Oakland Looks To L.A. As Mehserle Bail Hearing Gets Underway
OAKLAND (CBS / BCN) -- Oakland civil rights groups, law enforcement officials and transportation agencies were keeping their eyes on a Los Angeles courtroom where a judge was deciding Friday afternoon whether former Bay Area Rapid Transit police Officer Johannes Mehserle should be released on bail.
Mehserle, 28, is serving a two-year state prison sentence for his involuntary manslaughter conviction for fatally shooting unarmed passenger Oscar Grant III at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland on Jan. 1, 2009, but he is seeking to be freed on bail while he appeals his conviction.
Rachel Jackson of the Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant said if Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry frees Mehserle on bail her group would organize a protest either in downtown Oakland or at the Fruitvale station.
However, she said that if Perry denied bail the group would only have a small rally or perhaps just issue a press release.
Mehserle's hearing was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.
BART spokesman Linton Johnson said the transit agency was monitoring the developments at Mehserle's hearing so it could be prepared for any protests.
But Johnson said "today is no different than any other day" because BART is always monitoring events to make sure that the system is safe.
A Nov. 11 rally to protest the shooting death of Grant, as well as the shooting death of Oakland barbershop owner Derrick Jones at the hands of two Oakalnd police officers on Nov. 8, caused BART to close the Fruitvale station for about an hour.
Grant was shot after Mehserle and other BART officers responded to reports that there had been a fight on a train.
Mehserle admitted that he shot and killed Grant but testified that it was an accident because he had meant to fire his Taser stun gun but fired his gun by mistake.
His trial was moved to Los Angeles because of concerns about whether he could get a fair trial in Alameda County because of extensive media coverage the shooting has received in the Bay Area.
(Copyright 2010 by CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News. All Rights Reserved.)
