Murder trial ordered for ex-BART cop

By TERRY COLLINS
Associated Press Writer

OAKLAND — A judge ruled Thursday that a former Bay Area transit police officer will stand trial on murder charges in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man on a train platform.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay said there was sufficient evidence for ex-Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle to face murder charges in the shooting of Oscar Grant early New Year’s Day.

“There is no doubt in my mind Mr. Mehserle meant to shoot Oscar Grant with a gun, not a Taser,” Clay said concluding a seven-day preliminary hearing in Oakland. “It’s a dangerous act, an intentional act, a deliberate act.”

Mehserle sat looking straight ahead after the ruling. Grant’s mother burst into tears.

Videos of the incident that spread across the Internet show Mehserle, 27, firing a shot into the 22-year-old’s back as he lay face down. Officers had detained Grant and four friends at Oakland’s Fruitvale station for allegedly fighting on a train.

Mehserle’s lawyer Michael Rains has contended that Mehserle accidentally grabbed his pistol instead of his stun gun during the incident.

On Thursday, Rains wanted to call two witnesses who he said would testify about Mehserle’s state of mind during the shooting. But the judge disallowed the witnesses, saying that only Mehserle could testify about his mindset that night.

Although the video shows Mehserle shooting Grant, Clay said, “it does not show his state of mind.”

“I cannot be stopped from defending my client from this serious charge,” Rains argued to no avail.

The judge’s decision to bar the witnesses prompted Mehserle’s father, Todd Mehserle, to comment to a fellow spectator, “There’s no justice in Oakland. They only see what they want to see. This town’s a sham.”

After the court session, Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, said, “I’m hurt. I’m saddened. Even if Mehserle goes to jail, his family is going to be hurt just like my family. They will have a loss. But their loss they will be able to go see. My loss, I have to go to the gravesite and look at my son’s headstone.”

Mehserle, who has previously pleaded not guilty and is free on $3 million bail, is next scheduled to appear June 18.

During the preliminary hearing, prosecution and defense attorneys called numerous witnesses and presented evidence in the controversial video-recorded shooting that prompted sometimes violent protests in Oakland.

On Thursday, BART police officer Terry Foreman testified he was brought in to provide support to Mehserle in the hours after the shooting. He said Mehserle did not say he shot Grant by accident and meant to use his Taser.

BART officer Tony Pirone concluded his third day of testimony by reiterating that Mehserle said he was he was “going to Tase” Grant before fatally shooting him and said he thought Grant “was going for a gun.”

Deputy District Attorney David Stein asked Pirone, who was holding down Grant’s head during the shooting, “if there was anything you would’ve changed that night?”

“No, sir,” Pirone replied.

Rains later asked Pirone, if Grant and his friends had “gone along with the program,” would he have let them go?

“Yes, sir,” Pirone said.

Clay said later said when announcing his ruling that “These young men, as the videotape shows, did nothing to justify the use of deadly force.”

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