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Murder Trial Of Former BART Officer Begins
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June 11, 2010 7:30 a.m. EST
Topics: politics, local authority, racism, trials, social issue, crime, law and justice, litigation, United States
Kris Alingod - AHN News Contributor
Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN) - The trial of a former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer who was captured on phone cameras shooting an unarmed black man began Thursday with both prosecutors and defense attorneys using video footage to make their case before jurors.
Johannes Mehserle, the officer accused of the shooting, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges. He fatally shot Oscar Grant on the train platform of Fruitvale station on Jan. 1, 2009, but claims to have mistakenly used his gun instead of his Taser while trying to handcuff the victim.
Grant, 22, was on his way home when he and several other riders were ordered off a train by transit police who were trying to break up a fight among some passengers in the early hours of that New Year's Day.
His death was recorded by other passengers taking video of the commotion using their cell phones. The videos show him kneeling with his arms raised along with other riders on the platform, being forced face down onto the ground by two police officers, and then being shot.
Prosecutors have told ABC News that Grant was able to use his phone camera take a photo of Mehserle, who is white, pointing a Taser at him moments before he died, bolstering the argument that the former police officer intentionally killed Grant.
But opening arguments on Thursday saw defense lawyers also using photos and video footage of the tragedy to argue that Grant had resisted being handcuffed and that Mehserle planned to use his Taser and not his gun.
Mehserle was one of several responding officers at Fruitvale station but is the only one who has been charged. Another officer, Tony Pirone, has been on paid leave since the shooting. He allegedly verbally abused and beat Grant before Mehserle arrived at the scene.
"Did you know that Pirone hit Oscar, pulled him to the ground, kneeled on his back, and repeatedly called him a 'Bitch Ass Ni**er?' Did you know that Pirone’s words and actions were caught on a high quality video that BART police confiscated from a passenger?" according to a group, Oakland for Justice.
Defense attorneys told the court on Thursday that Pirone was actually repeating a racial slur that Grant had said to him, and not the other way around.
Grant's death sparked massive racially-charged riots in Oakland for weeks, and BART has had to replace its police chief and hire a law firm, Meyers Nave, to review the shooting amid criticisms about its handling of the investigation.
The transit agency is still in the process of rectifying lapses it said caused the New Year's Day tragedy. It released findings of the review last year, which included "shortcomings in tactics used by officers" and "lapses in communication and leadership." It also concluded that "officers did not follow recommended procedures [and] failed to work as a team reducing their effectiveness by working independently while also increasing their chances of being assaulted."
Meyers Nave also found BART's reporting of use-of-force incidents "substandard." Portions of the BART policy manual, the firm added, had not been updated since the 1970s.
Earlier this year, another officer who responded to the initial incident at Fruitvale station, Marysol Domenici, left the force after being on paid leave since the shooting. No official statement has been issued on Domenici's case, but she is believed to have been fired.
The trial of Mehserle echoes another one that ended in violence, when in 1992 four white police officers who were captured on video beating a black man, Rodney King, were all acquitted.
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