Former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle photographed by Oscar Grant moments before the fatal shooting. (Courtesy Los Angeles County Superior Court)
2010-11-05 "Raucous Mehserle sentencing protest ends with march, arrests" by Tashina Manyak and Vanessa Guerra from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/11/05/raucous-mehserle-sentencing-protest-ends-with-march-arrests]:
OAKLAND — A raucous public demonstration against the minimum sentence delivered to Johannes Mehserle turned into a nighttime march through the streets of Oakland Friday night, resulting in more than one hundred arrests and leaving two people injured, including a police officer.
Police estimate approximately 500 people gathered in front of Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza to decry Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry’s decision to assign the former BART Police officer a two-year sentence with a 292 day credit for good behavior for the shooting death of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009.
“It’s just outrageous,” said Stan Woods, an Oakland resident who attended the event. “This just shows how the Bay Area isn’t that different than the Deep South or Kern County. When it comes down to the question of protecting the police, it doesn’t matter if it’s Alabama or Los Angeles, they literally get away with murder.”
The crowd, which assembled at 2 p.m. — approximately 90 minutes after the sentence was delivered to a packed courtroom in Downtown Los Angeles — reacted angrily towards Perry’s decision to be lenient on Mehserle and to dismiss a gun enhancement charge that jurors added to the involuntary manslaughter charge they convicted the former officer of.
“I think he should have gotten the maximum sentence,” said Dr. Abu-Asad Amon, a research professor at U.C. Berkeley and Oakland resident. “If a black officer shot a white boy, he would have been fried.”
After the rally ended, the crowd marched east on 14th Street towards Lake Merritt where some protesters said they were going to protest through the streets of Oakland to the Fruitvale BART station where Grant was shot to death.
BART, after learning of the plans to terminate the protest at the site, temporarily closed the station and set up a bus bridge to ferry passengers between the Coliseum Station and the shuttered Fruitvale Station, according to the agency.
A massive police response — which included officers from San Jose, Monterey County and other agencies — corralled the group of approximately 300 protesters near Laney College before they could proceed towards the station.
According to police, a splinter group broke from the main protest march and led officers into the area of 6th Avenue and East 17th Street, a residential neighborhood east of Lake Merritt. The group, numbering at least 150 in size, was quickly cornered by hundreds of riot gear-clad police officers who declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and the area a crime scene, and arrested 152 protesters who failed to disperse, according to police.
The individuals who were arrested were taken to the Santa Rita Correctional Facility in Dublin where they will be booked on charges that include unlawful assembly and disturbing the peace, according to the Oakland Police Dept.
“I am extremely disappointed again that people marched through the city and wanted to tear it up,” Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts told reporters during a Friday night press conference.
Minor vandalism to an AC Transit bus and seven businesses along the route marchers took were reported, Batts said.
One officer was accidentally struck by a car as he patrolled the streets at 7th Avenue and East 17th Street, Batts said, resulting in an minor injury to his knee. Another officer had his service weapon ripped from his holster and pointed at him nearby, the police chief said. Other officers detained the man who took the officer’s gun and made a decision to end the gathering.
Downtown Oakland businesses boarded up storefront windows with plywood in preparation for the protest. Previous disturbances triggered by Mehserle case developments escalated into violent riots after protesters went on vandalism sprees through the business district.
Employees at many downtown office complexes were also ordered to leave their buildings early after news spread that a sentencing decision was imminent.
2010-11-05 "Police race to quell civil unrest following Mehserle sentencing" by "California Beat"
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kb7a2WHz7oA]:
OAKLAND -- A raucous public demonstration against the minimum sentence delivered to Johannes Mehserle turned into a nighttime march through the streets of Oakland Friday night, resulting in dozens of arrests and at least two injuries, including one to a police officer.
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2010-11-03 "Sentencing nears for ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle" by Tashina Manyak, Steven Luo and Jennifer Courtney from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/11/03/sentencing-nears-for-ex-bart-cop-johannes-mehserle]:
On Friday morning, one of the final chapters of a tragic high-profile Bay Area story will be written.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge is set to sentence former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle on Friday for the shooting death of passenger Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station platform on January 1, 2009.
The incident was captured on numerous video recorders and disseminated throughout the world. The video sparked widespread protests and rioting throughout Oakland in the days following the shooting. Two weeks later, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged Mehserle with murder; the trial was later moved to Los Angeles over concerns the former officer could not receive a fair trial in the Bay Area.
Mehserle is white, while Grant was black. The controversy over the killing took on racial overtones and unleashed long-held animosity between many city residents and law enforcement.
When the jury convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter with a weapons enhancement — and acquitted him of murder — July 8, protests again broke out in downtown Oakland, ultimately involving the arrest of 78 individuals.
The former officer, now 28, has been jailed at a Downtown Los Angeles prison since the day of the verdict, awaiting sentencing for the crime.
Judge Robert Perry, who presided over the trial, will sentence Mehserle, who could be sentenced to anything from probation to a maximum of 14 years in state prison.
The involuntary manslaughter verdict angered members of Grant’s family and prosecutors, who argued that Mehserle murdered Grant when he drew his firearm and shot the unarmed 23-year-old father once in the back, killing him. Mehserle’s defense contended the action was a mistake and that the former officer instead meant to Tase Grant.
The jury agreed, in part, with the defense argument that the shooting was accidental when it came to a verdict of involuntary manslaughter (murder and voluntary manslaughter both require an intent to kill).
Legal experts said the weapons enhancement charge was a compromise solution for the jury. But while the prosecution argues the charge shows the jury thought Mehserle used his gun on purpose, the defense has countered that it is not possible that the jury found Mehserle intended to shoot Grant in the back from a distance of just a few feet but not kill him.
Instead, defense attorney Michael Rains says, the jury believed the shooting was an accident but misapplied the gun enhancement. How Judge Perry untangles the meaning of the verdict is central to the severity of the sentence he will hand down Friday.
Dueling public relations campaigns
The families of Grant and Mehserle have undertaken very public and bold steps at soliciting public support before Friday’s scheduled sentencing.
Grant’s family has urged Perry to seek the maximum sentence for Mehserle, a 14-year stint behind bars.
The family has drawn support from the International Longshoreman’s Worker’s Union, whose members shut down operations at the Ports of San Francisco and Oakland for one day in September in a public display in favor of the maximum sentence.
“We want justice,” said Christopher McKay, an International Longshore and Warehouse Union worker. “We want [Mehserle] to serve his time just like anybody else would serve their time — to the fullest extent of the law.”
The union’s organized community events, put together to draw attention to the shooting, have the blessing of the Grant family, who said they would be in the courtroom Friday morning for the sentencing.
Meanwhile, the family of Mehserle is waging its own campaign to urge Perry to go in another direction: being lenient towards the former police officer.
After nearly 18 months of silence from Mehserle and his supporters, friends and family members have initiated an aggressive and highly visible outreach campaign to get “his side of the story” in the public domain.
During the San Francisco Giants’ playoff run, Mehserle’s father, Todd Mehserle, who sells sailing equipment for yachts, has paraded a large ship with “Free Mehserle” banners during home games in McCovey Cove. The move drew attention — including from the Fox Sports baseball telecasts — to the high profile case and the upcoming sentencing date.
Last week, Mehserle gave his first interview to KTVU Television from the Los Angeles County Jail, telling reporter Rita Williams that he expects to walk out of the court “a free man” on Friday.
“The decision I made was to Tase Mr. Grant, it wasn’t to shoot him, and I know that,” he said.
Sentencing Day
Sentencing is set for 8:30 a.m. Friday at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Superior Court says that the few seats available to the public will be distributed via a lottery held at 8 a.m. outside the courthouse.
In court filings, the former officer’s defense attorney has asked Perry for a new trial, citing a Kentucky case where a police officer whose Taser was configured for a dominant hand cross-draw — just like Mehserle’s, and unlike other gun-Taser confusion cases presented at trial — mistook his gun for his Taser. Perry will rule on that motion before Friday’s sentencing.
This yacht has made regular appearances at McCovey Cove outside AT&T Park drawing attention to the Johannes Mehserle sentencing date.
2010-10-04 "Attorney for Mehserle says new evidence found, wants new trial" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/10/04/attorney-for-mehserle-says-new-evidence-found-wants-new-trial]:
The defense for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART Station New Year’s Day 2009, has filed a motion seeking a new trial, claiming “newly discovered evidence” supports Mehserle’s case.
The motion, filed Friday and posted Monday to the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s website, includes a statement from a Kentucky police officer who said he shot a man in the back in 2008 because he confused his Taser with his gun, despite the fact that his Taser, the same model and color as Mehserle’s, was in a “strong hand, cross draw position” — the same place Mehserle’s was.
In his statement, Lieutenant William Jones of the Nicholasville Police Department, who said he had 18 years prior law enforcement experience at the time of the shooting, claimed he had “no conscious recollection of making the necessary movements” to draw his handgun from his holster. When he noticed the Taser wires didn’t come out, “I looked in my right hand and saw I was holding my gun,” he said.
The shooting victim, a white male, did not die despite being critically injured. Jones was suspended three weeks without pay, but not charged with a crime. “I was informed that no charges would be filed against me as the case was determined to be a ‘muscle memory accident,’” he said.
Defense attorney Michael Rains says the defense was unaware of the details of this incident until July, after the verdict in Mehserle’s trial.
Rains, who argued at trial that Mehserle confused his Taser and his gun when he shot Grant, argues the statement is evidence demanding a new trial because prosecutor David Stein repeatedly argued at trial that “never [...] had any officer” whose Taser was set up the way Mehserle’s was accidentally confused the Taser with a gun.
According to Rains, the prosecution’s closing argument “contains nothing upon which the jurors could have based a finding that Mehserle was criminally negligent other than its argument that the mistaken shooting here was so extraordinarily unlikely because of the color, weight, and holster configuration of Mehserle’s Taser.”
But Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson questions the validity of admitting this case as new evidence.
“It really doesn’t make sense to call this new evidence because six other [Taser/gun confusion] cases were presented in the trial already,” he said.
Judge Robert Perry, who presided over the trial, will hear the motion for a new trial November 5 in Los Angeles, where the case was moved due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in the Bay Area. If the motion is denied, Mehserle will be sentenced that day.
2010-09-26 "Grant family, supporters push for maximum sentence for Mehserle" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/09/26/grant-family-supporters-push-for-maximum-sentence-for-mehserle]:
As Johannes Mehserle’s sentencing date nears, family members, friends and supports of the 22-year-old Hayward man he fatally shot nearly two years ago are ramping up their efforts to mobilize community groups and push for the maximum possible sentence for the ex-BART Police officer.
Mehserle, who killed unarmed train passenger Oscar Grant on the platform of the Fruitvale BART station in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009, was convicted July 9 of involuntary manslaughter. The case was the first in which a California police officer has been tried for murder for an on-duty killing, and the Grant family and its supporters believe a murder conviction would have been the appropriate verdict.
Together with community sponsors, the Grant family held a “Mothers Taking a Stand against Police Brutality & Gun Violence” event in front of Oakland City Hall last Saturday.
“I know that God had a bigger plan for my son’s life,” said Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson, addressing the crowd from the center of Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of city hall. “I know that God is using Oscar as a catalyst to change the way we deal with our laws, to change the way we deal with police brutality, to change the way we deal with one on one gun violence.”
Johnson rejects Mehserle’s claim that he meant to use his Taser, not his gun, on Grant. She, along with many Oakland politicians, activists and community members present at the event, see Grant’s shooting as intentional, and his death and the events that led up to it as examples of police brutality.
She referred to her son’s death as a “senseless murder” and encouraged all mothers who had lost children to gun violence of any sort “to keep praying, to keep fighting, to keep pressing.”
About 60 people gathered for the daylong event, which featured spoken word and song performances. The mothers of Michael Greer and Jackie and Nigel Bryson, friends of Grant who were on the platform during the shooting, spoke at the event, as did the great grandmother of Grant’s daughter, Congresswoman Desley Brooks, The Nation of Islam’s Reverend Keith Muhammad and former Black Panther Elaine Brown.
Though Grant was the primary focus of the event, it also honored Aiyana Jones, a seven-year-old girl who was killed by police in Detroit on May 16 during a raid on her home. A sister event was held in the nation’s capital for Grant and Jones as well.
After the event, Grant’s mother told the Beat that prayer was all she had to keep her grounded as she prepares to return to L.A. for the November 5 sentencing.
“No matter what the sentencing is, it won’t bring Oscar back,” she said.
Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks echoed the sentiment that the killing was intentional in her speech, when she referred to Grant’s death as an execution.
“I remember when Oscar was executed on that platform I watched the media coverage for several days and it wasn’t until I got a call from Minister Keith that I realized that if I got up and we all stood together, we could make a difference,” she said.
Brooks, who has been active in the case since the shooting occurred, emphasized the importance of community participation in local politics.
“We need to stand together and we need to stand consistently; not just when they kill our children,” she said.
At the conclusion of Mehserle’s criminal trial, the Justice Department launched a federal investigation to determine if Mehserle or any of the other officers who detained Grant violated his civil rights. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who was instrumental in pushing for the investigation, wrote a personal letter in support of the congregating mothers on the East and West Coasts, which condemned the “violence, inequity, prejudice and irresponsibility that too often plague the system of justice.”
The event was sponsored by Congresswoman Brooks and community groups Ascending Sisters, Sistas Behind the 8, Neighborhood House of North Richmond and ONYX Organizing Committee.
According to Grant’s uncle Cephus “Bobby” Johnson, it will not be the last event the family and their supporters will hold before the sentencing. Another event is scheduled at the same location for October 23.
Regarding the sentencing, Johnson said, “We just have to keep our faith and trust that the system will work to ensure justice. History has shown that it does not work; but hopefully this time, with the video and all the support we have, it will work.”
Johnson has been very active in organizing, and recently launched the Oscar Grant Foundation in his nephew’s memory. The foundation’s efforts so far include a mailing campaign to Judge Robert Perry, who is presiding over Mehserle’s sentencing, and a call to rename the BART station where Grant lost his life “The Fruitvale / Grant BART Station.”
Oakland councilwoman Desley Brooks, who has been actvely involved in the Grant case, called his death 'an execution' and encouraged participants to take a more active role in local politics. (Courtesy Marcelina Verarde)
Event attendees formed a support circle in front of city hall on Sept. 25 to honor the women who lost Oscar Grant. (Courtesy Marcelina Verarde)
2010-08-16 "Dublin rally held in support of jailed former BART Police Officer" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/08/16/rally-in-support-of-former-bart-police-officer-remains-small]:
A crowd of about 20 advocates for Johannes Mehserle gathered in Dublin yesterday to show their support for the former BART police officer in jail for killing an unarmed train passenger last year.
The rally was held in front of Dublin City Hall; it was the third public demonstration in Mehserle’s defense since July 8, when a Los Angeles jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting Oscar Grant.
Organizers say such demonstrations will continue until Mehserle’s release, and are one component of a campaign recently launched by a small group of activists working closely with the Mehserle family to reverse his criminal conviction and free him from custody without a prison sentence.
Previous rallies were held in Walnut Creek and San Jose.
Mehserle’s sentencing is scheduled for November 5 at the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Giving Mehserle prison time would be a mistake, said several of those present at yesterday’s rally, many who declined to give their last names out of fear of retaliation by Grant supporters.
“I personally would support him having no time in prison,” said Dublin resident Michelle. She said she felt probation would be “more than stringent enough for Johannes.”
“I think Johannes has suffered a great miscarriage of justice. He was thrown under the bus by the district attorney” due to political pressure from the Oakland community, Michelle said.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged Mehserle with murder in January 2009, weeks after violent protests rocked Oakland, demanding Mehserle face criminal charges.
For many present, the case holds weight because of its implications for law enforcement officers across the state.
“It’s not only showing support for Johannes, it’s showing support for our officers,” said Tanya, who has relatives in law enforcement. “Our officers are often not recognized for the work they do. All of our officers have a stake in this verdict.”
Tanya was instrumental in creating a new website in support of Mehserle, www.justice4johannes.com.
The site is quickly becoming another vehicle for Mehserle supporters to reach out to the public. It provides a link to a petition addressed to Judge Robert Perry, who presided over the former officer’s murder trial, that requests “that former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle be set free immediately and that all charges are overturned.”
According to Tanya, the petition has more than 450 signatures.
Other features of the site include a donation fund for Mehserle and his family and a photo gallery of the ex-officer with his young son, born the same day Grant lost his life.
“Our goal is to get his side out to the public so they can get to know who he is as a person,” Tanya said.
But not all who showed up for the rally shared her empathy for Mehserle.
Four Grant supporters made a brief appearance to photograph those at the rally and challenge their point of view. Among them was Jack Bryson, the father of two of Grant’s friends present on the platform with Grant when he was shot in the back and who are pursuing charges against the transit agency.
“You’re supporting a murderer,” he said to the attendees as he walked down the sidewalk of Dublin Boulevard where they were lined up.
It was about the only dialogue between the two sides, and Bryson and his group left after about 10 minutes.
“We didn’t get to dialogue the way we wanted to,” Bryson said later that evening.
He said he and the other Grant supporters left shortly due to the small size of the rally.
“Fifteen people? Come on now. If they really had support, they would be out there in big numbers,” Bryson said. “And why won’t they come out to Oakland? The crime happened in Oakland. Instead they go out in front of all these white communities and police officers to try to drum up support.”
But pro-Mehserle ralliers insist that any racial tensions are originating with the Grant supporters.
“First of all, [Bryson] came out here wearing a ‘La Raza’ shirt which shows me who the racist is,” said Don, a Mehserle supporter. “Secondly, if the guy [who got shot] was named John Smith and had blond hair and blue eyes I don’t think this same guy would be out here protesting.”
Race has been a major point of contention throughout the case. Many Grant supporters believe the shooting would not have occurred if Mehserle were not white and Grant not black.
Mehserle supporters like Don disagree.
“If Mehserle chose the wrong weapon, he chose the wrong weapon. It was an accident,” he said. “It has nothing to do with skin color.”
Pro-Mehserle ralliers hold signs on Dublin Blvd. (Tashina Manyak/ CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Jack Bryson, father of two Grant friends who witnessed the shooting, confronts pro-Mehserle ralliers as Grant supporters photograph signs. (Tashina Manyak/ CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-07-19 "Mehserle, Grant supporters protest peacefully during Walnut Creek rally" by Tashina Manyak and Vanessa Guerra from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/19/photos-mehserle-grant-supporters-rally-in-front-of-walnut-creek-courthouse]:
(7/19) — 21:35 PDT — WALNUT CREEK — Two dueling protests, one in support of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle and another on behalf of the unarmed passenger he fatally shot, started and ended peacefully despite verbal clashes in front of the Walnut Creek courthouse Monday afternoon.
A boisterous crowd of 300 people, who divided themselves into two groups according to their message, alternated between trading taunts that often escalated to shouting matches and chanting passionate slogans of support for either Mehserle and law enforcement personnel or shooting victim Oscar Grant.
Among those in the crowd of Mehserle supporters was Todd Mehserle, the father of the ex-officer who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on July 8 and is currently held in Los Angeles County Jail pending a sentencing hearing scheduled for November 5.
In a hat and sunglasses, the elder Mehserle kept a low profile, holding a large sign that said, “Free J.M.” in front of his face as he stood behind the more vocal activists who defended his son. He declined to comment about the verdict to reporters.
“There will be a time and a place for us to give commentary as a family,” he told the Beat. “That’s not today. Today is no comment day. I’m just here to support law enforcement and my son.”
Supporters around him, gathered on a raised platform where the courthouse is situated, chanted “Justice for Mehserle” in the same tone and rhythm that the Grant activists on the sidewalk below chanted “Justice for Oscar Grant.”
Carrying dozens of posters advocating acquittal for the former officer, pro-Mehserle attendees said the shooting death of Grant at the Fruitvale BART station in January 2009 was a tragic accident that did not amount to a crime.
Mehserle’s defense attorney Michael Rains built his case on the notion that his client drew his gun mistakenly, thinking it was a Taser. Grant supporters reject this, believing the shooting was intentional.
“They should wipe his record clean,” said Jane Brunner from Pleasant Hill. “He should have been acquitted. It was done in the heat of the moment, it was chaotic. He has a guilty conscience [...] that’s enough punishment.”
Others felt that to some extent, Grant brought the shooting on himself.
“The one thing that everyone fails to mention is that Oscar Grant was partly responsible for his own demise. Had he not been breaking the law, he wouldn’t have been arrested,” said Mehserle supporter Donald Salladay.
Many on the platform who said they knew Mehserle personally were unwilling to give their names or specify their relationships with the former officer — for fear of retribution most said.
One such woman commented, “Why are we putting a man in prison who has got the biggest heart — who wouldn’t kill anyone intentionally like that — who’s out here working these streets protecting us day in and day out?”
“If you accidentally kill someone and you feel bad about it why should you be sitting in prison?” she asked. “He’s forever going to punish himself for an accident.”
Supporters of Grant were less forgiving of Mehserle.
They walked to the protest site on Ygnacio Valley Road from the Walnut Creek BART station carrying signs denouncing the former officer as a racist and a murderer. Protesters were joined by dozens of police officers from Walnut Creek and Contra Costa County wearing riot gear.
“What verdict?” asked Ed Henderson, a Walnut Creek resident. “Oh, you mean that slap on the wrist?”
Race — a hot button issue in the case since the killing occurred — was a point of contention between the two groups all day. Grant was black and Mehserle is white.
Most pro-Mehserle activists said the shooting was racially neutral and that pro-Grant protesters were inappropriately playing “the race card.”
“Johannes Mehserle was hired on to serve the public and unfortunately committed an accident and now people are turning this into a race card […] one human being made a mistake and another human being made a mistake. We need to look at it like that and get away from the race issues,” said Salladay.
At various points Mehserle supporters leaned over the ledge where they stood and chanted, “race card” and “not about race” loudly at their opponents.
But for many Grant supporters like Pittsburg resident Jamar Lindsey Sr., the case has a lot to do with race. He said although he had no connection to the pro-Grant organizers from Oakland, he felt compelled to come to the event due to what he saw as a larger issue of police misconduct directed at minorities.
“If people don’t take a stand and address these kinds of situations, it’s just going to keep happening and it’s just going to make people hate the police even more. We all get profiled [...] It’s an ongoing battle everyday. I’m a minority so I see the law and the prison system differently than all of them,” he said, motioning at the pro-Mehserle camp, the majority of whom were white.
He said regardless of whether the shooting was accidental, the use of a Taser would have been unnecessary.
“The man was already detained. There were already several officers standing over him. So what was the justification for using the Taser to begin with? That’s excessive force. That’s why this is being looked at as a racist issue — that type of force would not be used on a white kid in the same situation,” he said.
Grant supporters of all races carried many signs implying racism played a role in Grant’s death such as “KKKiller KKKops” and “Jail All Racist Killer Cops.” Many chanted “Where are your white sheets?” referencing the garbs worn by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
But despite the charged exchanges between the protesters, Walnut Creek Police Spokesman Lt. Steven Skinner said no arrests were made and there was no property damaged during the protest.
“Both parties were very cooperative, vocal at times, but that’s not really a problem,” he said. “It’s actually gone really well.”
Skinner said an estimated 180 officers, including officers from Concord, Pleasant Hill, Danville, San Ramon and the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department, provided assistance with traffic control and keeping the two sides separated during the rally.
He said officers remained impartial to both sides during the protest — which drew a number of off-duty law enforcement personnel from outside agencies.
“It’s really important for law enforcement to remain very neutral, very unbiased in this,” Skinner said. “Our reaction was more from a planning stand point, because we’re not a large agency. We don’t have a lot of resources.”
Members of Grant’s family were not spotted in attendance, but his longtime friend Jackie Bryson, who witnessed the shooting and testified in the trial, came out with his father to protest Mehserle’s sentence. So did the mother of Sophina Mesa, Grant’s fiance and the mother of his four-year-old daughter Tatiana.
The event was made public through a Facebook page posted by an anonymous organizer who called for a gathering in support of the ex-officer and law enforcement employees — the first such public rally after 18 months of protests denouncing Mehserle.
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Supporters of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle and the man he killed, Oscar Grant, confront each other in front of the Walnut Creek courthouse Monday afternoon. (Tashina Manyak / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Officers carried plastic handcuffs in case they needed to detain any protesters. No arrests were made. (Vanessa Guerra / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Supporters of Grant believe Mehserle is guilty of murder. (Vanessa Guerra / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-07-16 "Mehserle supporters plan Monday rally in Walnut Creek" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/16/mehserle-supporters-plan-rally-for-monday]:
(7/16) — 23:16 PDT — WALNUT CREEK — Supporters of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle are planning a rally at 2 p.m. Monday in front of the Walnut Creek courthouse — the first such public rally after 18 months of protests denouncing Mehserle.
Mehserle was taken into custody July 8 after a Los Angeles County jury acquitted him of second-degree murder but convicted him of involuntary manslaughter for killing unarmed train passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009. He could face five to 14 years in state prison depending on what the judge in the case decides.
Grant’s family and many activists across the country have expressed anger and disappointment at the verdict, saying Mehserle committed murder when he fatally shot Grant.
But they are not the only ones who believe the jury erred in its verdict.
One of the pro-Mehserle Facebook groups that have been mushrooming on the social networking site instructs its viewers to “like” the page “if you believe [Mehserle] is an innocent man.”
“I’m very glad that Mehserle and his attorney have over three months before the sentencing. At least that leaves a window of opportunity to free this man,” reads one of many similar posts by members.
The page, called “Free Mehserle,” is one of at least four Facebook groups that advocate acquitting the former officer of all charges brought against him. The most popular of the pages boasts 357 members and includes out of state residents.
Invitations to the public rally are being sent via Facebook to “anyone who supports Johannes and our Law Enforcement Officers.” So far, there are 133 confirmed attendees, with 125 “maybe attending.”
According to Jesse Sekhon, president of the BART Police Officers Association, invitations are being distributed via email through the ranks of the BART Police as well.
“I received an email a couple of days ago and I was kind of surprised to see it,” he said. “I’m not sure if any [of the BART officers] will be attending. However I wouldn’t be surprised if some do.”
“Johannes still has a lot of support here,” Sekhon said.
Sekhon had the opportunity to train Mehserle on a few occasions and said he was saddened by the verdict.
“I don’t know if it’s fair. I’ll speak for myself — when I heard the verdict I was a little upset. I was sad,” he said. “When the verdict was read there were a lot of officers that just weren’t really talking, everybody was really quiet. It’s hard to describe.”
Although he said he never expected a gathering of its sort, Sekhon said he supports the rally.
“We’re just happy in general that there’s support for law enforcement,” he said, adding, “I just hope it’s not someone trying to stir up controversy.”
Meanwhile, Walnut Creek Police Chief Joel Bryden said the department is taking extra precautions to prepare for potential conflict.
“We’re adding extra personnel to make sure it’s a safe venue,” he said. “We’re using personnel from the sheriff’s office and other agencies in the vicinity.”
The Facebook invite states specifically, “This rally is NOT about inciting violence, destruction, intolerance, hatred, racism, riots or to upset the Grant family. If your intent is to do these things then please stay home.”
But some of the comments on the Mehserle supporter pages are more ambivalent. In its page description, the “Free Mehserle” Facebook group says “Oscar Grant’s family doesn’t want ‘justice’ they want vengeance, which is messed up.”
On a different page called “Free Johannes Mehserle,” seven people “liked” a post that said “Sue me for thinking Oscar Grant was a criminal rather then a victim.”
Regardless of the intent of the organizers, some members of the “Justice for Oscar Grant” camp have taken the event as an affront.
Jabari Shaw, an activist who was present outside the Los Angeles courthouse during the trial said he found the event mind-boggling.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “Officers are supposed to uphold the law and Mehserle went against the law. And now they’re out there supporting him?”
Shaw and his associates were quick to respond. Already there is a “Counter Protest” page being sent around on Facebook with 26 confirmed attendees who will also be present at Monday’s rally.
Sekhon and Bryden did not know who the organizers of the pro-Mehserle event were and neither could verify if off-duty police from their departments would be attending.
But to Shaw, the event seemed like law enforcement mobilizing against the community.
“They’re showing us they’re a gang. It’s like they’re saying, ‘we’re the biggest gang in the world and there’s nothing you can do about it,’” he said.
The comments on some of the pro-Mehserle pages only reinforced this idea for Shaw.
“If you read their comments they say things like ‘stay true to the boys in blue’ and they keep taking about ‘the brotherhood’…what are they trying to say? They’re trying to scare us. They’re trying to intimidate us,” Shaw said.
Mehserle’s sentencing, originally scheduled for August, has been postponed until November 5 to allow the defense more time to prepare.
---
Comment -
2010-07-09 "IN HIS OWN WORDS: Protester explains why vandalism was acceptable after Mehserle verdict" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/09/in-his-own-words-protester-explains-why-vandalism-was-acceptable-after-mehserle-verdict]:
Not all Oakland residents are upset by the broken windows, dumpsters set ablaze, spray-painted graffiti and looted merchandise that characterized a small nighttime riot hours after former BART officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter July 8 for killing an unarmed train passenger.
Earlier in the day nearly 1,000 people took to the streets of downtown Oakland to protest the verdict peacefully. Mehserle, who is white, was charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting 22-year-old Oscar Grant, a black man.
In the weeks before a Los Angeles jury announced its decision, many Oakland politicians, faith organizations and nonprofits joined Grant’s family in discouraging a violent response to the verdict. Yet the peaceful protests organized by both the city and activist groups turned chaotic when some began throwing bottles at police.
By the time authorities had quelled the uprising, debris and glass littered several blocks between the 12th and 19th Street BART stations, and some 50 businesses had been vandalized.
The Oakland Police Department reported Friday that 78 people were arrested, the majority for misdemeanor charges. Only 19 of them were Oakland residents. The rest were from out of town, police said.
Many who live in Oakland have expressed outrage to what they see are outsiders coming into their community to cause trouble.
But Jevon Cochran, a 20-year-old student at Laney College in Oakland, says he believes that the looting and vandalism that occurred were appropriate responses to the verdict. Cochran and other members of the Black Student Union at Laney were invited by organizers to attend a press conference held at Youth Uprising June 2.
Mayor Ron Dellums and Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts urged peaceful protesting, but Cochran said his group was concerned about ensuring a nonviolent police response.
In an interview with the Beat on Friday, he told reporter Tashina Manyak that something had to be done after Mehserle was acquitted of the second-degree murder charge.
(Courtesy Jevon Cochran)
Tashina Manyak: What were your feelings when the verdict came down?
Jevon Cochran: Like everybody else from Oakland and probably all around the country I was disappointed and angered by the verdict. They charged him with involuntary manslaughter, which implies that [the shooting] was an accident. The jury bought into the argument that [Mehserle] intended to pull out his Taser and somehow shot Oscar Grant accidentally. But when you shoot somebody who’s laying stomach down on a platform with his hands behind his back — that’s not manslaughter, that’s murder. And that’s what he should have been charged with. If the tables were turned and that was me or any of my friends and we had killed a police officer we would have been arrested and put in jail from day one and charged with murder. We would have suffered the consequences for it and that’s what should happen with Mehserle.
TM: There’s a lot of hype right now about anarchists. Do you yourself identify as an anarchist?
JC: No, no I’m not an anarchist.
TM: Is it accurate to say there were a lot of people who identify as anarchists coming into Oakland that are not actually from Oakland?
JC: I mean there were a lot of people out there and I don’t think it’s fair to say that a lot of the people, anarchists or not, were not from Oakland. You can’t tell by looking at someone where they’re from. I live in West Oakland and I know anarchists that actually live in my neighborhood. So I’m not going to speculate on where people are from.
TM: A lot of vandalism occurred last night; were you a part of any of that?
JC: I participated in the protest. I was there all night and I almost got arrested. We attempted to have a break away march and we got stopped by the cops. They threw flash grenades, or whatever, and they were arresting people. And I was there for all of that.
TM: Was there anything that instigated [the police response]?
JC: I mean, I can’t say what instigated the police. I couldn’t see everything. I don’t know people could have instigated the cops. But I think that that’s not the most important thing. The cops and the city knew that people were going to be angry about this verdict and I believe that people have the right to be angry about it and we have the right to protest. And if they didn’t want violence, if they didn’t want property destruction, they should have given us justice like we demanded from the beginning.
TM: Do you think that vandalism and violence are justifiable ways to protest?
JC: Here’s my take on the issue: if you want to talk about vandalism, people are going around like ‘oh, people are destroying our community’; the places that they targeted were like Foot Locker and Sears and other corporate spots. These are not small businesses, these are corporations and the people that run these corporations do not in any way benefit or seek to benefit the people of Oakland. They are tied to the oppression and exploitation of people in Oakland and so if people are going to get angry and smash their windows or set their stores on fire I’m not going to defend [the corporations] and stand in the way of that. They’re not for the interests of my people. If the non-profits and the preachers want to defend Footlocker and Sears, they can do that; I’m going to fight for justice. The only person I’m going to be defending is Oscar Grant and everybody like Oscar Grant in our community that falls victim to police violence.
TM: could you tell me about what the ultimate objective is when people go out on the streets and engage in vandalism?
JC: I can’t speak for everybody, but I’m sure the one thing everybody there had on their minds was justice — the cause of justice. From the very beginning our only demand was simple: that this police officer be treated just like every other citizen. Like I said before, if that was me, or some other young black kid from Oakland, and we murdered somebody, we would be held accountable, we would be brought up on charges of murder, convicted and we would serve our time in jail. And just because Mehserle is a police officer that does not give him the right, he does not have a license to come into our community and abuse and murder my people. So that’s all we’re asking for is a simple demand of justice. And I think that’s what everybody was fighting for last night. The state justice system let us down. This crime was committed by Mehserle and we’re going to continue fighting. It’s not over.
TM: It’s definitely not over; the sentencing hasn’t happened yet. Do you think what happened last night — broken windows, fires, etc. — do you think those specific actions will put pressure on Judge Perry to give a stiffer sentence to Mehserle?
JC: I hope so. We can look back on history to shed light on what can happen now. In 2009, a week after Oscar Grant was murdered, people took to the streets and people raised holy hell. Downtown Oakland went up in flames. And it was because of that and only that, that Mehserle was arrested and brought up on charges of murder. I think before that, the state apparatus had no intention of charging this police officer. But the people of Oakland, we stood up and we fought back — just as we did last night. And I expect that the powers that be are going to listen […] Martin Luther King said that the riot is the language of the unheard. Last night the people of Oakland were heard. And the justice department stepped in, so hopefully Judge Perry gets the message too. When we say ‘no justice, no peace’ we mean it.
TM: There has been a lot of criticism. People are saying, ‘Why are you tearing up Oakland to get justice for Oscar Grant when there are so many people in Oakland that support that’? What would you say to those people?
JC: I would first just direct people to history like I said. The fact remains that in 2009 there was a riot, there was a street rebellion, and that was the only thing that got Mehserle arrested and charged with murder and if it wasn’t for that, I don’t even think we would be talking about justice right now. And second I would point out that people keep talking about how we’re destroying and tearing up Oakland; the businesses that were targeted were corporate businesses […] the people that run these corporate spots do not come from Oakland, they do not benefit our community. A friend of mine had a good quote when the media was criticizing the so-called looters who left Footlocker with shoe boxes in their hands. She said all they were doing is getting shoes for the same price Footlocker pays people to make them; and that’s how I feel. If people want to destroy Footlocker’s property I’m not going to stand in the way of it. I’m never going to defend the oppressor.
TM: Some people who took shoes tried selling them. Doesn’t that seem a little more on the self-interested side rather than fighting for justice?
JC: Well what makes people think that young black kids in Oakland don’t have the right to have shoes and have money? I’m never going to criticize people who take what they can’t have. It’s not their fault that they live in a society where they live in poverty and they can’t afford these kinds of things. And so when they go directly to the oppressor and they steal, that’s what I call poetic justice.
TM: The OPD has said that of those arrested, about 75 percent were from outside Oakland. What is your take on that?
JC: The Oakland Police and BART Police have been on a mission from the beginning to misrepresent and discredit protesters demanding justice for Oscar Grant. I know a lot of times they said the same thing, that there are all these people coming in from outside Oakland and rioting. But the people I saw going into Footlocker, those were black and brown people from Oakland that were busting those windows and setting stuff on fire because they were angry.
And there were white people who were anarchists or whatever you want to call them, but the police in Oakland and the media have no right to just assume that people are not from Oakland. Oakland is a multiracial, multi-ethnic community and a lot of those people could have been from Oakland. And even if they weren’t from Oakland, and were so-called “outside agitators” I don’t buy that argument. […] The only people I consider outsiders in this are the people on the wrong side of the fight and that’s the police. These people come from places like Napa and Lafayette and Walnut Creek and they come into my community and they abuse and assault my people. Then they call our brothers and sisters outsiders — no, they’re the outsiders.
TM: So you’re saying that even if they’re not from Oakland, the fact that they’re engaging in this fight makes you stand in solidarity with them?
JC: Right, we identify with them way more than we identify with police officers who victimize and abuse us. If people are coming from out of Oakland, they’re coming as our allies who for whatever reason, whatever abuse and oppression they’ve faced in their lives, identify and stand in solidarity with oppressed people.
TM: Some of the graffiti said some things like “Oakland is our playground tonight.” What do you think about that type of attitude?
JC: That sounds like an accurate description of what took place last night and what should be our idea in life. Oakland is a place where because there is a majority of minorities and so many people live in poverty, it’s really a city of oppression. I think statements like that are testaments to how empowered people feel when they act together. Oakland is our playground and we’re boycotting this cycle of oppression and we can actually live together mutually and have fun living life.
2010-07-09 "Mehserle releases letter to the public, apologizes to Grant family for killing" by Jennifer Courtney and Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/09/mehserle-releases-apology-letter-to-the-public]:
(7/9) — UPDATED 16:25 PDT — OAKLAND – In a letter released by his lawyer today, Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter for shooting an unarmed train passenger, expressed his remorse and said he never intended to shoot Oscar Grant.
In the handwritten letter, dated July 4 — four days before the verdict was reached — Mehserle asked his attorney Michael Rains to disseminate it to the public, which he did so on Friday.
While he did not apologize when put on the witness stand two weeks ago, he wrote that “I have and will continue to live every day of my life knowing that Mr. Grant should not have been shot. I know a daughter has lost a father and a mother has lost a son. It saddens me knowing that my actions cost Mr. Grant his life, no words express how truly sorry I am.”
Mehserle also wrote that he hoped to talk to Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson and Sophina Mesa, mother of his young daughter, after the shooting but did not do so after he and his family received death threats. He said one day he hopes to engage in dialogue with them.
“For now, and forever I will live, breathe, sleep, and not sleep with the memory of Mr. Grant screaming ‘You shot me’ and putting my hands on the bullet wound thinking the pressure would help while I kept telling him ‘You’ll be okay!’” Mehserle wrote.
He added that when Grant began to succumb to his wound, closing his eyes and ceasing to talk, it made him feel “sick.”
But members of Grant’s family have taken no comfort in the former officer’s words. Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson said the letter was “not authentic,” and merely a way Mehserle is trying to reduce his sentence.
“If any of this was authentic we wouldn’t have suffered these last 19 months,” Johnson said.
He said his family was hurt by the lack of response by Mehserle since the shooting happened in January 2009.
The first time Mehserle publicly stated the shooting was an accident was on June 25, when he broke down crying on the witness stand where he testified in his own defense. After the testimony Johnson asked, “If this were really an accident, why wouldn’t he have called to send his condolences right after it happened?”
Jack Bryson, whose sons Nigel and Jackie Bryson were friends with Grant and both witnessed his death, agreed. “I don’t buy it. It sounds exactly like what Rains was saying, he just put it on paper,” he said.
Bryson said he thinks Mehserle is only remorseful because the killing was videotaped, since he still tried handcuffing Grant after he was shot and did not check up on Grant in the hospital. “If he were sincere he would have been with Oscar the whole time,” he said. “How could this be authentic when he had no reason to Tase [Grant] in the first place? It was a complete abuse of authority.”
Johnson asked, “How can we believe this is the truth after all we’ve been told is lies?”
A Los Angeles jury convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter Thursday afternoon. He was charged with second-degree murder by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, which expressed its disappointment following the verdict.
Cephus Johnson addresses reporters outside of an LA courthouse after Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Thursday. The letter was released by Mehserle's attorney Friday. (JENNIFER COURTNEY / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-07-09 "Peaceful protests against Mehserle verdict turn violent as sun sets" by Steven Luo, Vanessa Guerra, Jennifer Courtney, Tashina Manyak, James Keith and Heather McDaniel from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/09/peaceful-protests-against-mehserle-verdict-turn-violent-as-sun-sets]:
(7/9) — UPDATED 14:15 PDT — OAKLAND — A large, peaceful gathering of people in Downtown Oakland following former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle’s conviction for involuntary manslaughter was followed by violence as the sun set.
Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts blamed the violence, which included looting shops and setting dumpsters on fire, on a small group of about 50 anarchists.
Mehserle was convicted by a Los Angeles jury for killing unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant on the Fruitvale BART station platform New Year’s Day 2009, but acquitted of second degree murder for the killing. He faces five to 14 years in state prison.
When the verdict was read shortly after 4 p.m., hundreds began gathering in Downtown Oakland at 14th and Broadway to express their feelings on the verdict, with many saying that Mehserle should have been convicted of murder for Grant’s killing.
Karen Williams, a young woman who lives downtown, wanted to view the protest but asked what change protesting could really effect. “Is the protest going to do anything?” she asked. “It can’t do nothing because they already decided the verdict.”
Dante Jones was one of a group of protesters donning an Oscar Grant face mask. He said he protested as a means to get his voice heard at his outrage over black men being killed by law enforcement. “We been protesting for years. Ain’t no change we can do, but somebody’s got to hear it.”
But as the mostly peaceful gathering broke up around 8 p.m. and the sun began to set, trouble set in.
A group of people broke into and looted a Foot Locker store on Broadway, taking shoes and clothing and leaving debris scattered in the street.
Several other downtown businesses suffered broken windows and other damage during the rioting, including several banks, restaurants, Sears, Oaksterdam, Rite Aid and 24-Hour Fitness.
A crowd pushed toward a police line set up at 12th and Broadway, shouting at the police officers.
Police, who had sealed off most of the intersections along Broadway, eventually declared the assembly unlawful and began making mass arrests of those in the streets around 9 p.m.
Batts told reporters at a 10:30 p.m. news briefing that about 50 people were arrested, though he expected that number to double before the night was over. Oakland police officials later confirmed the total number stood at 78 arrests — with about 75 percent of those taken into custody coming from outside Oakland.
As the night wore on, unrest spread, with rioters lighting fire to dumpsters, setting off fireworks, throwing bottles at police gathered at 17th and Broadway and looting a Whole Foods Market at Harrison and Bay.
Many of the rioters wore masks, hoods and black clothing, and officials suggested they were organized groups out to cause trouble.
At one point, a police flash-bang device hit a news van and exploded, causing damage.
The majority of the trouble appeared to have subsided by midnight, leaving police and business owners to clean up the damage — including graffiti, debris strewn in the street, and broken windows — throughout the night into this morning.
Residents vent at peaceful gatherings -
At the earlier rally at 14th and Broadway, many speakers took advantage of an open microphone to express their feelings on the Mehserle verdict.
Some initial tense moments, including stone-throwing and an incident where a woman was struck by a police car backing away from protesters, subsided into a peaceful event, with sign-holding protesters and a marching band among the crowd.
The woman, who did not appear to be badly hurt, declined medical assistance.
A group of people hung a large banner reading “Oakland Says Guilty” on a street light downtown, expressing the feelings of many who wanted to see Mehserle convicted of murder.
One speaker told the crowd “the verdict is unfair,” saying that Mehserle “got
away with murder because he’s a cop.”
Another said “We have keep fighting until we get true justice.”
Among those in attendance was Oscar Grant Sr., the grandfather of the shooting victim, who asked those present not to “dishonor” Grant’s memory through violence.
At the rally, Downtown Oakland resident Tamara told the Beat that Mehserle should have received life in prison. “The system is broken, he shot him in the
back and killed him for no good reason.”
At a 7 p.m. news conference, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums praised Oakland residents for protesting peacefully.
Several community centers also opened their doors to allow residents to express their feelings on the Mehserle verdict.
At Youth UpRising, one of those centers, Deja Lynch of Oakland said the verdict “was unfair,” but said he had told his friends to “keep the violence down.”
Jackie Johnson, events manager for Youth UpRising, told the Beat that “there was a lot of anger” over the verdict, until word that the jury had found Mehserle personally used a firearm — a finding which would increase his sentence — filtered in.
She said that anarchists stopped by the center and tried to cause problems. “They were really trying to agitate and push people’s buttons,” she said.
Johnson was disappointed by the violence elsewhere in Oakland. “Now all the attention is on this and nobody’s really thinking about what this verdict actually means,” she said.
A broken window at a Foot Locker store in Downtown Oakland looted during post-Mehserle verdict rioting.
Alameda County sheriff's deputies arrest a man at 11th and Broadway in Downtown Oakland.
A police blockade on 17th and Telegraph in Oakland.
Vandalism at the Caltrans building on Webster and Grand in Oakland.
A large banner reading 'Oakland Says Guilty' was hung from a stoplight in Downtown Oakland during a gathering after the verdict in the Johannes Mehserle trial.
A man speaks to the assembled crowd at an open-mic rally at 14th and Broadway in Downtown Oakland following the Mehserle verdict.
A man in an 'I am Oscar Grant' T-shirt speaks to the assembled crowd at an open-mic rally at 14th and Broadway in Downtown Oakland following the Mehserle verdict.
The crowd at a rally at 14th and Broadway in Downtown Oakland following the Mehserle verdict.
A protester holds up a sign at a rally at 14th and Broadway in Downtown Oakland following the Mehserle verdict.
Police officers and a crowd at a rally at 14th and Broadway in Downtown Oakland following the Mehserle verdict.
A woman knocked down by a police car backing away from protesters at 12th and Broadway. She was not badly hurt and declined medical assistance.
2010-07-09 "LA reacts peacefully to Mehserle verdict" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/09/la-reacts-peacefully-to-mehserle-verdict]:
The response in Los Angeles to the involuntary manslaughter conviction of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was largely peaceful.
Mehserle was charged with second degree murder by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for fatally shooting unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant last year, but after six and a half hours of deliberation the jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter Thursday.
News of the impending verdict came Thursday about 2:30 p.m. and security cleared the Clara Foltz Criminal Justice Center and increased its presence around the building. When the decision was announced protesters outside the courthouse — many of them having demonstrated regularly throughout the trial — looked visibly upset, intensifying their chanting before organizer Aidge Patterson emotionally addressed the throng of media representatives present.
Patterson told the Beat finding Mehserle guilty involuntary manslaughter was “a complete injustice and mockery of this supposed justice system.”
“If it was one of us who shot somebody in the back while they were lying on the ground, unarmed, unprovoked, we would be in jail most definitely for murder, probably for life,” he said.
The standard sentence for involuntary manslaughter is two to four years in state prison. However, since the jury also found Mehserle personally used a firearm during the crime, three, four or ten years could be added to the sentence. The date for his sentencing hearing was cancelled and has not been reset.
Demonstrators made their way to Leimert Park in south Los Angeles, where about 75 people gathered to lament Grant’s death and voice opposition to the verdict. Mehserle deserved a harsher sentence and Grant’s death is part of a larger struggle against policy brutality, many of them said.
While most protesters chanted and listened to speakers, members of the Black Riders Liberation Party, which identifies with black bloc tactics, marched in formation as they took their message from the courthouse to the park.
Summer Reiss, director of the Pacifica Foundation National Board, travelled to Los Angeles as a reporter but said she attended the rally as an activist.
“I think that a fair evaluation of the evidence — watching that videotape — I expected a fair jury to come in with a voluntary manslaughter verdict. I didn’t think they’d find second degree murder but I didn’t think they could possibly find involuntary manslaugter. I was really surprised,” she said.
“There was nothing involuntary about his actions; he voluntarily pulled his gun and shot Oscar Grant,” she added.
Jack Bryson, whose sons Nigel and Jackie Bryson were were friends with Grant and witnessed his shooting, addressed supporters at the rally, thanking them for coming out and supporting the family.
Bryson told the Beat that though he first felt no satisfaction at watching Mehserle being taken away in handcuffs following the judge’s orders, he now sees the precedent-setting case as “somewhat” of a victory since the ex-cop was not acquitted.
“[Mehserle's] thinking about it right now in his cell. He’s thinking about it and he’s regretting it,” he said.
But in the end, he said, the situation has been devastating for everyone involved. “No one really wins. No one,” he said.
Cuate Juarez of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality called the verdict “confusing.”
“On the one hand it’s like you feel this burst of joy because it’s the first time that a cop gets tried for murder and a guilty verdict comes out,” he said. “But then you really start looking at it systematically and realize it’s their system. They manipulate it in a way where they leave these jurors so very little to work with.”
He said he thought more of Mehserle’s past should have been discussed as evidence since Grant’s 2006 Taser incident was allowed into court record.
It’s been a point repeatedly brought up by Grant’s family and other activists.
The rally lasted past sundown, with many still present after 10 p.m.
In Oakland, peaceful protests turned violent after nightfall when a group of about 50 people threw bottles at police, smashed windows, looted businesses and tagged graffiti downtown.
Police agencies from neighboring cities responded to Oakland to provide mutual aid.
In LA, several protesters said they would not decry people who express their anger through vandalism.
Though Patterson said law enforcement was staged throughout the area in case violence erupted, less than ten officers kept hands-off visible watch of the gathering at Leimert Park.
Jack Bryson speaks with supporters at Los Angeles' Leimert Park following announcement of the verdict. (JENNIFER COURTNEY / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Aidge Patterson addresses those present at south LA protest. (JENNIFER COURTNEY / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Cuate Juarez of the October 22 coalition told the crowd Mehserle's verdict was not enough to bring justice. (JENNIFER COURTNEY / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-07-09 "Mehserle found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, acquitted of murder" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/09/mehserle-found-guilty-of-involuntary-manslaughter-acquitted-of-murder]:
(7/9) — 00:15 PDT — LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles jury of eight women and four men convicted former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter Thursday afternoon, but acquitted him of the most serious charge he faced: second degree murder.
The verdict angered the family of Oscar Grant, the unarmed train passenger Mehserle shot and killed at the Fruitvale Station platform in East Oakland on January 1, 2009.
The jury also found that Mehserle personally used a firearm during the crime, a finding which could add three, four, or ten years to the standard involuntary manslaughter penalty of two, three, or four years in state prison. Mehserle therefore faces five to 14 years in state prison for Grant’s killing.
“We as a family have been slapped in the face by this system that has denied us a right to justice,” Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson told reporters outside court after the 4 p.m. announcement.
Grant family attorney John Burris also expressed disappointment concerning the verdict.
“The verdict is not a true representation of what happened to Oscar Grant that night,” Burris said during a news conference. “The jury seemed to be very dismissive of the murder two charge.”
The jury deliberated behind closed doors and under intense security for six and a half hours during the first full day of its deliberations Thursday to reach the involuntary manslaughter verdict at 2:10 p.m.
It was read two hours later inside Judge Robert Perry’s courtroom, which was packed with family members of both Grant and Mehserle, along with dozens of reporters from the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Mehserle sat stone-faced, showing no emotion as the jury read the involuntary manslaughter verdict.
His defense attorney Michael Rains attempted to convince Perry that his client was not a flight risk, but the judge ordered bailiffs to place Mehserle in handcuffs and take the former police officer into custody.
He mouthed the words “I love you” to his family, who began to sob from the court gallery.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Mehserle was taken by Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputies to county jail, where he was booked late Thursday evening, and will remain in custody until his sentencing hearing August 6.
Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson also began to sob briefly after the verdict was announced. She reacted angrily to Mehserle being convicted of the lesser charge.
“It was murder!” she told reporters outside the courtroom. “It was murder! My son was murdered!”
Prosecutor David Stein had argued in the case that Mehserle intended to use his gun to kill Grant.
He “chose to ignore everything he was ever taught about being a police officer,” Stein told the jury during closing arguments on July 1. He “was letting his emotions and aggression take over [...] He lost all control.”
The defense contended that Mehserle confused his Taser and his gun and accidentally shot Grant when he meant to Tase him.
“There’s nothing that suggests an intent to kill,” Rains said during his closing argument.
Late Thursday, the United States Department of Justice said they would launch an independent investigation into the case and weigh whether federal civil rights charges would be filed against Mehserle.
Neither Stein nor Rains addressed the media after the verdict. The 12 jurors also declined to be interviewed by media.
When the verdict was announced, more than 15 court security guards and four undercover police officers watched the protests outside the courthouse, which remained small and peaceful. Aidge Patterson of the Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant addressed the media briefly, calling the verdict “a gross injustice.”
Protesters await the verdict in the Mehserle murder trial. (JENNIFER COURTNEY / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Grant's mother Wanda Johnson reacted angrily to the news that Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, not murder. 'My son was murdered. He was murdered!' she said. (JENNIFER COURTNEY / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Grant family attorney addresses the media following the announcement of the verdict. (JENNIFER COURTNEY / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-07-08 "Johannes Mehserle found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, but acquitted of murder" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/08/johannes-mehserle-found-guilty-of-involuntary-manslaugher]:
(7/8) — UPDATED 19:31 PDT — LOS ANGELES — Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police Officer who shot and killed unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on January 1, 2009 at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter by a Los Angeles jury.
The jury found Mehserle not guilty of the most serious charge he faced: murder. The verdict means Mehserle will face from five to 14 years in state prison for Grant’s death.
The verdict was read just after 4 p.m. inside a Downtown Los Angeles courtroom where friends and family of both Mehserle and Grant packed the audience to hear the announcement.
A jury of eight women and four men deliberated behind closed doors and under intense security, eventually deciding to convict Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter. The jury also found that Mehserle personally used a firearm during the crime, a finding which could add three, four, or ten years to the standard involuntary manslaughter penalty of two, three, or four years.
Mehserle was taken into custody and led away in handcuffs after the verdict was read shortly after 4 p.m. today, over the objections of his defense attorney Michael Rains, who argued that Mehserle did not pose a flight risk.
Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson reacted angrily to the verdict in court, and cried briefly afterwards.
“We as a family have been slapped in the face by this system that has denied us a right to justice,” said Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson.
Grant family attorney John Burris was also disappointed by the verdict.
“The verdict is not a true representation of what happened to Oscar Grant that night,” Burris said during a news conference after the announcement. “The jury seemed to be very dismissive of the murder two charge.”
Prosecutors had argued that Mehserle intentionally used his gun to kill Grant in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009.
He “chose to ignore everything he was ever taught about being a police officer,” Stein told the jury during closing arguments on July 1. He “was letting his emotions and aggression take over [...] He lost all control.”
Mehserle’s defense attorney Michael Rains contended that the shooting was an accident — that Mehserle used his firearm to shoot Grant when the former officer intended to shock him with a Taser.
“There’s nothing that suggests an intent to kill,” Rains said during his closing argument.
He called the shooting “an unfortunate accident.”
The murder trial was moved from Alameda County to Los Angeles because of the intense publicity surrounding it. The incident touched off racial tension and inflamed relations between minority communities and law enforcement throughout Oakland and the Bay Area.
Grant was black; Mehserle was white.
Grant family attorney John Burris said he was “extremely disappointed” with the verdict, but said it was better than no verdict at all.
2010-07-07 "Mehserle jury cuts short Wednesday deliberations" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/07/mehserle-jury-cuts-short-wednesday-deliberations]:
(7/7) — UPDATED 18:45 PDT — LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles jury restarted deliberations in the murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle Wednesday morning, but ended discussions at 11:45 a.m. because of a juror’s afternoon doctor’s appointment.
Deliberations struck a brief hiatus Tuesday when one of the jurors fell ill, canceling what was to be the first full day of reviewing evidence in the murder trial.
Wednesday morning, a juror who had a planned vacation left the panel, requiring the court to select one of three remaining alternates to decide the fate of the former officer. The replacement requires the jury to restart deliberations from the beginning.
The panel now consists of eight women and four men, none of whom are African Americans.
The jury is responsible for determining the fate of Mehserle, who killed unarmed train passenger Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009.
Mehserle could be convicted of any one of three crimes: second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter. The former officer could also be acquitted of all charges if the jury decides he is not criminally responsible for Grant’s killing.
Jurors began deliberations Friday afternoon after Mehserle’s defense wrapped up its closing arguments, and after a rebuttal statement by the prosecution.
The jury submitted a question late Friday seeking clarification on sources of provocation and what would create a heat of passion scenario, an issue which Judge Robert Perry says deals predominantly with voluntary manslaughter.
“Can this provocation come from another source other than the suspect(s),” one or more of the jurors asked.
“Another source” could qualify as Grant, Grant’s friends, other train passengers or other BART Police officers.
Perry said in a brief session inside Los Angeles Superior Court that he thought provocation could come from a source other than the suspect.
The judge and attorneys discussed whether the jury might be pondering if rowdy BART passengers or the aggressiveness of Anthony Pirone provoked Mehserle to use deadly force.
The jury will resume its deliberations tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Perry said he expects Thursday to be the first full day of deliberations.
2010-07-06 "Mehserle jury deliberations delayed due to illness" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/06/mehserle-jury-deliberations-delayed-due-to-illness]:
(7/6) — UPDATED 10:50 PDT — LOS ANGELES – The jury weighing second-degree murder charges against Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer who fatally shot Oscar Grant, will delay its first full day of deliberations because one juror is ill.
Another juror will be replaced for Wednesday’s deliberations since he is scheduled to go on vacation, something the attorneys and judge in the case were aware of when the trial began. He will be replaced with one of three alternate jurors that are left — all female — leaving the panel to start deliberations over tomorrow, July 7, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Judge Robert Perry has ruled the jurors can consider second-degree murder charges, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter or outright acquittal if it finds Mehserle is not criminally responsible for Grant’s death.
The jury deliberated for about two hours Friday afternoon after Mehserle’s defense wrapped up its closing arguments, and after a rebuttal statement by the prosecution.
“A trial is not about justice, a trial is about a shot at justice,” defense attorney Michael Rains told the jury. “You are his shot at justice.”
Rains is arguing that his client mistook his gun for his Taser and accidentally shot Grant when the former officer intended to Tase him.
The prosecution contends the killing was an intentional act and constitutes murder.
“The video clearly shows an unjustifiable shooting,” Stein argued. “In this case the defense can’t change what’s on that video.”
Local law enforcement and emergency services officials held a meeting Tuesday morning at the Oakland Office of Emergency Services downtown to prepare for the verdict.
Community and city leaders are calling for peace when the decision is announced, as many residents and business owners fear violence could erupt should Mehserle not be convicted of murder.
2010-07-02 "Jury begins deliberations in Mehserle murder trial" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/02/defense-finishes-closing-arguments-prosecution-offers-rebuttal]:
(7/2) — UPDATED 16:40 PDT — LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles jury will now consider whether former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who fired a single, fatal shot into the back of an unarmed Oscar Grant, is guilty of murder, manslaughter or no crime at all.
After three weeks of digesting conflicting accounts of what happened on the Fruitvale BART platform in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009, the jury went into deliberations Friday afternoon after closing arguments by the defense and a rebuttal by the prosecution.
The dueling lawyers’ theatrical presentations centered on one key question — whether Mehserle, 28, intended to draw his firearm and shoot Grant, 22, or meant instead to draw his Taser to subdue the Hayward man.
2010-07-01 "Sides present closing arguments in Mehserle murder trial" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/07/01/mehserle-closing-arguments]:
(7/1) — UPDATED 22:20 PDT — LOS ANGELES — The prosecution in the murder trial of Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer who shot and killed unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009, urged a Los Angeles jury to convict Mehserle of second-degree murder during its closing argument today.
But the defense said the prosecution had not proven that Mehserle intended to shoot Grant beyond a reasonable doubt. “This was an accident, folks. Clear and simple,” Mehserle’s defense attorney Michael Rains said.
Prosecution: shooting a “deliberate act” -
“It can never be lawful to shoot an unarmed man when that man is face down in the process of putting his hands behind his back,” Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein told the jury.
Mehserle “chose to ignore everything he was ever taught about being a police officer,” Stein said. He “was letting his emotions and aggression take over [...] He lost all control.”
Stein said Mehserle told others after the shooting “I thought he was going for his gun” because he was trying to justify an intentional act, and pointed out that Mehserle never told any of the people he spoke to after the shooting that it was an accident.
Stein told the jury that Mehserle had been extensively trained on his firearm and knew what he was doing when he pulled out his gun.
“When a painter pulls out a brush, he intends to paint [...] when a police officer who’s been trained pulls out a gun, he intends to shoot,” Stein said.
Walking the jury through the motions necessary to remove a gun from Mehserle’s gun holster, Stein said “that shows that this was a deliberate act. The gun is not coming out unless you do all of those things.”
Stein argued that the defense had to work around the facts in constructing its case. “Sometimes it’s like putting a square peg in a round hole: it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Defense says prosecution hasn’t proven its case beyond reasonable doubt -
Rains, however, said that the prosecution has not met its burden of proof.
“If [the charge] is not proven, Mr. Mehserle is entitled to an acquittal, it’s just that simple,” Rains told the jury.
Rains acknowledged the history of police discrimination against racial minorities, but urged jurors to set it aside in their deliberations.
“A court is not a forum to address social injustice or racial injustice,” Rains said.
The defense contends that the shooting was an accident and that Mehserle meant to draw his Taser, not his gun. “There’s nothing that suggests an intent to kill,” Rains said.
Rains brought up half a dozen cases discussed during testimony where police officers accidentally drew their guns when they meant to use their Tasers. “We know at least six other officers have done what Mehserle did,” he said.
Rains claimed that Mehserle had a reputation for being non-aggressive, and asked why he would suddenly become aggressive the night of the shooting.
Mehserle was “completely in control of his emotions, of his actions” during the incident, Rains said.
Rains argued that Mehserle’s not telling his fellow officers that the shooting was an accident was a “protocol” used after any officer-involved shooting, and said that other officers kept reminding him of this in the minutes after the shooting.
Rains argued that the prosecution withheld and misrepresented evidence in the case. “You haven’t been told the truth,” he said to the jury.
Sides disagree on whether witnesess, videos say Grant resisting arrest -
“There is no evidence of Grant ever resisting. He did nothing other than what he was told to do,” Stein told the jury, saying that none of the eyewitnesses have testified that Grant was resisting arrest.
Stein argued that Grant put his hands under him “so that he [didn't] have to kiss the pavement” when he was pushed to the ground, and then couldn’t free his hands because they were pinned under him by the police officers.
Stein described the injuries Grant suffered after a 2006 incident in which he ran from police and was Tased after a routine traffic stop, asking “would [Grant] reasonably want to experience that again?”
But according to Rains, “Oscar Grant resisted from the moment he jumped on the train.”
Rains disputed Stein’s assertion that no eyewitnesses testified that Grant was resisting arrest, saying that while no one testified that they saw Grant “punching or kicking,” “there are other forms of resistance.”
Rains said that witnesses had testified that they had seen Mehserle struggling with Grant, arguing “these people are all describing physical resistance.”
Rains saw the 2006 incident very differently. Saying Grant ran from police despite an officer having pointed his gun at him, Rains said “we know Oscar Grant wasn’t afraid of a gun staring point blank at him [...] and Mr. Stein wants you to believe he was afraid of a Taser.”
Both sides said that the video evidence supported their stance. Stein played a video taken by bystander Tommy Cross for the jury in arguing that Grant was not resisting, while Rains told the jury that to believe that Grant wasn’t resisting “defies evidence we have on this video.”
Defense says prosecution trying to “smear” Mehserle with Pirone’s actions -
Stein argued that former BART Police Officer Anthony Pirone “absolutely set the tone” during the incident by using “gratuitous profanity and excessive force.” Mehserle “was reacting to what was going on around him,” Stein said.
Pointing to a racial slur that Pirone can be heard using in videos of the incident, Stein said that the defense wants “you to believe that the defendant never heard that.”
“There are 200 cops in this outfit and the defendant has to pick Pirone to be his big brother,” Stein told the jury.
But Rains said the prosecution was trying to “smear” Mehserle by associating him with Pirone, even displaying a slide at one point with “The People vs. Anthony Pirone” written on it, with Pirone’s name struck through and replaced with “(Johannes Mehserle)” underneath.
Rains said that to say Pirone was Mehserle’s “big brother” was a misrepresentation of testimony, pointing out that Mehserle had testified that he saw BART Police Officers Jon Woffinden and Terry Foreman as his mentors, not Pirone.
Rains called Pirone’s use of the racial slur “shameful conduct,” but claimed that Grant’s friends Carlos Reyes and Jackie Bryson hadn’t heard it either. In Bryson’s case, Rains said he had never mentioned the racial slur in interviews until evidence of it appeared at the preliminary hearing to determine whether Mehserle should be tried.
The defense will finish presenting its closing argument to the jury tomorrow in Los Angeles, where the case has been moved over concerns whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in the Bay Area. The prosecution will then present a rebuttal, after which the case will go to the jury.
Also today, a bill to increase BART oversight of its police force passed the California Assembly today 69-0, sending the measure to the governor’s desk.
The bill, which allows BART to create an auditor’s position to investigate complaints of police misconduct and give recommendations for disciplinary action, resulted from outcry over the Grant shooting.
Grant's uncle Cephus Johnson speaks with the media during a lunch break in closing arguments today in the BART shooting trial. (Anna Fornaeus/CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-06-30 "Mehserle jury allowed to consider lesser charges of manslaughter" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/30/mehserle-jury-allowed-to-consider-lesser-charges-of-manslaughter]:
(6/30) — 10:51 PDT — LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry ruled against key defense motions today, deciding to allow the jury in the murder trial of Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on January 1, 2009, to consider voluntary and involuntary manslaughter charges during its deliberations.
Perry struck first-degree murder from the charges to be considered by the jury. The most serious charge the jury can convict Mehserle of will be second-degree murder.
Perry is allowing two prongs of voluntary manslaughter to be considered as charges against Mehserle: crimes done in the “heat of passion” and “unreasonable self-defense”. The judge also ruled that the the jury would be allowed to consider involuntary manslaughter.
In motions filed by Mehserle’s attorney, Michael Rains, the defense sought to eliminate the lesser charges for the jury — limiting the verdict to a second-degree murder conviction or acquittal.
Closing statements in the trial are scheduled for Thursday morning. The jury could begin deliberations as early as Friday.
2010-06-29 "Another emotional day in courtroom as sides finish presenting evidence" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/29/another-emotional-day-in-courtroom-as-sides-finish-presenting-evidence]:
(6/29) — 21:15 PDT — LOS ANGELES — Both sides finished presenting evidence Tuesday during a sometimes emotional day of testimony in the murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who fatally shot unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.
A forensic pathologist with the Alameda County Coroner’s Office was the final witness for the defense. Thomas Rogers, who performed the autopsy on Grant’s body, described in graphic detail for jurors the wound that led to his death.
As Rogers used a laser pointer to demonstrate on defense attorney Michael Rains’s body where the bullet would have exited Grant, Jack Bryson, the father of one of Grant’s friends, stood up and walked out of the courtroom.
Later, Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson began to sob uncontrollably, prompting Judge Robert Perry to call a short recess.
Johnson was later transported to a Los Angeles hospital after collapsing outside the courthouse. She has been released and is doing well, according to the Grant family, and is suffering from emotional and physical exhaustion brought on by the trial.
Rogers said the bullet traveled from left to right through Grant’s body, but would not “attach any significance” to that. Rains has argued that Grant’s left shoulder was coming up from the platform when he was shot, and that he was moving when Mehserle shot him.
Earlier in the day, a defense expert on how police officers respond to stressful situations, Minnesota State University Professor William Lewinski, discussed “inattentional blindness,” a phenomenon where someone fails to notice something that should be plainly in sight because he or she is otherwise preoccupied.
In some videos of the shooting, Mehserle appears to be looking at his gun — which is black, unlike his bright yellow Taser — before he fires into Grant’s back. The defense claims that the shooting was an accident and that Mehserle meant to draw his Taser, not his gun.
Lewinski also testified that, in stressful situations, it was more likely that a police officer would accidentally confuse his or her gun and Taser.
Prosecution emphasizes Mehserle never told anyone shooting was accidental -
The prosecution, which contends Mehserle intentionally pulled his gun to shoot Grant, presented its rebuttal to the defense case this afternoon.
Deputy District Attorney David Stein brought to the witness stand BART Police Officer Terry Foreman, who said he and Mehserle completed focus training together and were friends, socializing outside of work on occasion.
Foreman testified that he received a call that night saying Mehserle was involved in a shooting and had requested his support.
He arrived at BART headquarters about 4 a.m., and when he went into the interview room, “He started to cry, I started to cry. I told him I was there for him to give him some support.”
Under questioning from Stein, Foreman said Mehserle has never told him it was an accident, nor that he intended to reach for his Taser.
Foreman said that, as a cop for the Pleasant Hill Police Department in the 1990s, he shot someone in self-defense. But Foreman said when he tried to console Mehserle by saying he knew what he was going through, “all the sudden he just started saying ‘it was different, he was going for his pocket, I thought he had a gun.’”
Foreman drove him home that night and called him the next day. “He was crying. He said he couldn’t sleep, that it kept going through his head every time he closed his eyes,” Foreman said.
Under cross examination from Rains, Foreman said Mehserle took his job as an officer seriously.
“I used to make fun of him because he was studying all the time. It was a little joke,” Foreman testified.
“He was a nice young man. He had a lot of potential,” Foreman added. “I never saw him get aggressive.”
Foreman told the court that when he first saw Mehserle in the interview room at BART headquarters, “It was apparent he was crying. When I got there his eyes were red [...] there was just a blank stare on his face like he was looking right through you.”
Mehserle “still had that blank stare,” Foreman said, when he drove his friend to Sacramento to meet with his lawyer several days after the shooting. “I would try to say things to get his mind off of it but he would just say ‘I thought he had a gun’ and break down crying.”
Rains asked Foreman if he ever prompted Mehserle to explain the situation and he said no because he saw his role as being supportive, not trying to interpret what happened.
Foreman said Mehserle would have kept talking in the interview room following the incident, but Foreman “shut him down,” telling him “‘I’m not here for that, I’m here to support you.’”
Earlier, three BART Police officers present the morning of the shooting testified: Officer Emery Knudtson, Patrol Sergeant Edgardo Alvarez and Lt. Kevin Franklin.
Knudtson testified that he heard the gunshot but thought it was a firecracker at first. He said he saw an officer applying pressure to Grant’s wound and said it was only then that he noticed Mehserle.
When he realized Mehserle was the shooter, Knudtson said, “I asked him if he was all right [...] I told him to put his gun in his holster and to ask for the Legal Defense Fund.” Knudtson then went downstairs from the platform to get medical attention.
Stein then asked the officer, “Did the defendant say anything [...] to indicate that he had intended to use his Taser?”
“No,” Knudtson said.
Stein asked Alvarez and Franklin the same question and got the same answer.
Under cross examination from Rains, Knudtson said he was concerned for Mehserle after the shooting. “He looked pretty scared, like he didn’t know what to do,” he said.
Also on Tuesday, Bruce Brock, a veteran Oakland Police officer and Inspector for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, testified that, while Mehserle’s Taser weighed 360 grams (about 13 ounces), his gun weighed more than twice as much as his Taser.
Grant supporter sentenced for courtroom outburst -
Timothy Killings, the Oakland resident arrested last Friday after shouting a profanity during Mehserle’s testimony, was released from jail last night and sentenced to 18 months probation and a $160 fine for disturbing the peace.
He told the Beat he is still angry Mehserle wept on the witness stand, saying his message to the former BART officer is “If you really wanted to cry, you should have apologized to Oscar Grant’s mom. You killed her son [and you haven't said anything to her] but you’re going to wait until you get on the stand and then start crying?”
Police and other government agencies in both Oakland and Los Angeles are preparing for the verdict amid fears of riots when the decision is handed down. Yesterday, crews worked to remove graffiti from around Lake Merritt which warned of violence should Mehserle not be convicted of murder.
Closing arguments will be held Thursday in Los Angeles, where the case has been moved due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in the Bay Area. The jury could begin its deliberations as early as Thursday afternoon.
Wanda Johnson speaks with reporters on Tuesday after the judge in the case called a recess when she sobbed uncontrollably during a witness's testimony. (Tashina Manyak / CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-06-29 "Defense rests its case in Mehserle murder trial" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/29/defense-rests-its-case-in-mehserle-trial]:
(6/29) — 11:22 PDT — LOS ANGELES — The defense rested its case this morning in the murder trial for former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who fatally shot unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.
The prosecution, which contends Mehserle intentionally pulled his gun to shoot Grant, is expected to begin its rebuttal this afternoon. Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday and the jury could begin its deliberations as early as Friday.
Mehserle, 28, testified last week that he accidentally pulled his gun instead of his Taser to subdue the 22-year-old after he was resisting arrest on the Fruitvale BART platform.
Police and other government agencies in both Oakland and Los Angeles are preparing for the verdict amid fears of riots when the decision is handed down. Yesterday crews worked to remove graffiti from around Lake Merritt which warned of violence should Mehserle not be convicted of murder.
2010-06-28 "Defense use of force expert falters during cross examination" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/28/mehserle-defenses-use-of-force-expert-falters-during-cross-examination]:
(6/28) — 20:18 PDT — LOS ANGELES — An expert witness retained by the defense for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer charged with murder in the shooting death of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant, said today that he had no doubt that Mehserle would have been justified in Tasing Grant because he was resisting being handcuffed.
But during a rough cross examination, retired LAPD Captain Greg Meyer, a police trainer who is an expert on Tasers and use of force by police officers, revealed a seeming lack of familiarity with the details of the case.
Under questioning by defense attorney Michael Rains, Meyer said Grant was resisting arrest in a manner serious enough to justify Taser use by Mehserle.
“It’s very clear to me that Mr. Grant was resisting arrest,” Meyer said. “Regardless of what anyone says, I can see it [on video footage of the incident] with my own eyes.”
Meyer said that he thought the video footage showed Grant intentionally holding his right arm under his body to prevent officers from handcuffing him.
Meyer said it would have been appropriate for officers to punch, kick, use pepper spray, or wield a baton to subdue Grant, though he said using a Taser would be preferred over any of those alternatives because it would be less likely to “inflame the passions” of bystanders.
Meyer also said former BART Police Officer Anthony Pirone was within his rights to order the arrest of Grant minutes before the shooting, citing Grant’s re-boarding the BART train to evade an officer and his standing up from the seated position he had taken on the platform.
“Either of those things alone are sufficient to violate 148,” he said, referring to the section of the California Penal Code defining the crime of obstructing a police officer.
Meyer later testified that he didn’t “see anything where [Pirone] was clearly over the line” in his use of force while reviewing video footage of the incident taken by BART passengers.
Meyer also testified Mehserle’s Taser training was inadequate.
“It could have been better. It had some deficiencies,” he said.
He said the training the ex-officer received from BART was “more of an introductory practice,” and “not the type of training that would cause muscle memory to occur.”
But during a lengthy cross examination, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein sought to cast doubt on Meyer’s objectivity and his testimony.
Meyer has previously testified in more than 50 cases, and although he remembered testifying against officers on occasion, “in many more I’ve defended officers,” he said.
Stein revealed that Meyer testified several times in the trial of the four police officers caught on videotape beating Rodney King. Meyer said today under questioning by Stein that he did not believe those officers used excessive force.
Pressed by Stein, Meyer said that to take someone into custody for simply standing up while detained would be “kind of a cheap arrest,” although technically legal.
Meyer admitted that he had formed his opinion on Mehserle’s case in March 2009, before the completion of either BART’s internal investigation into the incident or an independent review conducted by law firm Meyers Nave.
Meyer said that he had not reviewed any of the depositions taken from witnesses on the train or the platform, or the transcripts from the preliminary hearing which determined that there was sufficient evidence to try Mehserle for murder.
Meyer was unable to recognize the name of the operator of the train stopped at the platform during the incident, Keecha Williams, and that of another eyewitness who has taken the stand in the case. For those whose names he recognized, he could not say whether they were on the train or the platform that night.
By way of contrast, Stein read from one of Meyer’s publications where he stated that all his years in police work caused him “never to form opinions before reviewing all the evidence” in a case.
Meyer also incorrectly referred to Grant as “the defendant” in the trial at least twice during his testimony.
Both Rains and Stein had Meyer address six prior cases nationwide where officers mistakenly drew firearms instead of Tasers.
In each of those cases, the Taser was holstered so the officer’s dominant hand would draw it, and a single shot was fired as opposed to the two or three rounds that are customary when using lethal force.
Mehserle’s Taser was set up for a draw with his dominant hand, and he fired a single shot into Grant’s back. The defense contends that the shooting was accidental and that Mehserle, 28, meant to draw his Taser instead of his gun.
But Stein pointed out that, unlike the officers in the other incidents, Mehserle was wearing his Taser on the side of his body opposite his gun, and also highlighted the fact that Mehserle did not tell anyone at the time that he had drawn his gun by mistake.
In the other cases, the officers who accidentally fired immediately and repeatedly said that they had made a grave mistake. Stein said that one officer yelled something to the effect of “Oh my god, I put the f– Taser on the wrong side!” before breaking down in tears, and that another repeated “Oh my god” before saying “I really screwed up” and later told his colleagues “I’m sorry I ruined the Tasers for you guys.”
None of the six other cases discussed led to a murder charge.
A defense expert on how police officers respond to stressful situations, Minnesota State University Professor William Lewinski, followed Meyer onto the witness stand in the afternoon. Lewinski’s testimony will continue Tuesday in Los Angeles, where the case has been moved over concerns that Mehserle could not receive a fair trial in the Bay Area.
2010-06-25 "Mehserle: 'I didn’t intend to shoot Mr. Grant; I meant to Tase him'" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/25/mehserle-breaks-down-in-court-i-didnt-think-i-had-my-gun]:
(6/26) — UPDATED 00:32 PDT — LOS ANGELES — Former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed unarmed train passenger Oscar Grant on January 1, 2009, told a Los Angeles County jury Friday morning that he mistakenly drew his gun instead of his Taser — the first public explanation made by the ex-officer since the videotaped incident.
But the prosecution sought to poke holes in Mehserle’s story, bringing up inconsistencies in his testimony with the recorded events of the night.
Mehserle’s defense attorney Michael Rains resumed his questioning of the former officer Friday morning, after calling him as a witness in a surprise move on Thursday.
“I didn’t think I had my gun,” Mehserle testified. “I remember the pop wasn’t very loud, it wasn’t like a gun shot. I remember wondering what went wrong with the Taser, I thought the Taser had malfunctioned.”
“I remember looking at my right hand and seeing my gun,” he told the court.
Mehserle’s testimony suddenly became emotional. “I didn’t know what to think,” he said as he began to break down in tears. “It shouldn’t have been there.”
As he cried uncontrollably on the witness stand, his family, seated in the courtroom gallery pews, also began to cry. It was the first display of emotion in the courtroom by Mehserle or his family.
“I remember Mr. Grant saying. ‘you shot me,’” he said, choking back tears.
Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant, rose from her seat inside the courtroom and rushed out during the defendant’s continuous sobbing. She was followed by her best friend Dawna Smith, who was Grant’s godmother. Smith later told the Beat she had left to support Johnson.
Immediately after, a Grant supporter identified as Timothy Killings of the Bay Area’s Laney College rose from his seat in the courtroom gallery and yelled at Mehserle on the witness stand.
“Maybe you should save those f– tears!” he shouted.
Some seated near him briefly clapped after his statement. Judge Robert Perry quickly ordered bailiffs to arrest the individual for contempt of court. He was handcuffed at the door before being removed.
The emotional outcry from Mehserle appeared to be met with anger from other supporters of Grant in the audience. Some could be heard calling the crying “ridiculous” and muttering about it being “rehearsed” for the jury.
The judge then cleared his courtroom for a brief recess and later threatened to block all spectators if there were additional outbursts from the audience.
“You have a job to do here [...] and you cannot let an emotional outburst from someone in the audience influence you in any way,” Perry warned the jury afterward.
“It’s staged, all of that is staged,” Grant’s mother said after watching Mehserle cry. “He was coached to do that, and he did what he was coached to do.”
“I told Grant calm down” -
Mehserle testified that he arrived at the Fruitvale Station to find Grant and his friend Jackie Bryson upset with ex-BART Police Officer Tony Pirone, who had pulled the men off a Dublin-Pleasanton BART train after reports of fighting.
“They didn’t tell me what happened with [Pirone],” Mehserle said, but Grant made it clear, “he was angry with Prione, not with myself.”
He said he attempted to deescalate the situation by talking to them.
“I told [Grant and Bryson] to calm down, we’d figure it out,” Mehserle said.
That’s when Pirone ordered Grant and Bryson arrested for “148″ — the California Penal Code section for obstructing a police officer. Mehserle said he did not particularly feel that Grant and Bryson’s actions were illegal at the time, but chose not to question a fellow officer’s commands.
“I followed the order, assuming [Pirone] made the right decision…he had more information.”
The defense contends that Grant and others were actively resisting arrest and ignoring the commands of the police officers. Rains’ expert witness Micheal Schott testified Wednesday that video evidence appeared to show Bryson striking Mehserle. Mehserle himself said he had no recollection of such an incident.
Bryson’s arrest went without difficulty, Mehserle told the jury. But when attempting to arrest Grant, the former officer testified that it turned into a brief struggle for the man’s hands.
“His hands were underneath him,” he said. “I wasn’t paying attention to his left hand, I was trying to get his right hand.”
Mehserle said he saw Grant’s right hand reach into his pocket.
“It made me question what his intentions were…I knew the right front pocket was a place where people kept–,” Mehserle then paused.
“Guns.”
It was at this point the former officer said he decided to Tase Grant.
“I didn’t know I had my gun” -
Standing over Grant, Mehserle said he reached for his Taser with his right hand. But instead, the former officer drew his Sig Sauer semi-automatic pistol. He told the court that he intended to use the Taser to incapacitate Grant and get him to comply with his orders.
“I remember thinking, ‘OK, this has got to go quick’.”
“It felt smooth, like there was no problem,” he said about reaching for his weapon. “There were no flags that popped up, there were no red flags.”
Then Mehserle fired the single, lethal shot into Grant’s back.
“I didn’t know I had my gun,” he said.
Afterward, Mehserle said he realized he fired a bullet instead of Taser probes. He looked down at Grant, who lay mortally wounded on the station platform.
“I remember him starting to close his eyes [...] I was trying to keep his eyes open,” he said. “I was scared, ’cause, you know, this wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Mehserle said he tried to apply pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. As back-up officers arrived, they took him off the platform and away from Grant.
“I remember looking over at Grant…I just wanted him to be alright. I remember someone yelling that he had a kid,” he said, again choking up.
Mehserle said he was taken to BART administrative headquarters at Lake Merritt Station afterward, where he began crying to his mentor Officer Foreman about the shooting incident. He said the senior officer instructed him not to talk to anyone about the shooting until after consulting with an attorney.
He said it was for this reason he didn’t mention to Foreman or anyone else that the shooting was an accident.
Mehserle has not publicly explained why he shot Grant until Friday morning’s testimony. His defense attorney Rains asked the former officer what he was thinking when he pulled out his service pistol.
“I didn’t intend to shoot Mr. Grant,” he responded. “I meant to Tase him.”
Prosecution looks for inconsistencies in Mehserle’s story -
In the afternoon session, prosecutor David Stein tried to poke holes in Mehserle’s story.
Bringing up a previous incident where Mehserle had been disciplined for not yelling “gun” when he saw a gun on a detainee, Stein asked Mehserle why he didn’t yell “gun” if he thought Grant had one.
Mehserle said that he didn’t see a gun. Pressed by Stein on the point, he said that “the only time I would yell ‘gun’ was if I was 100% sure that he had a gun.”
But if Mehserle even thought Grant had a gun, Stein argued, it would have been unwise to step back and Tase him — that could have given an armed suspect enough time to shoot. Additionally, Stein argued, the spasms the Taser induces could have easily caused a hand on the trigger of a gun to shoot. Mehserle said he hadn’t considered either possibility.
At various points, Stein asked Mehserle to explain why many of the statements he claimed to have made that night, such as shouting “I’m going to Tase him,” weren’t picked up on the videos of the incident. In each case, Mehserle answered that he didn’t know.
Stein later brought out Mehserle’s gun holster and, after demonstrating the complicated action necessary to remove a gun from it, asked Mehserle whether he remembered making any of those motions.
“I don’t remember going for my gun. I don’t remember any of that,” Mehserle replied.
Another key point of Stein’s was why the the former officer, who said he was “devastated” by the shooting, never told anyone it was an accident. Mehserle did not deny that he had never actually explained to anyone that he drew his firearm by mistake. Two videos revealed Mehserle talking with BART officers Franklin and Knudsen on the platform but Mehserle said he didn’t recall talking to either. The defendant repeated he had sought to tell Foreman but was cut short when the older officer told him he “didn’t want to hear any specifics” and advised him to consult with his lawyer.
After Stein finished his cross examination, Rains sought to hammer home the emotional impact of the shooting on Mehserle.
“You wake up every morning thinking about this?” Rains asked. “Yes, sir,” Mehserle replied.
“And you go to bed every night crying about it?” Rains continued. “Yes, sir,” Mehserle said, again choking back tears.
“And will you cry about it tonight?”
“That’s enough,” said the judge, cutting Rains off.
Testimony continues Monday in Los Angeles, where the case has been moved due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in the Bay Area.
2010-06-24 "VIDEO: New footage released today shows Oscar Grant shooting" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/24/video-new-footage-released-today-shows-oscar-grant-shooting]:
LOS ANGELES — Video footage showing the New Year’s Day 2009 shooting of unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant by a former BART Police Officer that has never before been viewed outside of a courtroom was publicly released by the Los Angeles County Superior Court Thursday afternoon.
The videos were taken by BART passenger Tommy Cross and have been introduced into evidence in the murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle. The videos have been enhanced by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
Also released Thursday were BART Police dispatch recordings, transcripts and photographic evidence used by the prosecution and defense.
2010-06-24 "Mehserle takes the stand in his murder trial" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/24/mehserle-takes-the-stand-in-his-murder-trial]:
(6/24) — UPDATED 20:00 PDT — LOS ANGELES — In a surprise move Thursday afternoon, former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed an unarmed train passenger at the Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009, took the witness stand and testified in his own defense.
Mehserle, 28, told the court that he had trained with his police-issued Taser less than 10 times before the New Year’s morning incident during which he shot and killed Oscar Grant. He had extensive practice with his firearm dating back to his time at a Napa police academy.
He said a Taser was “just another tool in your belt” and he never considered the need to train with his Taser the way he trained with his firearm. BART policy left it up to each officer how best to set up a Taser draw, he testified, and his training only briefly addressed confusion between a Taser and a gun in his training.
When his defense attorney Michael Rains asked him if he considered himself a rookie officer at the time of the shooting he responded, “yes, sir.”
Mehserle seemed calm and almost comfortable on the witness stand as he gave his first public testimony about the shooting incident.
When he first took the stand Rains talked for some time about who the former BART officer was as a person — including being voted “most huggable” in high school — so much that Judge Robert Perry told him to move on in his line of questioning.
Mehserle said he was drawn to police work because it was not a typical day job, saying he saw it as “different and exciting.”
He said his style as an officer was more communicative than “hands-on,” saying his strength was “just being able to talk with people, communicate with people.”
It was the “opposite” of former BART Police Officer Anthony Pirone’s style.
“He reminded me a lot of my drill instructor in the academy,” Mehserle said of Pirone. “It wouldn’t be uncommon for him to be in a yelling match with somebody.”
Pirone, who has come under intense scrutiny in the trial, was fired from BART in April amid allegations of misconduct during the moments leading up to the shooting on the Fruitvale platform. Multiple witnesses have testified they observed him yelling profnanity–including racial slurs–and using excessive physical force to detain Grant and his friends.
Mehserle said despite their differences, the two respected each other. He said he met Pirone through his partner at BART police, Jon Woffinden. Pirone was on the SWAT team and Mehserle said on range days he was very helpful on gun-related questions.
He testified that he was trained to fire three rounds from his gun if it were necessary to use lethal force; he shot one bullet at Grant. The defense argues Mehserle mistook his gun for his Taser when he shot Grant.
But after Mehserle’s testimony today, Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson questioned why Mehserle’s family did not send condolences and an apology if it truly was an accident. His family was never contacted by them, Johnson said, but were instead “condemned” for calling the killing murder.
He said calling Mehserle to the stand was a strategic, last-resort move on the part of the defense.
Earlier in the day, the prosecution attempted to challenge the neutrality of expert witness Michael Schott as he continued testimony. During cross examination Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein asked the forensic image analyst if he had worked previously with Rains, to which Schott responded that he had. Schott also said he has worked in more than 50 cases where officers have been accused of misconduct.
Schott was a police officer himself from the 1970s through the early 1990s, and has written for “Tactical Edge,” a magazine initially only available to law enforcement personnel.
When Stein asked if his previous experience might bias his opinion, Schott said it gave him “tremendous insight” but did not prejudice him in any way.
Throughout Schott’s testimony he emphasized that he did not try to “compute intent” into the images he analyzed, merely to interpret the movements he saw. This led to many inconclusive statements about what the videos actually depicted, since Schott said they did not contain enough information for him to draw firm conclusions.
Stein had asked before the trial for Schott to be prohibited from testifying about what videos appear to show. But after hearing sample testimony at a pre-trial hearing earlier this month, Judge Robert Perry disagreed, saying he found Schott’s testimony “very helpful.”
Schott said he has dedicated 500 hours to analyzing video for this case. Schott is also scheduled to testify for Anthony Pirone’s defense in the former BART officer’s suite against the transit agency.
Earlier in the morning, defense attorney Michael Rains wrapped up his questioning of Scott, who said the video shows Mehserle attempted to release his gun from its holster four times and was only successful on the last. The first three attempts can only be seen on the amatuer video filmed by passenger Daniel Liu, which Schott admitted has poor resolution quality and was taken farther away from the incident than the four other passenger-shot videos.
Schott spent some time analyzing Mehserle’s thumb movements, saying that because his thumb can’t be seen on the video, it was “pointing inward toward Mehserle’s body.”
Rains has argued such movements are consistent with trying to retrieve a Taser, thus Mehserle was attempting to shock Grant, not shoot him, and accidentally drew his firearm.
As Schott gave this testimony, Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson said from the audience “He reached for his gun four times and it was an accident?”
Rains is expected to wrap up his arguments by early next week in Los Angeles, where the trial was moved due to the defense’ concern Mehserle could not receive a fair trial in the Bay Area.
Questioned again by Rains after his cross examination, Schott backtracked somewhat on his suggestion yesterday that Jackie Bryson struck Mehserle. He also said Grant did not touch Domenici, but did put his arm against Bryson’s chest in a motion that would be “consistent” with trying to get Bryson to back off of Domenici. A main tenet of Rains’ argument is that Grant and his friends were resisting officers the morning of the shooting.
Judge Perry interrupted Rains’s questions on the subject, saying “The issue of resistance will be left to the jury to decide.”
Mehserle will return to the witness stand for cross-examination by Stein Friday morning.
2010-06-23 "Defense expert claims videos show Grant and friends as aggressors, not BART cops" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/23/mehserle-defenses-expert-claims-videos-show-grant-and-friends-as-aggressors-not-bart-cops]:
(6/24) — UPDATED 01:42 PDT — LOS ANGELES — An expert witness brought to the stand by the defense for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer being tried for murder in the shooting of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009, said Wednesday that videos of the incident showed that Grant and his friends were behaving aggressively that night, not BART Police officers.
Michael Schott, an expert in forensic image analysis retained by defense attorney Michael Rains, told the court that a video which appears to show former BART Police Officer Anthony Pirone punching Grant in the face actually shows nothing of the sort.
Schott conceded that the video, which has been widely shown in the media, appears to show that “Mr. Pirone punched Mr. Grant in the head.” But he said that a frame-by-frame analysis led him to conclude that nothing of the sort happened.
Schott also said that another portion of the same video showed what could be Grant kneeing Pirone shortly before the apparent punch. “It appears that Pirone’s midsection moved in tandem” with a “flesh-colored group of pixels” which could be Grant’s knee, he said.
In addition, Schott testified that another video appearing to show Mehserle striking Grant’s friend Jackie Bryson shortly before the shooting could instead show Bryson striking Mehserle.
The arm that appears to be Mehserle’s in the video is actually Bryson’s, Schott said. Asked whether the video shows Bryson striking Mehserle, he said “that is one explanation.”
Alameda County District Attorney David Stein had asked before the trial for Schott to be prohibited from testifying about what videos appear to show. But after hearing sample testimony at a pre-trial hearing earlier this month, Judge Robert Perry disagreed, saying he found Schott’s testimony “very helpful.”
Schott also took issue with the way the prosecution processed the video evidence it presented, saying that its use of lossy compression and the way it chose to enhance some of the videos resulted in the loss of details in the images.
And he pointed out what appeared to be inconsistencies in the prosecution’s synchronization of the videos of the incident. Once synchronized, the videos are supposed to show the same events from different angles, but Schott claimed that at a point shortly before the shooting, the prosecution’s videos appear to disagree on whether Pirone was bent over Grant or had started to stand up.
Earlier in the day, Mehserle’s regular partner on the BART Police force admitted that Mehserle never told him the shooting was an accident.
BART Police Officer Jon Woffinden said yesterday when he was called to the stand by Rains that he had thought that Mehserle had deployed his Taser. He also testified the two had a personal as well as professional relationship.
But when Stein asked him today “did Mehserle ever give you any indication that what happened was an accident?” he answered no.
Stein also played back video in which former BART Police Officer Tony Pirone can be heard using a racial slur to Woffinden. Woffinden said that he could not make out what was being said.
Woffinden had said yesterday that Pirone was a close friend and a very competent police officer.
Later, BART Police Officer Stewart Lehman, who trained Mehserle in Tasers, took the stand.
Lehman, who said that he had helped persuade BART Police to introduce Tasers, presented slides on BART’s Taser policy.
Asked by Rains whether it was “always beneficial to go above the minimum” number of hours of training, Lehman agreed. BART required officers to have six hours of training on Tasers at the time.
“You can always increase the number of hours,” he said.
Lehman also told the court that due to budgetary restraints, BART provided one Taser per beat instead of assigning each officer an individual Taser.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported in February that this policy extended to Taser holsters as well, leading to a situation where BART Police officers did not always wear their Tasers on the same side.
Testimony continues tomorrow in Los Angeles, where the case has been moved due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in the Bay Area. Rains said he expected to finish presenting his case either Friday or Monday, which would result in closing arguments being made sometime next week.
2010-06-23 "Testy exchange between Rains, Grant friend marks first day of defense arguments" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/23/testy-exchange-between-rains-grant-friend-marks-first-day-of-defense-arguments]:
(6/23) — 00:35 PDT — LOS ANGELES — A heated exchange between a friend of Oscar Grant and defense attorney Michael Rains marked the first day of defense arguments in the second-degree murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Los Angeles Tuesday.
Jackie Bryson, 23, was with Grant when Mehserle shot and killed the Hayward man as he lay prone on the platform of Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009.
On the stand, Bryson was accused by Rains of lying to authorities and trying to flee the scene after BART Police had detained him, Grant and their friends after responding to reports of a fight on board a train.
“What were you doing Mr. Bryson?” Rains almost shouted. “You were trying to leave your friend on the platform?”
Bryson snapped back at the lawyer: “You understand someone just got shot in front of me for no reason by someone who’s supposed to protect us. He’s supposed to be the good one. He came up and shot us.”
Bryson appeared to begin sobbing in front of the court.
“Ain’t nobody I was with — I would never stand up and shoot somebody in their back!” he continued. “Like Im the bad one! Come on now!”
The exchange prompted Judge Robert Perry to intervene, asking both sides to “take a breath.”
Defense says Bryson’s testimony inconsistent with previous statements -
Bryson’s testimony in court was part of Rains’s strategy to paint the actions of Grant as uncooperative towards law enforcement during the New Year’s morning incident. The defense asserts that Grant was resisting arrest and disobeying police orders before he was shot by Mehserle.
Rains grilled Bryson on discrepancies from a deposition he gave in December 2009 in the civil case against BART and statements he made to police following the shooting.
Bryson admitted he made false statements to investigators following the shooting, but said that after watching a uniformed police officer shoot Grant, he grew wary of trusting police.
“Why would I?” he said about being truthful to investigators. “They were the police. They just shot my friend. I’m scared of all police.”
Bryson: “F-this, and he shoots” -
Bryson recounted Grant’s final moments before the shooting. Describing Mehserle’s actions, Bryson said, “he stands up, he says f– this, and he shoots.”
“I’m just trying to convice myself they didn’t just shoot him,” Bryson said. “You see smoke coming out of his back. They roll him over, and there’s just a puddle of blood.”
Grant was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he died despite doctors’ attempts to revive him. Bryson said he was taken to BART headquarters for questioning after the shooting.
He said he was kept handcuffed in a holding cell. Bryson said former BART Police Officer Tony Pirone, who has come under fire from witnesses who said he was too aggressive in his handling of the incident, visited the cell intermittently.
“He’s put his feet up and he’d just sit there, laughing,” he said of Pirone.
Defense argues Grant had history of resisting arrest -
Rains’s first witness Tuesday morning was a San Leandro Police Officer who chased Oscar Grant and ended up using a Taser on him after a traffic stop in October 2006.
Detective Alex Hidas, an 8-year veteran of the San Leandro Police Department, was conducting a traffic stop on a vehicle Grant was travelling in because the officer was temporarily blinded by its high-beam headlights.
Hidas told a Los Angeles jury Tuesday morning that when he observed Grant in the back seat with “contraband” in his waistband, he drew his weapon.
The “contraband” was a loaded gun tucked in Grant’s waistband — evidence not presented to the jury, as it was ruled inadmissible during a pre-trial hearing by Judge Robert Perry.
“I drew my firearm for my own safety and waited for backup to come,” Hidas testified. “[Grant] did not listen to my command, he opened he door and took off running.”
Hidas and another San Leandro officer chased Grant, eventually using a Taser to subdue him.
Under cross examination from Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein, Hidas said he had one day of training on Tasers. The prosecution argues that Mehserle, who had a similar amount of training on Tasers, was sufficiently trained to know the difference between his gun and his Taser.
Mehserle’s defense is using Hidas’s testimony to try to establish a history of Grant resisting arrest, setting the stage for testimony from several witnesses who will describe Grant’s actions before and during the shooting incident as uncooperative towards law enforcement officers.
One of those witnesses, BART passenger Agnes Zafiratos, was on the train Grant was riding when a fight broke out.
Zafiratos testified Tuesday morning that she feared for the safety of her husband and children after a skirmish involving Grant, his friends and a man identified as David Horowitz appeared to grow in size after the train they were on left Lake Merritt BART station.
“It was just chaos,” she said. “There were hands swinging.”
The couple were returning to their home in Castro Valley from a fireworks show in San Francisco that evening.
Zafiratos asked her husband Dennis to notify the train operator about the fight.
The train operator, Keecha Williams, subsequently summoned BART Police. On Monday, Williams testified that the fight on-board the train was “the norm” for New Year’s Eve celebrants.
“Same B.S.,” she told the jury.
Jackie Bryson, 23, gave emotional testimony June 22 in a two-hour exchange with defense attorney Michael Rains. Bryson witnessed Mehserle shoot Oscar Grant, a close friend, and was taken into BART Police custody following the incident. (Tashina Manyak)
2010-06-22 "Mehserle defense begins arguments with attacks on Grant’s character" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/22/mehserle-defense-begins-arguments-with-attacks-on-grants-character]:
(6/22) — 14:47 PDT — LOS ANGELES — A San Leandro Police Officer who chased Oscar Grant and ended up using a Taser on him after a traffic stop took the witness stand on the first day of testimony on behalf of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed Grant on a BART station platform January 1, 2009.
Detective Alex Hidas, an 8-year veteran of the San Leandro Police force, was conducting a traffic stop on a vehicle Grant was travelling in because the officer was temporarily blinded by its high-beam headlights.
Hidas told a Los Angeles jury Tuesday morning that when he observed Grant in the back seat with “contraband” in his waistband, he drew his weapon.
The “contraband” was a loaded gun tucked in Grant’s waistband — evidence not presented to the jury, as it was ruled inadmissible during a pre-trial hearing by Judge Robert Perry.
“I drew my firearm for my own safety and waited for backup to come,” Hidas testified. “[Grant] did not listen to my command, he opened he door and took off running.”
Hidas and another San Leandro officer chased Grant, eventually using a Taser to subdue him.
Under cross examination from Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein, Hidas said he had one day of training on Tasers. The prosecution argues that Mehserle, who had a similar amount of training on Tasers, was sufficiently trained to know the difference between his gun and his Taser.
Mehserle’s defense is using Hidas’s testimony to try to establish a history of Grant resisting arrest, setting the stage for testimony from several witnesses who will describe Grant’s actions before and during the shooting incident as uncooperative towards law enforcement officers.
One of those witnesses, BART passenger Agnes Zafiratos, was on the train Grant was riding when a fight broke out.
Zafiratos testified Tuesday morning that she feared for the safety of her husband and children after a skirmish involving Grant, his friends and a man identified as David Horowitz appeared to grow in size after the train they were on left Lake Merritt BART station.
“It was just chaos,” she said. “There were hands swinging.”
Zafiratos asked her husband Dennis to notify the train operator about the fight.
The couple were returning to their home in Castro Valley from a fireworks show in San Francisco that evening.
2010-06-21 "Prosecution rests in Mehserle trial; BART train operator downplays severity of fight" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/21/prosecution-rests-in-mehserle-trial-bart-train-operator-downplays-severity-of-fight]:
(6/21) — 16:16 PDT — LOS ANGELES — The prosecution in the second-degree murder trial against former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle — who shot and killed unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on the Fruitvale BART station platform January 1, 2009 — rested its case late Monday.
Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein called five witnesses — three of them BART employees — to the stand Monday and played a synchronized video showing the incident as captured from six different angles by bystanders and a security camera side by side.
The videos were played along with BART Police Dispatch recordings detailing the nine minutes between when a BART train operator called for police assistance to deal with a fight on board her train and when Mehserle fired a single gunshot into Grant’s back.
This morning, the train operator downplayed the severity of the incident on the witness stand.
Keecha Williams said she received two calls of a fight on the train as she was pulling into the Fruitvale BART station, first from a female passenger, and then a male passenger who told the operator he did not see any weapons being used.
Williams said she then called BART Central Control and was told by dispatchers to wait at the station with the doors open for transit police.
Williams, a BART train operator since 2004, said she did not actually witness the fight but saw people standing up on their seats to avoid it.
She downplayed the severity of the brawl that involved Grant, his friends, and another man identified as David Horowitz, telling Stein that the fight was typical of the commotion that usually happens on trains in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day.
When former BART Officer Tony Pirone responded to the platform, she said he asked her what was going on, to which she replied that it was the “same B.S. It’s just what we get on New Year’s [...] It’s just the norm.”
Pirone never asked if anyone had been injured on the train or whether she believed anyone had weapons, she testified.
The train operator then refuted testimony given by Pirone last week, saying Pirone did not ask who had been involved in the fight. Pirone testified last Friday that he did ask.
The operator’s attention then turned to Pirone jabbing his arms and “fighting somebody.”
“He’s just punching someone in front of him,” she said. “That was the focal point.”
She testified that right before she heard the gunshot ring out, a woman called her over the intercom to ask her to shut the doors because she did not want to get shot.
Stein also called Vicki Long of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office to the stand today to present the prosecution’s synchronized video.
According to the video, the first dispatch call is made at 2:02 a.m.; at 2:04 Pirone arrives on the scene, then the next minute former BART Officer Marysol Domenici is called and arrives. A minute after that Pirone can be seen banging on the train’s window and yelling at Grant and Michael Greer to exit the train.
Mehserle arrives at 2:08 a.m. and shoots Grant with his service weapon at 2:11 a.m.
The prosecution has charged Mehserle with murder in Grant’s death, contending that the former BART Police Officer intentionally shot the 22-year-old with his gun. Defense attorney Michael Rains argues his client accidentally pulled his gun from its holster and instead meant to fire his Taser.
Stein continued to play footage after the shot rang out; Judge Robert Perry asked Stein why he was showing so much of the footage, but Stein argued that the behavior of the officers after the shot spoke to their state of mind.
Under cross examination Rains challenged Long’s credentials, noting that she testified as a “lay witness” in previous cases. He also said that the lossy image compression used in preparing the prosecution’s synchronization is not fit for evidentiary or analytical purposes, to which Long replied that she saw the prosecution’s synchronization as a “demonstrative tool,” not a piece of evidence to be analyzed for fine details.
An evidence technician for BART Police also took the stand today to describe the processing of evidence found on the platform after the incident. But under cross examination from Rains, BART Police Officer Brandon Moore said Mehserle was a “pleasant officer to work with.”
On Tuesday — when the defense will begin presenting its case — Mehserle’s attorney Michael Rains is expected to call to the witness stand San Leandro Police Officer Alex Hidas who will testify about his encounter with Grant that resulted in a police pursuit through city streets and the use of a taser on the Hayward resident.
The trial against Mehserle was moved to Los Angeles County over concerns that he would not receive a fair trial in Alameda County.
2010-06-18 "Controversial former BART officer takes the stand in Mehserle murder trial" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/18/controversial-former-bart-officer-takes-the-stand-in-mehserle-murder-trial]:
(6/18) — UPDATED 23:41 PDT — LOS ANGELES — A figure both central and controversial for his role in the incident that led to Oscar Grant’s death, Anthony Pirone took to the witness stand Friday in the trial for a fellow BART officer accused of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Grant last year.
Pirone was calm and confident as he recounted how he gave the command for Johannes Mehserle to arrest the unarmed Grant in the moments before Mehserle fatally shot the 22-year-old as he lay prone on the platform at Fruitvale BART.
Witnesses present at Fruitvale BART the morning of Jan. 1, 2009 who have testified in the case have said Pirone acted aggressively toward Grant and his friends, using excessive force and shouting profanities as he detained them.
Situation “very chaotic” before the shooting, Pirone says -
On the witness stand today, Pirone described his attempts to remain in control of a situation he said was “very chaotic.”
Pirone was already at Fruitvale BART around 2 a.m. on New Year’s Day 2009 when a report of an altercation on a train was called into BART Police. Pirone was the first on the scene when he went upstairs to the platform, boarded the train and removed three of Grant’s friends from the lead car. He called former BART Police Officer Marysol Domenici to back him up.
When she showed up on the platform minutes later, he went back to the idle train to move Grant and his friend Michael Greer to the platform.
Despite the fact that the BART train operator who issued the complaint said specifically that the young men in question were unarmed, Pirone testified during a preliminary hearing that he thought there was a high probability Grant and his friends had guns. He said he still felt that way today.
“Usually the ones that run have guns,” he said.
When asked why he did not search them, Pirone replied he was taught for “officer safety” purposes to never do searches alone. Ultimately there would be seven officers on the platform with the five detained men, but he said by the time the others arrived, conducting a search was “the last thing on my mind.”
Pirone testified that he pulled out his Taser almost immediately after he stopped and detained the men, saying he did so for “intimidation to get compliance.”
Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein asked Pirone if he was threatening the young men with the Taser.
“Well it was out and I was pointing it at them — that could be perceived as a threat,” Pirone said.
Pirone said he used profane language in order to get Grant’s attention. “I said ‘get the f– off the train’,” he testified.
Pirone backtracks on claims Grant and friends resisted police -
One of the prosecution’s key arguments in the case is that Grant and his friends were not resisting officers before Grant was shot.
In preliminary hearings Pirone said the young men did not comply when he told them to sit down, but today he said they sat when asked.
Stein asked Pirone how long he had been in the three young men’s presence before telling them to “sit the f– down.” He first said he didn’t know, but then said it was seconds.
“Then what did they do?” Stein asked.
“They sat down,” Pirone said.
Pirone said later that Grant might have been squatting instead of sitting after being brought to the platform. When Stein asked if Grant doing so would have posed a threat to him and Domenici, he said “sure it would.”
Asked to elaborate, he said, “Sir, as a police officer, everyone’s a threat until proven otherwise — that’s just the way it is.”
Pirone then backtracked, saying “For all I know [Grant] did sit on his bottom after I left [to get Greer].”
Judge Robert Perry intervened, asking Pirone if any video evidence showed Grant squatting. Pirone said no, there was not.
When he went back to get Greer, Pirone said the young man was trying to break free from his grasp. “I gave him a nudge and pushed him” toward the wall where the others were detained, Pirone testified.
He denied claims made by other witnesses, including Grant’s friend and fellow detainee Carlos Reyes, that he intentionally threw Greer against the concrete wall, but said he did remember putting him in a choke hold and forcing him on the ground face-first with a leg sweep.
Pirone said he couldn’t recall many of the acts of aggression others have testified about, particularly those involving Grant.
“To be honest I don’t remember that whole block of time…from the minute I got to Grant to when Mehserle and the other officers showed up,” he said.
He also said he had trouble discerning what he had seen in videos and what he actually remembered on his own. He said trying to tell the two apart was “kind of like trying to unscramble an egg.”
Once Mehserle did arrive, Pirone left him and the other officers to talk with the train operator. He said when he came back he was “upset” to find Mehserle looking away from the detained young men. He said this intensified the threat posed by the detainees, because if one drew a weapon Mehserle looked unprepared.
“It’s a classic rookie mistake,” he said. Pirone has described himself as a “big brother” figure to the younger and less experienced Mehserle.
Pirone “in shock” over hearing racial slur -
When asked by Stein to explain his yelling the words “bitch ass n–” in Grant’s face, Pirone testified that he had asked Grant if he would want his daughter to see him acting the way he was.
Then, Pirone said, “[Grant] called me a bitch ass n–. I was in shock.” He said he then parroted the words back to Grant.
Defense attorney Michael Rains unsuccessfully tried to prevent the racial slur from being introduced into evidence in court. In a June 9 ruling, Perry said omitting the slur would be “misleading.”
Grant trying to “wiggle free” before shooting, Pirone says -
In video taken by bystander Tommy Cross, Pirone can be seen moments before the shooting pinning Grant down with both his knees and using his left hand to push Grant’s head onto the floor.
“[Grant] was trying to wiggle free,” Pirone testified today. “I remember vividly telling him to put his hands behind his back twice.”
Pirone said he felt he had control of Grant once he had him pinned down with his knees and was surprised when Mehserle told him to get up.
“I didn’t understand why [Mehserle] was trying to do that,” he said. “Then he told me he was going to Tase him.”
Instead, Mehserle fired his gun at Grant. Pirone said that after the shot, “time just almost froze” as he glanced down at the “black hole” in Grant’s shirt.
Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson sobbed as Pirone described the blood and saliva coming out of Grant’s mouth.
“Some of these images are burned into my head for the rest of my life,” Pirone said.
He remembered Mehserle saying, “‘Tony, I thought he was going for a gun.’”
“I was like, ‘yeah, OK man,’” Pirone said.
Even after the shooting, Pirone said the situation still felt threatening enough that he ordered Mehserle to handcuff Grant, who lay face-down on the platform, in the belief that Grant had a weapon.
Pirone, a former Marine, arrived in court today clean-shaven and wearing a military-standard haircut, and used military time when answering questions from Stein. He appeared much more confident on the stand than did Domenici in her testimony yesterday.
But Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson told reporters at a noontime press conference that Pirone looked more “deflated” and less “arrogant” than at preliminary hearings in Oakland last year.
Domenici feared for her life, but didn’t call for backup -
Domenici continued her testimony this morning before Pirone took the stand.
She told Stein that she felt “no need” to draw her gun after she heard the gunshot.
Yesterday Domenici said she did not see former Mehserle fire the shot into Grant’s back, only hearing a loud noise that reminded her of a “firework.”
She said she immediately believed someone had been shot but by looking at the other officers’ faces knew none of them had been struck.
“I just heard people saying, ‘He got shot, he got shot,’” she said.
She testified again today that the scene immediately following the shooting did not prompt her to take out her gun for safety. “If one of us would’ve been shot we would have reacted a lot different,” she said.
Stein referred to previous testimony in which she said she feared for her life that New Year’s morning when he asked, “Your testimony is that you were afraid you might die?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied.
“Did you call for additional officers?”
“No,” she said.
Pirone is expected to continue his testimony Monday, June 21 in Los Angeles, where the case has been moved due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in the Bay Area.
2010-06-17 "Former BART officer describes what happened morning Grant was shot" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/17/former-bart-officer-describes-what-happened-morning-grant-was-shot]:
(6/17) — UPDATED 23:36 PDT — LOS ANGELES — Former BART Police Officer Marysol Domenici, whose role in the events leading up to the shooting of unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant by former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle has sparked controversy, took the witness stand Thursday in Mehserle’s second-degree murder trial.
Domenici was one of the first officers to respond to the Fruitvale BART station in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009, working with fellow former BART Police Officer Anthony Pirone to detain Grant and his friends on the platform after reports of an altercation on the train.
Both Domenici and Pirone were terminated from BART Police earlier this year after a third-party review of the incident recommended their firings. Both are appealing the decisions.
On the witness stand Thursday morning, Domenici appeared to have problems giving answers to questions posed by Deputy District Attorney David Stein, who grilled the former police officer about testimony she gave to an Alameda County judge about how volatile the situation at Fruitvale BART was moments before the Grant shooting.
“Did you ever exaggerate the behavior of the people on that platform so as to make it appear officers were in more danger than they were to justify the shooting of Grant by Johannes Mehserle?” Stein asked the former officer.
“No, sir,” she replied.
During preliminary hearings held in Oakland to determine whether Mehserle should be tried, Domenici testified that Grant and his friends ignored orders she gave to sit down on the platform. She told the judge that the shooting could have been prevented if Grant had followed orders from officers.
The prosecution jumped on another statement the former officer gave about Grant grabbing her left arm and holding on to her after she attempted to detain another individual on the platform, Grant’s longtime friend Jackie Bryson.
Domenici testified that her lawyer told her amateur video footage recorded by BART passenger Daniel Liu proved that Grant touched her before he was shot by Mehserle.
When the video in question was played by Stein, it appeared to show Grant’s arm crossing with Domenici’s. But Stein then played footage from another video — shot from a different angle by Karina Vargas — that shows Grant touching Bryson’s arm, not the former officer’s.
After watching the videos, Domenici appeared frazzled on the witness stand. She later reneged on the claim that Grant had touched her.
“I don’t remember his hand at all [...] I don’t remember him grabbing my arm,” she told the jury.
She later admitted that the young men on the platform “never struggled with me.” She also said that when she and Pirone drew their Tasers, the young men “calmed down.”
Mehserle’s defense strategy relies in part on the argument that Grant “actively resisted” officers, including Domenici, on the Fruitvale station platform.
Stein also criticized Domenici’s characterization of what she saw when she arrived at the platform.
“You said during the preliminary hearing that about 40 to 50 people came off the BART train and that you felt threatened,” he said. “Do you remember giving that testimony?”
“I saw people,” she responded vaguely.
When Stein played security camera footage of the platform, Domenici can be seen running down an empty platform without anyone walking off the train.
When questioned where the 40 to 50 people were, Domenici first said they could not be seen in the video. She said they were on board the Dublin/Pleasanton-bound BART train.
“When I said the platform, to me the train is an extension of the platform,” she said.
The former officer’s testimony became strained and rambling at times during questioning by Stein, causing Judge Robert Perry to intervene and ask Domenici to respond more carefully.
“Listen to the question and try to understand it before you answer it,” said Perry, adding he noticed a “disconnect between the questions asked and the answers” Domenici was giving.
Her responses caused a stir in the courtroom gallery when members in the audience were heard murmuring comments about Domenici.
“She’s dumb,” an audience member remarked.
The comment prompted a stern lecture to the courtroom from Judge Perry, who reprimanded the audience for making “audible comments” during her testimony. He threatened to ban from the courtroom anyone who continued to make audible responses.
Outside the courtroom, Grant’s family reacted strongly to Domenici’s testimony, saying that her statements weren’t backed by video evidence.
“She did the same thing at the preliminary hearing,” Grant’s uncle Daryl Johnson said. “She has trouble remembering things that have happened unless her lawyer told her that they did. Her verbal accounts don’t match what she sees on video.”
Pirone, who partnered Domenici that night, is expected to take the stand Friday after Domenici is cross examined by the defense. Every witness who has taken the stand so far who was present at Fruitvale BART that night has described Pirone’s behavior as aggressive and offensive.
Domenici’s testimony came after a surprise in the morning session, when an expert witness for the prosecution, ex-Berkeley Police Officer Sean McCann, told the court under cross examination that he had once drawn his gun on a suspect without realizing it.
McCann testified that he was attempting to detain a violent robbery suspect in Berkeley when he suddenly discovered he had drawn his weapon on the man. The former Berkeley cop said he did not remember pulling the firearm out of its holster.
McCann is currently a defensive tactics instructor for law enforcement organizations and was brought on by the prosecution to testify about use of force by police officers.
Defense attorney Michael Rains seized on the admission, immediately asking McCann about the incident. Stein, who appeared to be caught off-guard by the officer’s recollection, attempted to differentiate McCann’s incident from the Grant shooting, a move Grant’s family agreed with.
Johnson said that while the witness appeared to help the defense, the situations cannot be compared.
“The difference between what happened with that officer and Mehserle are night and day. That officer was fighting for his life. Mehserle was not,” he said.
Earlier, BART Police training instructor Sergeant Eugene Wong finished testimony begun Tuesday. Court was not in session on Wednesday due to a state-mandated furlough.
Rains asked Wong, who has worked directly with Mehserle, about the amount of time he spent teaching the Koga Method of search and arrest techniques to incoming officers.
Wong said they spent seven hours teaching nine techniques. He called it an ambitious agenda and said that officers were not required to demonstrate proficiency.
Rains used his line of questioning to try to establish that Mehserle was undertrained. The defense contends that poor training contributed to Mehserle accidentally firing his gun when he meant to use his Taser.
BART no longer uses the Koga Method for police training.
Stein then brought on David Chlebowski, a BART Police officer in Internal Affairs. Questioned about Mehserle’s training, Chlebowski confirmed the former officer passed multiple assessments administered by the agency on using his Sig Sauer handgun, tests which were given during both day and night.
Stein had Chlebowski recite each date Mehserle received training, in an apparent effort to show that Mehserle was indeed sufficiently trained. The prosecution argues Mehserle meant to reach for his gun, after allowing emotions to impede restraint during the chaotic atmosphere on the platform.
Testimony in the trial continues Friday in Los Angeles, where the case has been moved due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in the Bay Area.
Former BART Police Officer Marysol Domenici (Courtesy Karina Vargas via YouTube)
2012-06-15 "Firearms in the spotlight as Mehserle murder trial continues" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/15/firearms-in-the-spotlight-as-mehserle-murder-trial-continues]:
(6/15) — UPDATED 19:55 PDT — LOS ANGELES — Firearms training was in the spotlight Tuesday as experts testified that movements made by former BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle to release the weapon holstered at his right hip were inconsistent with the proper way to draw a gun.
Mehserle is charged with second degree murder for fatally shooting unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.
Paul Slivinsky, a recently retired BART SWAT officer who examined the weapon Mehserle used to shoot Grant — a Sig Sauer pistol — shortly after the shooting, testified that the gun was “in perfect condition.”
During cross examination by defense attorney Michael Rains, Slivinsky was asked about the safety mechanism of the gun. Slivinsky said the Sig “only has passive safeties,” meaning that there is no thumb mechanism on the side of the weapon that must be pushed upward to discharge it like there is for Tasers.
The defense has argued that in video footage of the incident, Mehserle can be seen swiping his thumb against the side of his gun, an action Rains said indicates Mehserle was trying to remove his Taser.
“There is no reason an officer whose intent is to fire a Sig would have his thumb on the side at all?” Rains asked Slivinsky, who said yes to the question.
Slivinsky testified that he had fired that model of weapon himself “only once or twice.”
Stein then brought to the stand David Clark, a firearms instructor at Napa Valley College’s police academy, from which Mehserle graduated in December 2006.
Clark described safety procedures for the gun and said the main reasons for unintentionally discharging a gun are accidentally putting a finger on the trigger or not being familiar with the weapon.
While Clark did not say whether he had any direct interaction with Mehserle at the academy, he said firearms instructors there teach cadets to “never point a weapon at something you don’t intend to destroy,” and said “officer safety is reinforced daily.”
He described a seven-step procedure the cadets at the Napa Police Academy do “constantly.”
“It takes a long time to build up what we call muscle memory,” Clark said. “It has to be practiced over and over.”
Clark testified that he had never before seen the video he watched today of Mehserle reaching for his holster on his right hip.
Clark said Mehserle’s struggle to release the gun from the holster was inconsistent with police training, as was shooting Grant in such close proximity to another officer and immediately re-holstering his gun after firing the shot.
He also testified that if the perceived threat by Grant was so great, Mehserle should have shot him while still leaning over him, instead of standing back up to do so.
The defense also argues that Mehserle’s struggle with the holster indicates that he was actually trying to deploy his Taser.
Prosecutors contend Mehserle’s difficulty in removing his gun from his holster was because the rookie cop reached for his firearm under pressure from the boisterous atmosphere on the station platform — a point that family members of Oscar Grant agreed with.
“There’s no way Mehserle could have made a mistake because there’s too many steps involved with pulling that weapon out,” said Cephus Johnson, Grant’s uncle, at a press conference after the morning session.
In the afternoon, Stein called training instructor and BART Police Sergeant Eugene Wong to testify on the Koga Method, a set of practices for searching suspects for weapons and issuing arrest, which is used by numerous police agencies including BART.
Wong told the jury that two search and arrest tactics taught to BART Police officers during training — the “kneeling search” and the “prone search” — should only be used in “high risk” situations which “usually involve a weapon.”
In video of the incident, Mehserle and former BART Police Officer Tony Pirone appear to put Grant and his friends in the “kneeling” and “prone” positions.
Members of Grant’s family and friends said the officers were not justified in using such tactics because they did not check to see if weapons were involved.
“The officers never even checked for a weapon that night,” Grant family advocate Rev. Keith Muhammad told the Beat today. “I hope the DA will really go for the slam dunk and stop taking all these soft shots. Everything they did to Oscar was an act of excessive force.”
Wong is expected to continue his testimony in court Thursday, when the trial continues after a scheduled furlough day for Los Angeles County courts Wednesday.
In Tuesday’s morning session, testimony from Grant’s friend Carlos Reyes, who was closest to the unarmed train passenger moments before he was shot, concluded with a series of questions about false statements made to investigators following the incident.
Rains asked Reyes, who was two feet from Grant at the time of the shooting, if he had left the BART train immediately after it stopped at the Fruitvale station platform.
Reyes had testified yesterday that he had done so, but when pressed by Rains today he said he did not remember.
Rains then showed BART surveillance video which appears to show Reyes on the train for at least five minutes after it had stopped at the platform.
“What were you doing on the train? You were fighting weren’t you?” Rains asked.
Reyes responded “No, I wasn’t fighting nobody.”
During opening statements Rains characterized the fight as a brawl between numerous individuals, but several witnesses have testified that the fight was only between Grant and a man named David Horowitz.
Rains then grilled Reyes about his admission that he had lied to BART investigators about whether he was with Grant that night. Reyes testified that “I’m just trying to do what I have to, to never be involved in anything like this again.”
After Rains’ cross examination, Stein asked Reyes what was going through his mind during the BART interview. Reyes said “I was really just thinking about Oscar [...] if he was going to be alright or if he was going to be gone.”
Reyes remained handcuffed in police custody for several hours following the early morning shooting before he was interviewed.
Reyes, who was friends with Grant for ten years, fought back tears and said, “You’re so used to seeing police officers protect you [...] when you see them hurt somebody you care about, when they shoot someone in front of you, you don’t know what to do.”
Second juror dismissed -
Another juror, a middle-aged woman, was dismissed for cause after the break in the morning session. It is believed she was replaced because she kept falling asleep during testimony.
A man from the pool of alternate jurors replaced her. The jury is now comprised of seven women and five men, with four alternate jurors remaining. If a juror is dismissed and no alternates remain, a mistrial would be declared.
Cephus Johnson tells reporters Mehserle abused his training and did not accidentally draw his gun, after firearms experts testify in court today. (Jennifer Courtney/CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-06-15 "Grant’s friend tells of rough handling by police before, after Grant’s shooting" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/15/grants-friend-tells-of-rough-handling-by-police-before-after-grants-shooting]:
(6/15) — 00:55 PDT — LOS ANGELES — One of BART shooting victim Oscar Grant’s friends described Monday the events leading up to the New Year’s Day 2009 shooting as witness testimony in the second-degree murder trial of Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer who shot Grant, continued.
22-year-old Carlos Reyes, who was only two feet away from Grant at the time of the shooting, said the incident began after a short fight between Grant and another man on the BART train.
When the train stopped at the Fruitvale BART station, former BART Police Officer Anthony Pirone, who was the first police officer to reach the scene, “grabbed my shoulder and pulled me toward the wall,” Reyes testified.
“[Pirone] came up behind Michael [Greer, another of Grant's friends] and put his arm around his neck, choking him kind of. He threw him down face first [...] then he kneed him a couple of times,” Reyes said. “I was asking him to stop.”
Reyes said that when he stood up to protest, Pirone “just turned around and […] told me to sit down and shut the f– up or he was going to Tase me. Then he said the same to Oscar.”
According to Reyes, Grant then said, “please don’t Tase me, I’ve got a daughter.”
Reyes said none of them resisted the officers, a statement corroborated by every witness who has taken the stand to this point.
Reyes said officers somehow pushed Grant down, and Grant landed on his knees and fell on Reyes’s legs. The prosecution argued during opening statements that this position was uncomfortable and contributed to the squirming movements made by Grant that the defense says amounted to resistance.
Reyes testified that he asked the officers, who were trying to handcuff Grant, to move Grant off of his legs, which they did after some time. Soon after, Reyes “looked away — I don’t remember how long it was, maybe a second — then I heard a gunshot.”
“I remember Officer Mehserle saying ‘Oh, shit I shot him. Oh God I shot him.’ [Grant] was on his stomach and he kind of looked back and he said, ‘You shot me. You shot me.’”
Earlier in the day, Sophina Mesa, Grant’s girlfriend and the mother of his daughter Tatiana, testified that she spoke to Grant via cell phone minutes before the shooting.
She had been with Grant at his grandmother’s house before the couple went to a New Year’s celebration in San Francisco.
When the BART train pulled up to the Fruitvale platform, Mesa went downstairs and past the fare gates. Mesa tried calling Grant’s cell phone multiple times, she said, and when she finally got through, Grant “sounded scared.”
Grant told her “they’re beating us for no reason [...] I’ll call you back.”
She testified that shortly after she heard a loud popping sound and turned to her two friends to say “I think someone got shot.”
A group of three friends who were riding the same train as Grant also testified today, agreeing with previous witnesses that Grant and his friends were not resisting the officers that night and that Pirone’s aggressiveness and profanity had offended them.
Pamela Caneva told the jury that Pirone’s demeanor was “very angry, very hostile, very mean.”
“He kept throwing out the f-bomb so my focus was on him,” she said.
Caneva testified that Mehserle “came over and straddled [Grant].”
“He had a foot on each side of [Grant's] body” she testified. “Next thing I know he goes for his right hip, for his gun. And I said to my friend, ‘he’s not gonna shoot him is he?’ And then he shot him.”
Grant’s mother cries as witness tells of comforting Grant after shooting -
Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson cried as Reyes told the jury he tried to comfort Grant, his friend of 10 years, as they waited for an ambulance after the shooting.
“I was telling him ‘everything’s going to be OK,’ and to just keep his eyes open,” Reyes testified. “We were telling him to stay awake. You could see blood coming out of his mouth a little bit.”
After Grant was shot, two more officers showed up and began acting aggressively, Reyes said. He said one kneed him and said “stop resisting, I have no problem beating your ass tonight.”
After being handcuffed and held in custody for several hours alone, Reyes said he was questioned by BART investigators.
In response to a question from Stein, Reyes admitted to lying in an interview with BART about being with Grant that night because he was “scared [...] someone I was very close with just got shot. I didn’t know what [the officers] were going to do.”
When defense attorney Michael Rains quoted Reyes as saying to BART investigators that “someone was accidentally shot,” Reyes said he did not remember saying that, but did not deny doing so.
Dr. Alden Harken, chief of surgery at Highland Hospital in Oakland, recounted how he and others tried to save Grant when he was brought into the trauma ward.
Grant was unconscious and had severely low blood pressure, Harken said, and suffering from massive internal bleeding and lung damage.
Johnson began to weep as Stein held up the actual bullet, wrapped in a plastic bag.
Grant “wouldn’t wish” Taser on anyone -
Under questioning from Stein, Mesa described how Grant’s daughter Tatiana had urged her father not to leave that night.
“She was crying and she wouldn’t let him go,” Mesa said. She said Grant consoled the then-4-year-old by promising her he would take her to Chuck E Cheese in the morning while her mother was at work.
Mesa also answered questions about Grant’s prior experience with Tasers. He had been Tased before during a 2006 incident in which he ran from San Leandro police, and had told her multiple times that “he wouldn’t wish it on nobody,” she said.
Judge Robert Perry told the jury that the previous incident should only be considered to determine Grant’s state of mind during the events leading up to the shooting.
When Rains began to cross-examine Mesa, the Taser episode was the first thing he brought up.
“Did [Grant] tell you that the police had made repeated attempts to stop him?” Rains asked, before being cut off by the judge.
“I don’t think these questions are particularly relevant,” Perry said.
Mesa’s mother said that she thought her daughter “did a great job not breaking down, considering she had to relive everything.” She said she would be with Mesa for the duration of the trial. “I have to be here for this, that was my granddaughter’s father,” she said.
The prosecution will continue presenting witnesses Tuesday in Los Angeles, where the case is being heard due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in the Bay Area, with Reyes expected to return to the stand to continue his testimony.
Sophina Mesa, wearing a T-shirt depicting her late boyfriend, speaks with Adante Pointer, a member of John Burris' legal team outside the Los Angeles courtroom where opening statements took place June 10. Burris is representing Grant's family in a civil suit against BART. (Jennifer Courtney/CALIFORNIA BEAT)
John Burris consoles Grant's mother Wanda Johnson as she speaks to reporters during a lunchtime break from court today, June 14. (Jennifer Courtney/CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-06-11 "Friend of Grant’s cries on stand as video of incident played back" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/11/friend-of-grants-cries-on-stand-as-video-of-incident-played-back]:
(6/11) — UPDATED 22:40 PDT — LOS ANGELES — A young friend of Oscar Grant broke down in tears on the witness stand today as video he filmed of Grant’s shooting by former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle was played for a Los Angeles jury.
And multiple witnesses who took the stand on the second day of Mehserle’s second-degree murder trial said Grant did not resist arrest before the former officer shot him.
Jamil Dewar was in the group of Grant’s friends riding the BART train in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2009, but said he became separated from him at the Fruitvale BART station platform following what Dewar described as a “tussle” on the train between Grant and a man identified as David Horowitz.
“I saw security, angry faces running toward us, so I got back on the train,” Dewar, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident, said.
When he looked out of the train’s window, he said, “I started recording [article ends here]
Grant's uncle Cephus Johnson answers questions from reporters on witness Jamil Dewar and what it felt like to watch amateur video, following today's court session. (Jennifer Courtney/CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-06-10 "Prosecution, defense lay out framework for historic Mehserle trial on opening day" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/10/prosecution-defense-lay-out-framework-for-historic-mehserle-trial-on-opening-day]:
(6/10) — 23:30 PDT — LOS ANGELES — Opening statements were presented in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday morning in the historic second-degree murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.
The trial marks the first time a police officer in California has been tried for murder for a killing committed while on duty.
Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein, the prosecutor in the case, argued in his opening statement that Mehserle intended to shoot Grant. He also said that, contrary to defense assertions that Mehserle mistook his gun for his Taser, Mehserle knew the difference between the two weapons.
Stein presented several videos of the shooting captured by passengers who were present at the Fruitvale BART station that night to the jury. He also showed videos compiled by the District Attorney’s Office which demonstrate the differences between drawing a gun and a Taser.
“[The gun] only comes out when you want it to come out,” Stein said, explaining the various fasteners one must undo to release a gun from its holster.
Stein said it was emotion and police aggression that caused Mehserle to purposefully draw his gun, point it at Grant and fire a single shot into his back.
“There is an emotional as well as physical component to every arrest,” Stein said. “When that emotional component is not held in check, bad things happen.”
For much of his statement, Stein focused on former BART Police Officer Tony Pirone, whom witnesses say acted aggressively that night and was both physically and verbally abusive to Grant and his friends.
“What happens when an officer or group of officers think their duty is other than to protect and serve? [...] When they think they have a right to abuse who they come into contact with?” Stein said. “The result will always be chaos, distrust and disorder.”
Stein said Mehserle and Pirone had a close, “big brother” type of relationship and that the senior officer had been a mentor to Mehserle.
In his opening statement, defense attorney Michael Rains agreed that passengers that night “were unhappy with the actions of Officer Pirone.” But “Mehserle is on trial, not Pirone,” he said.
His client, Rains said, was only on the platform for two and a half minutes before the shooting.
Rains said that, while Grant’s killing was tragic, Mehserle did not intend to shoot and kill him and is already paying for his actions, if not behind bars.
Rains said he would present evidence that some of Grant’s friends heard Mehserle shout “I can’t get his hands, I’m going to Tase him” just before he shot Grant.
“For the rest of his life he will be trapped in a wretched prison of his vivid and painful memories” of that night, Rains said.
The 28-year-old, who was born in Germany before moving to the United States at the age of four, wanted to study computer programming before changing his mind in college and enrolling in a police academy, Rains said.
Rains asserted that the six hours of instruction in Taser use that BART gave Mehserle was insufficient, but said he had extensive training in using firearms. Mehserle spent countless hours at the Napa Police Academy, where he first learned how to use firearms, practicing the use of his gun, Rains said.
Sides clash on whether Grant resisted arrest -
“Oscar Grant was not resisting. He was in the process of putting his hands behind his back” at the time of the shooting, Stein said. He argued that Grant and his friends were cooperative and that BART Police officers used excessive force throughout the incident.
Rains said while the prosecution believes that the videos demonstrate that Grant was not resisting arrest, he will argue the footage actually shows Grant “actively resisting arrest”.
He said Mehserle and Grant wrestled on the ground for 12 seconds before the shooting occurred and said the young men had acted aggressively toward the officers.
“Punches were being thrown by a lot of different people,” Rains said.
Grant’s mother Wanda Johnson, who left the courtroom shaking her head after Rains’ statement, said the allegations were completely false.
“The police didn’t have one report that those boys did all of that,” she told the Beat.
Witnesses describe “commotion” -
Witness testimony began during the afternoon session with Vicki Long, a video technician from the Alameda County D.A.’s office, who described the process of enhancing the videos recorded by bystanders that night.
She was followed by Margarita Carazo and Karina Vargas, two witnesses who captured the events leading up to the shooting on video. Stein had each witness review clips of the footage they had captured.
Vargas told jurors she was compelled to begin recording the encounter between police and Grant because she believed Pirone was acting inappropriately.
Pirone was “using foul language,” and his “aggressiveness compelled me to record,” she said.
Carazo said when the doors of the BART train opened that night, she saw a “commotion with the cops and the people on the platform.”
More video of the incident is expected to be shown in court Friday.
Juror removed from panel -
In a surprise move before opening statements even began, a young Hispanic woman was dismissed from the jury “for cause” after the prosecution and defense conferred in private with Judge Robert Perry. No public explanation was given, and an older Hispanic woman replaced her.
The final jury was seated Tuesday in a quick selection process. There are eight women and four men on the jury. No African Americans are seated on the panel.
The trial has been moved to Los Angeles due to concerns over whether a jury without preconceived notions of the case could be found in the Bay Area, given the intense publicity the case has received. It is expected to last two to four weeks.
Aidge Patterson and other activists with the LA Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant gather outside the Downtown Los Angeles courthouse where opening statements were held in the second-degree murder trial against Johannes Mehserle.
Rev. Keith Muhammad (left), is joined by Oscar Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, and uncle, Cephus Johnson, during a midday press conference in Los Angeles.
2010-06-10 "Opening arguments underway in Mehserle murder trial" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/10/opening-arguments-underway-in-mehserle-murder-trial]:
UPDATED (6/10) — 14:30 PDT — LOS ANGELES – Did former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle intend to shoot unarmed passenger Oscar Grant? Was Grant resisting arrest at the time of the incident?
These are questions the jury will try to answer in determining whether Mehserle is guilty of second-degree murder in Grant’s shooting on the Fruitvale platform on New Year’s Day 2009.
Opening arguments began in a Los Angeles courtroom this morning for a historic trial which marks the first time a police officer in California has been tried for murder due to on-duty actions.
In a surprise move before opening remarks even began, a young Hispanic woman was dismissed from the jury today “for cause” after the prosecution and defense conferred in private with Judge Robert Perry. No public explanation was given, and an older Hispanic woman replaced her.
Deputy District Attorney David Stein, who is prosecuting the case, argues Mehserle acted with intent in shooting the 22-year-old Hayward resident and knew the difference between his gun and Taser.
He says witness accounts and numerous cell phone videos of the incident taken by passengers will show Mehserle intentionally drew his gun and shot Grant.
The prosecution plans to argue Grant’s fear of Tasers, stemming from a 2006 incident in which he was shocked after fleeing from San Leandro police, meant he would not have resisted arrest, and that Mehserle used excessive force that night.
“What happens when an officer or group of officers think their duty is other than to protect and serve? [...] When they think they have a right to abuse who they come into contact with?” Stein said in his opening statement today. “The answer is chaos, distrust and disorder.”
Stein presented to the jury footage of the incident, as well as a photo Grant took on his cell phone which shows Mehserle pointing his Taser at him.
“Oscar Grant was not resisting. He was in the process of putting his hands behind his back,” Stein said, an argument the defense does not agree with.
Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson told the Beat after watching Stein present video evidence that “it’s difficult every time to watch that video [...] but it’s something that needs to be done while we go through this.”
Mehserle’s attorney, Michael Rains, has countered that his client accidentally drew his pistol instead of his Taser in the moments before Grant was shot.
In his opening statement Rains said Mehserle did not indent to shoot and kill Grant, and will “live his life in the prison of the vivid and painful memories” of that night.
Mehserle was insufficiently trained in Taser use, Rains said, but he had extensive training in operating firearms, including instruction while attending the Napa Police Academy.
Rains said while the prosecution’s interpretation of video evidence shows Grant is not resisting arrest, he will argue such footage actually shows Grant would not allow officers to handcuff him.
Mehserle and Grant wrestled on the ground for 12 seconds before the shooting occured, Rains said.
The defense is planning to use the previous San Leandro incident as indicative of a pattern of Grant resisting arrest.
In a May ruling Judge Robert Perry rejected a motion by the defense to bring up Grant’s parole record at trial, saying it was not relevant to the case and might prejudice the jury against Grant.
Rains today said he wants jurors to focus on audio of the incident, and played grainy video from bystander Daniel Liu and the BART platform camera.
Alameda County prosecutors charged Mehserle with murder two weeks after Grant’s death.
After footage of the incident, which appear to show Grant lying face-down on the concrete before Mehserle shoots a single bullet into his back, was broadcast, residents engaged in both peaceful and violent protests amid renewed discussions of race and community-police relations.
Mehserle is white, while Grant was black. The final jury panel is comprised of seven whites and five people of color, the majority Latinos. In the selection process June 7 Judge Perry and Rains dismissed all five potential black jurors.
The outcome upset Grant’s family and friends. Grant’s aunt Tracie Cooper said she was worried the jurors “will not know how to relate to a young African American man.”
The trial has been moved to Los Angeles due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in the Bay Area given the intense publicity the case has received. It is expected to last two to four weeks.
2010-06-09 "Photo of Mehserle holding Taser surfaces as judge denies defense motions to exclude evidence from trial" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/09/photo-of-mehserle-holding-taser-surfaces-as-judge-denies-defense-motions-to-exclude-evidence-from-trial]:
The prosecution in the second-degree murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle will be allowed to present into evidence a cell phone photo Oscar Grant took which depicts Mehserle holding a Taser moments before pulling out his gun and shooting Grant.
The image can be presented due to a ruling Judge Robert Perry made to permit Grant’s girlfriend, who received the photo, to testify.
Deputy District Attorney David Stein said the photo was evidence Mehserle must have “re-holstered his Taser, then taken out his firearm” before shooting Grant in the back — thus demonstrating that he knew the difference between his gun and his Taser.
The defense intends to argue that Mehserle mistook his gun for a Taser and shot Grant accidentally as a result.
At today’s hearing, defense attorney Michael Rains admitted Mehserle used a Taser on Grant to get him onto the ground, before officers proceeded to kick him.
“It’s important to understand that this picture was taken after Grant had been physically assaulted by the police — specifically by Officer Pirone,” Stein said. “The picture clearly shows the defendant with a Taser out, pointing it at Grant.”
Judge Robert Perry also struck down three key motions the defense filed in an attempt to exclude key pieces of evidence from the case.
In one, which defense attorney Michael Rains filed June 5, Rains argued Sophina Mesa, Grant’s girlfriend and the mother of his child, should not be permitted to testify because other witnesses could provide the same information.
But Stein argued in a rebuttal filed Monday that Mesa could provide unique insight into Grant’s state of mind, since he called her on the phone while detained on the Fruitvale platform by BART officers. Stein also wrote that Mesa would shore up evidence from other witnesses whose credibility Rains would “undoubtedly attempt to attack.”
Mesa has said Grant sounded “nervous” and “scared” on the phone and is expected to testify that he would have been frightened by Mehserle pointing a Taser at him minutes before the shooting.
Rains said that such descriptions of Grant’s emotional state would amount to hearsay, but Judge Perry said her testimony is still relevant to the case.
Because Mesa is in possession of the cell phone photo Grant took of Mehserle, it is expected to be entered into evidence when she testifies.
In a separate ruling, Judge Perry said Stein will be permitted to present at trial evidence of former BART Police Officer Tony Pirone’s use of a racial slur about a minute before Mehserle shot Grant.
Rains argued “there is no indication that Mr. Mehserle heard the statement,” and permitting it into evidence is therefore irrelevant in determining Mehserle’s state of mind.
Rains said two of Grant’s friends present during the incident, Carlos Reyes and Jackie Bryson, made statements to Stein that they had not heard the statement either. But Judge Perry said the court reviewed audio of the recorded incident and heard the slur used multiple times.
Judge Perry said to omit the slur would be “misleading.”
“I agree with [the prosecution] that the jury should be allowed to determine” if the slur contributed to the chaotic environment on the platform and whether that affected Mehserle’s judgment, he said.
Grant’s aunt Tracie Cooper was particularly happy to see the statement allowed into evidence. “The judge was more favorable today,” she said.
Lastly Judge Perry said the prosecution’s synchronized video compilation of the incident, which compares different videos side by side, would be allowed into evidence.
On Monday Rains submitted a motion to omit the prosecution’s video, writing that not only is did the image quality become compromised in the process, but “some of the key images are so badly out of synchronization [...] that they no longer comprise a reasonable representation of the true events.”
Instead, he wanted only the video prepared by his own expert, forensic image analyst Michael Schott, to be allowed into evidence.
Various cell phone videos filmed by passengers on the platform have been used by both sides to create two distinct video compilations.
“You’re going to have dueling synchronized videos,” Judge Perry said. “Experts are going to differ [...] as much I hate to go there I think we’re going to have a battle of the experts.”
Jack Bryson, whose sons Nigel and Jackie Bryson were detained on the platform alongside Grant, said he was happy with Judge Perry’s rulings. “Today was a good day. The truth is coming into the trial,” he said.
Opening statements are scheduled for tomorrow, June 10, in Los Angeles, where the trial has been moved due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in Alameda County.
Jack Bryson and Zeporia Smith speak with reporters outside the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse following today's session. (Jennifer Courtney/ CALIFORNIA BEAT PHOTO)
2010-06-08 "No African-Americans seated on Mehserle trial jury" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/08/jury-for-mehserle-trial-selected]:
(6/9) — 0245 PDT — LOS ANGELES — No African Americans will sit on the final jury panel selected Tuesday in the second-degree murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.
During Tuesday’s jury selection, defense attorney Michael Rains removed three remaining potential black jurors using peremptory challenges. Those challenges require no justification or explanation.
Judge Robert Perry had already dismissed nine potential jurors for cause, including two African Americans, before the attorneys used the challenges for potential jurors each lawyer didn’t want on the final panel.
Eight of the jurors are women and four are men. The jury is comprised of seven whites and five non-whites who appeared to be predominantly Hispanic.
The selection of the jury panel angered members of the Grant family, who told the Beat many of the challenges appeared to be based on race.
“I think Rains did it because he didn’t want one black mother looking at another black mother,” said Tracie Cooper, Grant’s aunt.
Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson said that, while he would have liked to see black jurors help decide the outcome of the trial, he is not as concerned with the racial make-up of the jury as he is about the recent motions Rains filed to exclude what Johnson sees as key evidence.
“It really doesn’t matter what color the jury is,” he said. “The jury could have been all white; if people are presented with a gross injustice they’ll hold an aggressor accountable. The problem is if they’re not presented with all the evidence [...] and that’s what might happen.”
Rains is attempting to exclude from evidence a synchronized compilation of videos taken at the time of the shooting, which the defense argues is misleading because of editing concerns, and the use of a racial epithet by Mehserle’s colleague, former BART Police Officer Tony Pirone, moments before the killing.
Perry is expected to rule during a hearing tomorrow on whether the evidence will be permitted at trial.
Earlier Tuesday, attorneys asked potential jurors questions about their past experiences with police and their ability to put aside any biases.
Rains and prosecutor David Stein each asked general questions to the group of about 50 potential jurors present, before zeroing in on individuals for more detailed answers based on an extensive questionnaire they filled out last week.
The defense asked jurors whether or not they had had bad experiences with police officers, including being racially profiled.
One of the African American women dismissed said her husband had been racially profiled.
“[Profiling] just comes with the territory of being black,” the potential juror said.
Rains asked the group if any potential juror would feel uncomfortable and would “shut down” after watching video footage of someone being shot and killed.
He also paid particular attention to those who had negative experiences with police, whereas Stein questioned each potential juror, row by row, probing for further details from individuals who admitted any connection to law enforcement officers.
Stein asked one group if any potential juror would find it impossible to convict a police officer of murder.
The prosecutor also asked them if they could follow the law when making a decision even if they did not personally agree with it and whether they could evaluate testimony without factoring in their personal feelings about the witnesses.
Neither side used all of its maximum of 20 peremptory challenges to dismiss jurors. The defense used eight peremptory challenges, removing three African Americans, four Hispanics, and one white juror.
The prosecution used seven, removing four Hispanics, including two with strong links to police forces, two Asians, and one white juror.
Opening arguments in the case are expected Thursday morning in Los Angeles, where the trial has been moved due to concerns over whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in Alameda County.
2010-06-02 "Grant supporters fear Mehserle acquittal on eve of trial start date" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat" [http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/06/02/grant-supporters-fear-mehserle-acquittal-on-eve-of-trial-start-date]:
(6/2) — 0100 PDT — OAKLAND — At a candlelight vigil in Downtown Oakland on the eve of jury selection in the second-degree murder trial of former BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle, supporters of shooting victim Oscar Grant said they were not happy about the direction the trial has taken so far.
Those gathered announced they would demonstrate at the corner of Broadway and 14th Street when the decision in the trial is announced, and many said if Mehserle walks violence may ensue.
“I think that people will be outraged. I think it will be very similar to the kind of thing we saw in January 2009 before Mehserle was even charged. People were so angry and so upset. I think it will enrage people all over again,” said community activist Lesley Payne.
Payne works with Oakland-based coalition New Year’s Movement for Justice.
Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson, who flew back to Oakland from Los Angeles to attend the evening vigil in front of the Alameda County Courthouse on 12th Street, expressed concern about how the case was unfolding.
The best outcome would be for Mehersle to go behind bars, Johnson said. He suggested such a verdict would send a message to “police officers all over the United States” that “if they commit murder, they will go to jail.”
But given the low number of police officers to serve jail time for killing civilians — Mehserle is the first law enforcement officer in the state of California to be tried for a murder committed while on duty — Johnson said he is not optimistic.
“The stage is being set for Mehserle to get off,” he said. “I’m not confident that Mehserle will be held accountable. The defense attorney is doing everything he can to create distractions in this case.”
Johnson referred to a hearing he attended Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, where Judge Robert Perry decided to permit defense expert witness Michael Schott to testify regarding his interpretation of videos which could be crucial to the case.
Many community members present echoed Johnson’s fear of an acquittal.
Payne said moving the trial to Los Angeles, which authorities said was done due to concerns over whether Mehserle could get a fair trial in Alameda County, was a first step in Mehserle walking free.
She also said the focus on Grant’s character is inapplicable to the real issue at hand. “That’s totally irrelevant,” she said. “It doesn’t warrant murder.”
Oakland resident Cat Brooks, who performed a spoken word piece for the crowd, said, “If Cephus comes back disappointed then I’m disappointed.”
Brooks said the widely-viewed videotapes of the Grant shooting might have provided false hope for a conviction.
“We have it on tape and so I think there’s an expectation from the community that we’re finally going to get justice; that no longer are you going to kill black and brown and poor people and get away with it. But it may not turn out that way,” she said.
Brooks, who said she watched police brutally beat her father when she was only six years old, said she brought her 4-year-old daughter Jadyn with her to the vigil to teach her to stand up to such injustices.
She also said she feared what would happen in Mehserle is acquitted.
“I don’t think it’s going to pretty in Oakland and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty in L.A. I’m not advocating that, but what do you do with all that anger? What do you do with one more time when they tell you that your life isn’t worth anything and the lives of your babies and you brothers and your sisters don’t matter?”
The Coalition Against Police Executions hosted the event. Opening arguments in the case are scheduled for June 10 in Los Angeles.
Oscar Grant's uncle Cephus Johnson looks on as Keith Muhammad of the Nation of Islam addresses community members and the media at a vigil for the slain Hayward man. (Photo by JENNIFER COURTNEY/CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Cephus Johnson addresses Oscar Grant supporters and the media at a vigil for his nephew. (Photo by JENNIFER COURTNEY/CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Activist Cat Brooks reads a poem at the June 1 vigil. (Photo by JENNIFER COURTNEY/CALIFORNIA BEAT)
Jadyn poses for photographers behind a photo of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, the 8-year-old shot to death by a police officer In Detroit. (Photo by JENNIFER COURTNEY/CALIFORNIA BEAT)
2010-05-27 "Prosecution may have Pirone extradited to testify in Mehserle trial" by Tashina Manyak from "California Beat"
[http://www.californiabeat.org/2010/05/27/prosecution-may-have-pirone-extradited-to-testify-in-mehserle-trial]:
The prosecution in the trial of Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer charged with second-degree murder for the New Year’s Day 2009 shooting of passenger Oscar Grant, has filed a request to compel former BART Police Officer Tony Pirone, who now lives in North Carolina, to travel to Los Angeles to testify in the case.
In the request, dated May 4 and made public this week, prosecutor Scott Jackson calls Pirone a “necessary and material” witness for the prosecution’s case, and requests that he be present between June 7 and June 25.
Citing Pirone’s “hostility towards the prosecution in this case,” Jackson asks for an “attendance hearing” to be held in North Carolina, and says that the prosecution will ask for his extradition if he does not appear.
Pirone was on duty at the Fruitvale BART station on New Year’s Day 2009, when Mehserle shot Oscar Grant.
Cell phone videos recorded by onlookers depict Pirone striking Grant and using a racial epithet prior to the shooting, making him a controversial figure in the case.
Pirone’s lawyer Bill Rappaport has argued that both actions were defensive moves, claiming the officer struck Grant only after Grant himself had become violent and that he had only parroted the racial slur after Grant had said it.
Grant family attorney John Burris has called Pirone one of the primary aggressors in the case, claiming the former BART officer’s actions heightened tensions and may have led to the killing.
Pirone was fired by BART in April after a third party independent report recommended that he be terminated for his actions on Jan. 1, 2009. The former officer gave the initial order to arrest Grant before the fatal shooting incident.
Pirone also appears on the defense’s witness list for the trial. His testimony is expected to be crucial in establishing the events leading up to the shooting and Mehserle’s state of mind.
Pirone’s expenses for traveling to and attending the trial will be paid for by the state of California, Jackson writes.
A final pre-trial hearing in the case will be held June 1 in Los Angeles, where the trial has been moved due to concerns about whether Mehserle could receive a fair trial in Alameda County. Judge Robert Perry will rule on a motion by Grant family attorney John Burris to strike him from the defense witness list, and will decide how much, if any, of the testimony of defense video expert Michael Schott will be permitted at trial.
Jury selection in the case begins June 2, with opening arguments expected on June 10.
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