Howard County prosecutors are declining to pursue charges against an epileptic Iraqi war veteran accused of assaulting a county police officer.
The Howard County State?s Attorney?s Office rendered inactive charges against U.S. Army Cpl. Kendall McKibben on Wednesday, with the intention of dropping the charges completely at a later date.
McKibben, a native of Washington state, was charged with assault and resisting arrest following a Sept. 9, 2005, incident outside of a Jack Johnson concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia.
A Howard County police officer was directing traffic at 11:15 p.m. on nearby Little Patuxent Parkway when McKibben ran up to the officer from behind, struck the officer in the head and ran away laughing, according to the police officer?s report.
The officer arrested McKibben after a struggle that left the officer with several cuts, scratches and bruises, the police report states.
Prosecutors? decision to drop the charges came after the U.S. Army allowed a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps to submit a written statement on McKibben?s behalf that indicated McKibben has been diagnosed with epilepsy following the removal of a brain tumor and his violent outbursts are a symptom of the epilepsy.
“He has a history of several episodes of behavioral dyscontrol including violent behavior without reported memory for the events …” wrote Dr. Ronald G. Riechers, an Army staff neurologist.
Initially, the Army had refused to make any of its doctors available to provide testimony, but the military relented upon the appeal of
McKibben?s Rockville attorney Esteban Gergely.
“Cpl. McKibben fought in Iraq, performing his duty to his country diligently and responsibly for 15 months,” Gergely wrote to a U.S. Army colonel.
“While serving his country, he developed a tumor in his brain, as well as lesions in his lungs, having to be involuntarily removed from combat in order to receive emergency medical care. … The Army should be doing everything in their power to protect one of their own from being wrongly convicted.”
