PORTLAND – A terrorizing conviction against a Biddeford man who was accused of harassing a black candidate for mayor was overturned Friday by Maine’s highest court.

In its 4-1 ruling, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court concluded that defendant Robert Kalex should have been allowed to offer evidence that Rory Holland had a reputation for not telling the truth.

Holland testified that he was walking near his home on July 25, 2000, when Kalex drove by in his pickup truck and threatened him.

Prosecutors said it was the latest in a series of incidents in which Kalex, 37, directed threats and racial slurs at Holland.

The court said the trial judge’s error in refusing to allow testimony about Holland’s reputation was not harmless because it barred Kalex from impeaching the credibility of the only witness to testify about the alleged threats.

Kalex was tried last year and ordered to serve 120 days in days. He also was given one year of probation and was ordered to stay away from Holland.

The sentence had been stayed pending the appeal.

York County District Attorney Michael Cantara said he was disappointed and somewhat surprised at the outcome and intended to have Kalex retried.

In the meantime, the prosecutor noted, Kalex remains bound by a preliminary injunction issued last August that bars him from threatening or using force against Holland or anyone else on the basis of their race.

Kalex’s lawyer, Kevin Heffernan of Portland, praised the court for its “intellectual honesty” in handing down a ruling that runs counter to public sentiment.

“I saw this really as a courageous decision by the Law Court in an emotionally charged case” with racial overtones, he said. “The Law Court was able to take a cold, dispassionate look at the facts and apply the rules of evidence without being influenced by personal bias toward the defendant.”

Prosecutors said Kalex had a long history of terrorizing Holland. According to a police affidavit from 1999, Kalex had dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan outfit on Halloween and walked outside Holland’s house.

Holland also complained that Kalex hung a Holland campaign sign containing racial slurs in the window of Kalex’s Main Street coffee shop a week before the November 1999 mayoral election in which Holland was defeated.

In his appeal, Kalex challenged the judge’s admission of a photograph showing him dressed in KKK garb, suggesting that the image was inflammatory and prejudicial.

The court sided unanimously with the state on that issue, concluding that the photo could help jurors determine whether Kalex’s 1999 behavior contributed to a reasonable fear by Holland that Kalex would act on his July 2000 threat.

The reputation testimony issue, on which Kalex prevailed, focused on the exclusion of testimony by several defense witnesses.

Kalex’s former girlfriend, Denise Everest, was prepared to testify that she had spoken with at least 50 people who regarded Holland as untruthful.

Also excluded was Theresa Ordway’s testimony, based on what she heard from about 15 people, that Holland takes things that don’t belong to him and makes up stories to get things he wants.

Besides facing a retrial, Kalex is in more hot water with the law.

Cantara said an arrest warrant issued earlier this month alleges that Kalex consumed alcohol in a bar in violation of conditions of his post-conviction bail.

Heffernan said the complaint originated with Holland, who entered the bar while Kalex was already inside and then maintained that Kalex violated bail terms by being in his presence.

Cantara said the terrorizing case remains solid even with the admission of testimony that was excluded at the first trial, but Kalex’s lawyer was not so sure.

“This case really turned on the credibility of the alleged victim and [the jury] had a right to hear about his reputation for being untruthful,” Heffernan said.