BART report on Grant shooting not expected to influence Mehserle trial
originally published:
19th August 2009
The BART-commissioned report that found grave errors in how the agency’s Police Department reacted before and after Oscar Grant III was killed will have little to no impact on the murder case against former Officer Johannes Mehserle, legal experts and his attorney said.
The report, released Tuesday, details numerous mistakes made by officers and department brass before and after Mehserle shot Grant in the back while the Hayward resident lay facedown Jan. 1 on the platform of BART’s Fruitvale station in Oakland.
The report’s findings mirror arguments made by Mehserle’s attorney, Michael Rains, during a preliminary hearing at which Rains argued his client made a mistake shooting his gun at Grant instead of his Taser.
Rains has attempted to prove that BART officers responding to a call about a fight on a train were overwhelmed by rowdy passengers and that the officers had not been properly trained in the use of Tasers.
David Sklansky, a UC Berkeley law professor, said the report could help Mehserle with his central argument that he was, in part, a victim of organizational mismanagement and made a mistake during a chaotic situation.
“On the one hand, it makes what happened look even more horrible,” Sklansky said. “On the other hand, it strengthens the argument by the officer that it was not entirely his fault.”
