Potential jurors in the second-degree murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009, will be asked questions about their attitudes towards race relations and police officers, according to a document released today by the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
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Mehserle’s defense attorney, Michael Rains, had asked to subpoena Grant family attorney John Burris, saying that Burris could provide “testimony concerning threats or intimidation” of witnesses who “may be reluctant to give testimony which would ostensibly be helpful to Mr. Mehserle and harmful to Mr. Grant.”
In the request, dated May 4 and made public this week, prosecutor Scott Jackson calls Pirone a “necessary and material” witness for the prosecution’s case, and requests that he be present between June 7 and June 25.
In a subpoena request dated May 11, attorney Michael Rains says that John Burris, who represents the Grant family in a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against BART, could provide “testimony concerning threats or intimidation” of witnesses who “may be reluctant to give testimony which would ostensibly be helpful to Mr. Mehserle and harmful to Mr. Grant.”
BART has chosen Kenton Rainey, a former police chief for the city of Fairfield, as its next police chief, the Beat has learned.
A preliminary hearing was held Friday in the second-degree murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle.
Mehserle’s defense could provide ammunition for lawsuit against BART — but Grant family isn’t buying
The defense for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer charged with second-degree murder for the shooting of BART passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009, is trying to introduce evidence that could potentially provide powerful ammunition for the plaintiffs in the separate civil suit against BART, court documents made public this week reveal — but the lawyer for Grant’s family isn’t buying it.