Results tagged “bartcop”

After this weekend's headline-churning incident featuring a BART cop protecting passengers from unruly, drunk Michael Joseph Gibson, 37 -- the twist being that the officer accidentally (?) broke a pane of glass during the arrest at the West Oakland Station -- Assemblymember Tom Ammiano released the following statement:

At a court hearing this afternoon in Oakland, Judge Morris Jacobson of Alameda County Superior Court decided to move the trial of Johannes Mehserle to Los Angeles in an effort to get a fair trail. Jacobson promised in September that the trial would move out of the area.

Declaring that he couldn't get a fair trial because of public outrage and we-are-all-Oscar-Grant fetishism, Judge Morris Jacobson ruled that Officer Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop accused of murdering Oscar Grant on New Year's Day, will get to have his trial moved out of Alameda County. In a court order, Jacobson wrote, "This case ... presents a grouping of factors that foreclose any real hope of insulating jurors from the pressure of the public outrage in Alameda County," Jacobson wrote in a 28-page order. "Defendant has met his burden of showing there is a reasonable probability that he cannot get a fair trial in Alameda County." A hearing at a later date will decide where, exactly, the trial will take place.

The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) is helping BART conduct some much-needed information gathering, and they need your help. This survey wants to know, exactly, what your relationship is with BART police. Are BART police courteous? Are their priorities in order? Has their presence increased or decreased to your liking? Or, more to the point, do you have any confidence in your BART police enforcement? Let them know. It should only take 5 to 10 minutes. If you recall, BART police officers royally screwed up on New Year's Day.

The trial for a jury to decide whether Bart cop Johannes Mehserle, 27, intended to shoot and kill Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale Bart station on New Year's Day will happen on October 13, ruled Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson today. Set to spark a media frenzy in Alameda County, Jacobson also set a hearing on September 11th, "asking that Mehserle's trial be moved away from Alameda County because he doesn't think Mehserle can get a fair trial in the county," reports CBS 5. If you recall, just after the preliminary hearing earlier this month, Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay admitted the following: "There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Mehserle intended to shoot Oscar Grant with a gun, not a Taser."

The FBI arrested Roanoke, Virginia resident Jeffrey Weaver, 47, this week after he made several threatening comments on the interwebs. Weaver, it seems, allegedly posted anonymous comments on InfoWars.com about Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop who allegedly shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Year's Day. According to Wired, Weaver reportedly went on a tirade on January 5th and 7th under the droll sobriquet "FuckThePigs.” Ahem: “Fuck the pigs and if I find out who the pig is then I will kill the pig who killed him,” is just one of the messages he angrily typed out against the disgraced cop. Anyway, Mehserle’s father saw the comments and contact the FBI. Then, "FBI agents subpoenaed [Alex] Jones, who runs InfoWars, to obtain IP addresses from which the messages were posted. They matched three addresses to a Verizon account owned by Weaver." Agents arrested Weaver and -- horror of horrors -- "found a 'green leafy substance' (.pdf) and 'a glass smoking device,' but no gun. Jones told Wired that there are worse comments on YouTube and other sites compared to InforWars, saying that he feels unfairly targeted.

After ruling today that disgraced BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle will, in fact, stand trial for the New Year's Day killing of Oscar Grant, Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay said the following.

At 9 a.m. today, the preliminary hearing for BART officer Johannes Mehserle began. Mehserle is charged with the murder of Oscar Grant. The former officer's defense, most likely, will center around the idea that he meant to fire his Taser, not his pistol, that fateful morning. If you recall, Grant was shot on New Year's Day at the Fruitvale station after Grant and some pals were detained by BART officers.

BART office Johannes Mehserle, charged with shooting and killing Oscar Grant on New Year's Day at the Frutivale station -- was dealt another blow last week. After asking to have his whopping $3 million bail reduced to a measly $100,000, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman denied his request. According to Michael Rains, Mehserle's attorney, the bail deserved a drastic cut because a previous judge "abused his discretion because he was influenced by the public's outrage over this case." Mehserle, we should point out, is now free after coughing up the $3 million bail.

Johannes Mehserle, the ex-BART officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Year's Day, pleaded not guilty yesterday to murder. During a "tense" hearing, Mehserle "entered court for about three minutes ... spoke only to say 'yes' three times, in response to questions from Judge Robert McGuiness about whether he waived his rights to a speedy trial," according to the Chronicle. He is currently being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail over in Dublin.