blog of bile » Alameda County

Ex-BART Officer Johannes Mehserle pleads not guilty in the shooting of Oscar Grant

laur — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:23:47 +0000

http://www.cnn.com/

OAKLAND, California (CNN) — A former police officer for the Bay Area transit system pleaded not guilty Thursday in the New Year’s Day shooting of a passenger at an Oakland rail station.

Johannes Mehserle, 27, appeared in a packed Alameda County courtroom, with his supporters separated by a courtroom aisle from relatives of shooting victim Oscar Grant III and other spectators. Mehserle is charged with shooting Grant, 22, in an incident that spurred violent protests in Oakland after being captured on video.

Mehserle resigned his job as a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer days after the shooting, and he was arrested in Nevada earlier this week. Thursday’s proceedings took less than five minutes, with Mehserle appearing behind heavy windows in an enclosure out of view of all but a handful of spectators.

Superior Court Judge Robert McGuinness ordered the ex-officer held until his next hearing, scheduled for January 26.

BART police had been called to Oakland’s Fruitvale station January 1 after passengers complained about fights on a train.

Officers pulled several men, including Grant, off the train when it arrived at Fruitvale, and video taken by witnesses showed Mehserle shooting Grant in the back as another officer kneeled on the man.

Investigators have not said whether Grant was involved in the fight.

The shooting spawned public outrage and a string of protests that led to more than 100 riot-related arrests.

Thursday’s proceedings drew an overflow crowd to the courthouse, with some would-be spectators grumbling that they could not get into the hearing.

Certainly a “stunning” turn of events.

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BART officer, Johannes Mehserle, arrested on murder warrant in New Year’s Day shooting of Oscar Grant

laur — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:44:30 +0000

http://www.sfgate.com/

The BART police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform and then refused to explain his actions to investigators was arrested Tuesday in Nevada on suspicion of murder, authorities said.

Johannes Mehserle, 27, of Lafayette was taken into custody in Douglas County, Nev., said Deputy Steve Velez of the Douglas County sheriff’s office. The arrest was also confirmed by David Chai, chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.

Mehserle was arrested in the New Year’s Day shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old supermarket worker from Hayward who was lying facedown after being pulled off a BART train by police investigating a fight. An Alameda County judge signed an arrest warrant alleging murder, and Mehserle surrendered without incident, authorities said.

The shooting, which was recorded by passengers in videos widely circulated on the Internet and television, prompted public outrage, and some viewers said that the shooting appeared to be an execution.

Sources said Mehserle was in Nevada because he feared for his safety after death threats were made against him. Douglas County is 15 miles south of Carson City in northwestern Nevada and includes part of Lake Tahoe.

Mehserle’s attorney, Christopher W. Miller of Sacramento, confirmed early today that his client was arrested on suspicion of murder. He said he would not comment further until a news conference today.

Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff was expected to announce details of the arrest today. He could not be reached late Tuesday.

Authorities have been under immense pressure to take action in the case. On Tuesday, BART board President Thomas Blalock and board Director Carole Ward Allen sent a letter to Orloff, urging the district attorney to move expeditiously to complete the investigation and file charges if warranted.

Some Oakland community leaders and civil rights activists said the case is symbolic of larger problems with police officers using excessive force on young black men. Grant was black and Mehserle is white.

The arrest came on the eve of a protest scheduled for 4 p.m. today outside Oakland City Hall, the latest in a series of demonstrations in which BART has been accused of mishandling the investigation.

BART police on Monday turned over the results of their preliminary investigation to Orloff’s office. A separate investigation by Oakland police was launched last week, and Mehserle’s arrest was related to that probe, sources said. The state attorney general is also monitoring the case.

BART officers had detained Grant and several other passengers at about 2 a.m. Jan. 1 as they investigated a fight aboard a train from San Francisco. Passengers with cellular phone cameras captured footage that shows Grant lying facedown when he was shot.

In the videos, Mehserle appears to be trying to put cuffs on Grant, and Grant appears to be struggling, when Mehserle suddenly pulls his service weapon from his holster and fires one shot into Grant’s back.

Mehserle declined to speak to BART criminal investigators after the shooting. Then last Wednesday he resigned rather than answer questions from BART’s internal affairs division.

His departure came the same day Grant was buried and a peaceful protest at the Fruitvale BART Station erupted into violence in downtown Oakland. Demonstrators set cars on fire and broke windows at dozens of businesses. By night’s end, police had arrested 105 people.

Grant’s family has filed a $25 million legal claim against BART, signaling an intention to sue for damages. The family’s attorney, John Burris, said late Tuesday that he was pleased to hear of Mehserle’s arrest.

“If it’s true, the family is delighted, and it will really help with the healing process,” Burris said. “This is also very important for the community. This had to occur; it was almost a no-brainer. I think the district attorney ought to be commended for moving (the case) expeditiously.”

I’d also like to comment on this statement: “Some Oakland community leaders and civil rights activists said the case is symbolic of larger problems with police officers using excessive force on young black men. Grant was black and Mehserle is white.”

Understood, but point missed. The larger problem is with police officers using excessive force on people, period.

Related Stories: First Story . Second Story . Third Story

San Francisco Chronicle names BART police officer Johannes Mehserle as Oscar Grant’s shooter

laur — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:07:51 +0000

http://www.sfgate.com/

Five days have passed since a BART police officer shot and killed an unarmed rider on a station platform, but the officer has not given a statement to investigators about what happened and the transit agency has apparently not forced him to do so.

The delay comes as witnesses emerge with their accounts of what happened, some with video footage of the incident recorded on cellular phones. The hold-up is one reason why BART officials – even in the face of public outcry – have said little publicly about the shooting, including whether they believe it was justified.

BART has not released the officer’s name, but The Chronicle has learned that the officer is two-year BART police veteran Johannes Mehserle, who turned 27 on Monday and whose first child was born within a day or two of the shooting – an event that may be a contributing factor to why Mehserle has not yet explained the shooting to investigators.

Mehserle could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Officials have only said that Mehserle’s gun discharged, killing 22-year-old Oscar Grant of Hayward. He had been detained and forced to lie chest down on the ground at Oakland’s Fruitvale Station after 2 a.m. in the chaotic aftermath of a fight on BART on New Year’s Day. BART has promised a thorough probe, and Alameda County prosecutors are investigating as well, as is standard in officer-involved shootings.

But the delay is troubling to John Burris, the Oakland attorney who is representing Grant’s family and who plans to file a $25 million damage claim today against the transit agency, a legal precursor to a civil lawsuit. Burris is also calling for the officer to be charged criminally.

Burris, who has represented clients in more than a dozen officer-involved shootings, said he had never seen such a long delay before an officer makes a statement to investigators. He said it raises the possibility that the statement could be affected by the video footage and by loss of memory, among other things.

“It’s pretty shocking to me,” Burris said. “When you delay like this, it raises questions about the integrity of the investigation. It raises the question, ‘What has BART been doing?’ You want to prevent collusion. You want to prevent people from tailoring their statements to the evidence.”

BART spokesman Linton Johnson said Monday that Mehserle had not yet given a statement, but did not provide further details. David E. Mastagni, an attorney for Mehserle, declined to comment on Monday.

Michael Rains, a Pleasant Hill attorney who has represented officers in use-of-force cases and taught courses on internal investigations, said the public should not read anything into the officer’s motives without knowing exactly what happened on the platform and what efforts BART investigators and prosecutors have made to arrange or compel an interview.

Rains also said he did not believe Mehserle’s statement would be tainted by a delay, even if he had seen video footage of the shooting.

However, Rains said police agencies typically move fast to probe officer-involved shootings that are generating controversy. Often, he said, an officer will be asked to give a statement on the same day as the shooting.

Officers, like anyone else, have a right to remain silent when questioned in connection with possible criminal charges. Rains said lawyers sometimes advise officers not to talk immediately due to their emotional state.

But police agencies can order an officer – under threat of firing – to speak to internal affairs investigators during a separate administrative probe. Those investigators must decide if the officer should be disciplined for breaking agency rules.

“Typically when you have something that is controversial, agencies are in a hurry to get the investigation done,” Rains said. “They want to get some answers out there. They will usually rush into an administrative investigation.”

Rains added that he and his clients had “walked out of an interview room with (criminal) detectives only to be greeted by internal affairs investigators.”

Statements that officers make to internal affairs investigators cannot be used in criminal court, Rains said. However, it is possible that the statements may be shown to prosecutors, who could gain an advantage even if they can’t directly use the statements.

“No one can fault the officer and say he’s done something terrible because he invokes a constitutional right,” Rains said. “If a law enforcement agency isn’t compelling a statement right away, that’s not the officer’s fault either.”

While BART has said little publicly, a source familiar with the investigation said the agency is looking into many leads, including the possibility that the officer had intended to fire his Taser stun gun instead of his gun.

Don Cameron, a former BART police sergeant and weapons expert who now teaches police officers about proper use of force, said Monday that he had watched footage of Grant’s death and was convinced that the officer had meant to fire a Taser – a device that he said BART began using recently.

Footage taken from inside a BART car by a phone camera, first shown by KTVU television, shows officers forcing Grant to the ground and trying to hold him down. One officer appears to try to put cuffs on him before drawing his weapon and firing. In the video, Grant appears to struggle with the officers, though it is unclear exactly what he was doing.

Cameron said he made his conclusion based in part on the officer’s stance, and the fact that a second officer moved away from Grant just before he was shot, perhaps trying to avoid a second-hand shock.

“If someone was actively resisting, which it appeared this guy was, the device to use would be the Taser, to overcome his resistance,” Cameron said. “The Taser is a great controlling device. But if you grab the wrong device, you kill somebody.”

Libertarian Party primary results

bile — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:09:07 +0000

California:

Christine Smith : 25.1%
Steve Kubby : 17.0%
Wayne A. Root : 13.8%

No one else broke 10%. Phillies got 5.0%. Interestingly according to Eric Garris over at Third Party Watch Ron Paul may have actually won:

[I]t appears that Smith was beaten by “write-in votes.” The 12 ballot candidates received a total of 13,750 votes statewide, out of about 80,000 who are registered statewide.

A check of major counties shows that, in each case, the number of “write-in votes” exceeded Smith’s total. For example, in Los Angeles, the largest county in the state (making up a third of the state’s population) reported 2,157 write-in votes, compared to Smith’s total of 746. Orange County reported 1,279 write-ins compared to Smith’s total of 352. San Francisco County reported 145 write-ins, compared to Smith’s total of 86. Alameda County reported 138 write-ins, compared to Smith’s total of 133.

Unfortunately, the write-in votes will not be counted, since no one filed as an official write-in candidate, but one can make an educated guess as to what candidate LP registrants would write in.

Missouri:

UNCOMMITTED : 46.8%
Wanye A. Root : 18.1%
Steve Kubby : 9.6%
George Phillies : 8.0%

Arizona:

George Phillies
Wayne A. Root
Barry Hess