Former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle shot an unarmed Oscar Grant III on New Year’s Day 2009 on an Oakland subway platform.  Grant died hours later at a local hospital.  Amid extensive pre-trial publicity and accusations that African-Americans were prejudiced, the trial was moved to Los Angeles last fall.  The jury in the Los Angeles is made up of seven Latinos and five whites.
 

Alameda County’s deputy district attorney on Thursday, June 10, gave an evocative opening statement in the Oscar Grant murder trial.

After giving jurors an idea of who Grant was, Deputy District Attorney David Stein described the BART system and what it was like in the Bay Area on New Year’s Eve. He then began to walk them through the events and some of the video evidence in the case.

“What happens when an officer believes he has the right to mistreat, abuse people in a public setting?” Stein asked jurors. “Chaos, distrust and disorder will ensue. You will see how the incident began and the reaction of the police … see how the reaction of the defendant Mehserle resulted in chaos, disorder and distrust.”

The playing of the video where Grant was shot in the back elicited tears from some members of Grant’s family who were in attendance. 

The videos, which have been seen hundreds of times via the Internet, were enhanced by the district attorney’s office, and appeared much clearer in both picture and sound quality.

In one video, former BART officer Tony Pirone can clearly be heard yelling “Bi@#! Ass N@**!” at Grant. Carlos Reyes, seated next to Grant on the platform, can be heard yelling, “He’s on my leg,” referring to Grant’s position when Mehserle and Pirone attempt to handcuff him.

In another video, Mehserle is seen pointing his Taser at Grant; the red laser beam from the Taser clearly visible on his chest. On still another video, Grant is seen talking on a cell phone and then taking a picture of Mehserle before placing the phone in his pocket. The photo that Grant took of Mehserle standing in front of him with his Taser unholstered and in his hand was submitted as evidence by the DA.

Stein referred to Grant’s 2006 charge of resisting arrest in his opening statement by saying that Grant was not resisting arrest on New Year’s Day 2009.

“He knew what that (being tased) felt like; he didn’t want that to happen again.”

Stein wrapped up his approximately two-hour statement by telling jurors, “An arrest is an emotional as well as a physical problem,” and that the shooting of Grant was a case of “emotion taking over. It was aggression taking over for training and discipline.”

The other side of the coin

Michael Rains, attorney for Mehserle, began his opening statement by telling jurors “a trial is a controversy. Like a coin, there are two sides. The defense will tell the other side.” 

Rains went on to refute most of the prosecutor’s opening statement and told the jurors that Stein “spent a lot of time talking to (Tony) Pirone,” but not his client. 

“Mehserle,” he said, “was only on the platform two-and-a-half minutes before the shot was fired.”

Rains used cardboard projections and referred to screen shots of the videos in the case to make his points, instead of walking through them the way Stein did. Two jurors fell asleep during Rains’ argument.

The two T’s

“This case is about tragedy and training,” Rains said. The former policeman-turned lawyer emphasized to the jurors Mehserle’s extensive firearms training over his two-year career as opposed to the six hours of Taser training provided to Mehserle in early December 2008. 

Using the screen shots, Rains began to walk the jurors through the defense’s timeline of what happened on New Year’s morning 2009.

Rains stated the evidence would show both Grant and Bryson attempted to assault officers Pirone and Mehserle, and that Mehserle’s shooting of Grant was made up of movements consistent with pulling a Taser out of holster.

After the defense laid out its opening statement, the prosecution began to call its first few witnesses: the DA’s audio and video technician and two of the five BART passengers who filmed what happened at the Fruitvale BART station.

Testimony resumes in the case at 8:30 a.m. today.

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