Slain officer's daughter cries as cop testifies about crime scene

Margaret Flisk was composed Wednesday as she listened to testimony about her father’s murder, but tears rolled down her cheeks when a Chicago Police evidence technician spoke about the duty belt and pistol he recovered from the Southeast Side alley where Michael Flisk was shot in the head.

Victor Rivera testified about how he inventoried the scene, just as Michael Flisk — also a veteran Chicago Police evidence technician — had done before Timothy Herring allegedly opened fire a day after Thanksgiving in 2010.

Flisk’s widow, Nora, later rubbed her crying daughter’s back as Cook County jurors were shown a picture of the blood-stained pavement littered with a shell casing and candy wrapper.

Another male relative hugged Margaret Flisk as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue during the third day of Herring’s double-murder trial.

Herring, 24, is accused of gunning down Michael Flisk as he processed a burglary scene.

Herring also is charged with killing Stephen Peters, who was standing with Flisk, in the 8100 block of South Burnham Avenue, after Peters reported that someone had broken into his mother’s garage and took parts of his red Mustang.

Earlier Wednesday, Ashley Garrett, Herring’s cousin, said that she called detectives after she learned there was a monetary reward for information tied to the murders of Flisk, 46, and Peters, 44, an ex-CHA cop.

Like her relatives who were called to the stand, Garrett, 26, was reluctant to testify against Herring.

But she admitted she contacted police twice after her younger sister, Eboni, told her that Herring had confessed to another sister, and Garrett’s then-boyfriend showed her a flier detailing the $10,000 reward.

Melvin Johnson, who used to date Garrett, testified that he was given the handout by a man in a trench coat and was later promised $20,000 if he helped detectives crack the case.

Defense attorney Julie Koehler suggested that the unemployed couple went to police and lied about Herring’s involvement in the crimes only because they were hard up for cash.

“You wanted to keep your name out of it, but you wanted the money?” Koehler asked Johnson.

“Yes,” replied Johnson, 29.

On Tuesday, Eboni Garrett repeatedly testified that she “didn’t recall” telling Ashley Garrett and Johnson that another sister, Meosha Menzies, had told her that Herring admitted that he pulled the trigger.

Prosecutors called several assistant state’s attorneys to testify Wednesday in an effort to show that Eboni Garrett clearly recollected what she was told about the murders when she was interrogated at the police station and grand jury.

In a videotaped statement, Eboni Garrett said she called Herring after the murders and questioned him.

I said, ” ‘Is it true?’ He said, ‘Yea.’ I asked him why? He said, ‘I don’t want to go back.’ ”

Herring, then a teenage parolee, had been eyeing Peters’ Mustang stereo system and told Menzies that he wanted to steal it weeks before the murders, according to court testimony.

Herring did as he had planned, but when he came back to the collect the car parts he had stored in garbage cans, he overheard Flisk saying he got had a “good fingerprint,” authorities said.

Herring then shot Flisk and Peters because he didn’t want to go back to jail, prosecutors contend.