A man who was jailed without bail for months because a Baltimore police officer said he tried to disarm her was set free Tuesday after Officer Traci L. McKissick changed her story during emotional courtroom testimony.
Earlier this year, McKissick told prosecutors that Joseph A. Forrest was the man who stepped on her hand as she held a gun and wrestled with Forrest's 61-year-old uncle, who was killed by police during an altercation in February.
But in court last week, McKissick referred to the person who tried to get her gun only as the "mystery man" and "the voice."
That discrepancy and others, including questions of where the man was standing and how she recognized him, led prosecutors to dismiss the case, said Deputy State's Attorney Cynthia Jones.
The incident was the second time in four years that McKissick fought with a suspect for her gun and the weapon discharged.
In 2005, a man suspected of possessing drugs tried to flee, taking off in his car. McKissick jumped into the passenger seat and the two fought, her weapon firing before the suspect seized it and threw it out a window.
He was charged with disarming an officer, among other offenses.
But that case, like this one, was dropped because of evidence problems.
Attempts to reach McKissick on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
"Her testimony on this was horrible, it was all contradictory," defense attorney Warren A. Brown said yesterday, referring to the Forrest case. He ticked off a list of what he said were conflicting statements, including the number of times McKissick discharged her weapon.
Brown represented the 2005 suspect as well as the 45-year-old Forrest and says both cases involved inconsistent statements by McKissick.
McKissick could not be reached, but police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said she has a clean personnel file with no sanctions.
He couldn't immediately say on Tuesday whether the department would review her testimony in Forrest's case, and the state's attorney's office declined to comment on whether McKissick could be included on the "do not call" list of unreliable officers.
Meanwhile, Forrest and his family are struggling with the aftermath of that winter day, which started with a pleasant family gathering and ended with one relative dead and another jailed pending trial, about to lose his barbershop and custody of his newborn baby because of the incarceration.
Family plans to sue
