OAKLAND — A newspaper report says Alameda County court officials will have a hard time finding a jurisdiction with similar demographics to host the upcoming trial of a white former transit officer accused of fatally shooting an unarmed black man.

The Oakland Tribune reviewed population data for the counties considered the most likely venues for the murder trial of former BART officer Johannes Mehserle and found that none had as large a black population or the same level of wealth or education.

An Alameda judge agreed earlier this month to move Mehserle’s trial in the New Year’s Day shooting of Oscar Grant because of the protests the slaying provoked, intense media scrutiny and the need to shield jurors and witnesses from intimidation.

Mehserle is a 2000 graduate of New Technology High School in Napa and also a Napa Valley College Police Academy graduate.