors had privately assured him that his client was no longer a suspect, Mr. Wolther had sought a public declaration to that effect before Mr. Bloede would cooperate. But after the dead man's family told reporters this week of Mr. Bloede's refusal to help, Mr. Bloede went to the station house in the Seventh Precinct on the Lower East Side, where he viewed mug shots of possible suspects, Mr. Wolther said.
Mr. Bloede received no public declaration of innocence, and the district attorney's office did not break its steadfast refusal to comment on the investigation. Law enforcement officials have maintained that they could not offer Mr. Bloede immunity from prosecution until they learned more about what happened early that morning. Mr. Bloede has said that two men robbed them, then shot his friend, and at least one other witness has offered some corroboration.
Capt. James Klein, a spokesman for the Police Department, said Mr. Bloede was being treated as a witness. ''Would we rule him out as a suspect?'' he said. ''I don't think anybody can be ruled out as a suspect until we find out what went on there.''
Leaving the station house yesterday afternoon, Mr. Bloede stood wordlessly next to his lawyer. But Mr. Wolther later spoke for his client: ''Despite the fact that Forrest's good name has been tarnished and he's been falsely accused, he has made the moral decision that he must help with the investigation.''
Mark O'Brien, the victim's father, expressed a guarded optimism about the latest development in the case. ''I'm hopeful that Forrest would cooperate fully,'' he said. ''That would be wonderful. This is a small step in that direction. That's a good thing.''
Mr. Wolther maintained yesterday that the police and the district attorney were unwilling to clear his client because they did not want to admit they had made a mistake in arresting him. He released a six-page letter he had written to District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, which he said made it clear that Mr. Bloede had been willing to cooperate.
The letter said that Mr. Bloede had been hounded even after he was released, and that his family's home in Dallas had been searched. Mr. O'Brien said he had been told that the Dallas police were asked to go to the Bloede home in search of a gun. A murder weapon has never been found.
Mr. Wolther said that neither the fact that Mr. Bloede was released nor the fact that the police released a description of a suspect of a different race amounted to a public clearing of his client's name.
''They would rather have Burke O'Brien's murderer running free than to offer him the slightest assurance that he wasn't a suspect. And that is unconscionable,'' Mr. Wolther said.
Asked how his client could have jeopardized himself by agreeing to look at new evidence in the case, Mr. Wolther said that his client's caution was understandable. ''You have to remember he was arrested and charged with murder,'' he said. ''The stakes could not be higher.''
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