Law firm hired to take over BART investigation into New Year’s shooting, Directors to take up police oversight issue
By Tim Jue / Beat Staff Writer
BART officials announced Wednesday that an independent third-party law firm has been hired by the transit agency to conduct an internal investigation into the New Year’s morning events where a BART police officer killed an unarmed passenger on a station platform in front of hundreds of train passengers, some of them videotaping the entire incident.
The law firm, East Bay-based Meyers Nave, will be paid $150,000 to take over the transit agency’s probe of the highly publicized incident as it struggles to earn back public confidence after being slammed by angry community officials, elected officials and law enforcement experts for over a month.
The law firm will closely examine all the events that occurred on the morning of Jan.1 including the actions of other police officers who have been accused and videotaped punching Oscar Grant, 22, moments before he was killed by former officer Johannes Mehserle who faces murder charges but is now out on $3 million bail.
- RELATED STORY: The BART Public Relations Disaster | How Oscar Grant’s killing leaves an agency struggling with its public image
“The results of the criminal investigation will be delivered to a charging attorney in the District Attorney’s office to determine if any of the actions by the six police officers rises to the level of prosecutable conduct,” BART Board Member Joel Keller told KGO-TV.
The firm will look into the actions of BART Police officers on the Fruitvale Station platform that day — including their decision to take Grant and four other friends off of a Dublin-Pleasanton-bound BART train and detain them against a station wall.
The firm will also re-interview witnesses to the incident and produce a report in three months time, BART officials said. Portions of that report will be made public, but critical are recommendations on whether some or all officers on the platform on Jan. 1 should face disciplinary action — including termination.
BART has repeatedly come under fire for the use of excessive force in their response to a reported fight on-board a train that was being held at the East Oakland station. Officers made no arrests that night in relation to the fight they were responding to, but widely broadcast videotapes show individuals being hand-cuffed and threatened with tasers before and after Grant was killed.
Meanwhile, protest groups are expected to crowd a morning BART Board of Directors special meeting Thursday where transit agency officials are expected to take up the issue of the creation of an police oversight board that will look into incidents of police misconduct.
Currently, such allegations are handled by BART Police internal affairs investigators because no such review board exists in the BART organization.
Activists and community members have been vociferously calling on BART to make good on their repeated promises to enact a review board which would allow a non-police panel to look into officer-involved shootings and citizen complaints.
“We are at a critical juncture where we need to have more than just expressions of accountability. We need now to move forward and implement a meaningful structure of accountability,” Dereca Blackmon of the Coalition Against Police Executions told the Chronicle.
E-mail Tim Jue at californiabeat[at]gmail.com. Get the latest developments and complete BART Shooting coverage from the California Beat on our special page. Follow the California Beat on Twitter for the latest breaking news and updates on this story and many others.
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I would hope that this investigation looks into police action both before and after the shooting. Reviewing the filed police reports to see how they conform to actual video footage would be the place to start. For example, did either Pirone or the female officer standing and talking with Grant include “the punch” in their reports? Pirone’s current story is that Grant kneed him, which does not appear to be the case from viewing the film. No matter, did he include “the kneeing” in his report? What was the purpose or need for Pirone to leave the man he was handcuffing to charge and hit Grant? Was that in the report? Why were officers using racial epithets? All officers should be thoroughly questioned and should be held accountable as to what they did and did not include in their reports.
Additionally, how did BART police at Fruitvale know about any fighting on that train? How did their source know? How did the Fruitvale contingent identify suspects?
After the shooting five surviving detainees were handcuffed and held for a number of hours and then released without charges. Considering that they were detained, in some cases assaulted, were the target of racial epithets, you would expect that at the very least the police had reason to charge them. Who made the determination not to charge any of the men? Based on what? Since these men were witnesses to a murder there is a presumption that the police would question them as to what they had seen. Was that basic police procedure followed? Did the police, on the other hand, not interview these witnesses or even tell them to be quiet?
Some of the questions that need to be answered could reveal violations of basic police procedure. Others point to criminal behavior by the officers. If officers on the platform worked in concert to conceal information about the shooting then we have a criminal conspiracy of the police as accessories after the fact.
I know nothing about the people doing this investigation, but I hope they won’t be intimidated by the target of their investigation.
Bob….. Thank you for your impressive input. I hope that the investigators are looking into the questions you have pointed out. I am sure all the answers will not work in favor of BART or the other officers.