State Attorney General Monitoring BART Shooting Investigation

Jerry Brown appoints an indenpendent observer to investigation

Updated 7:41 AM PST, Sun, Jan 11, 2009

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California Attorney General Jerry Brown said today he will designate someone from his office to closely monitor the investigation into the New Year's Day shooting death of a 22-year-old Hayward father at an Oakland train station to make sure it is completed as soon as possible.

Speaking at a news conference in his Oakland office after he met with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People officials and other black leaders, Brown said, "There's an ancient saying that justice must not only be done but must also appear to be done."

Brown said he has met with Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff, who will decide whether to file criminal charges against Bay Area Rapid Transit police Officer Johannes Mehserle for shooting and killing Oscar Grant III, and said, "I have confidence in him" and has already been in close contact with him.

Brown said he understands Orloff must take time to review the case carefully because "defendants have rights," but at the same time "justice can't grind so slowly that it appears that justice isn't being served."

Orloff said Friday that it will take him another two weeks to complete his investigation, but Brown said, "I want to understand why it will take long - it might be quicker."

Referring to a violent protest that rocked downtown Oakland on Wednesday night, Alice Huffman, the president of the California branch of the NAACP, said she sought the meeting with Brown because "the situation in Oakland is very volatile and very pressing."

Huffman said videos that indicate Grant was not armed, was lying on his stomach and was shot in the back by Mehserle "compel you into action."

The incident occurred shortly after 2 a.m. on Jan. 1 when Mehserle and other officers stopped a train at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland after receiving reports that two groups of men were fighting on the train.

Huffman said Grant's shooting death "was nothing short of murder" and she wants to "make sure we're not living in a police state."

Huffman said the meeting with Brown was "very successful" and she hopes Brown will "coordinate and escalate" the investigation.

She said she hopes Brown's involvement "will quell some of the tension" in the black community, which she said has "a lot of suspicion" about the process.

The incident is being investigated by the BART and Oakland police departments as well as the district attorney's office.

BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger responded to Brown's announcement in a statement today, saying BART officials are pleased by Brown's participation in the investigation.

"We welcome the Attorney General's participation," Dugger said in the statement. "We are committed to an effective and thorough investigation in full cooperation with the district attorney and the attorney general. We hope the investigation is concluded as quickly and as efficiently as possible and that the district attorney provides the answers that BART and the public are all seeking."

Brown said there is no reason for him to conduct a separate investigation but he said, "If something goes wrong people will come back to me anyway so I might as well be there from day one."

He emphasized, "There's no evidence that anything has been done wrong in the investigation so far" and said he sees his role as "assuring the community that it's moving at the proper pace and no stone is unturned."

State Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, who is the chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, said caucus members "are concerned about quick justice in this case."

Swanson said there's a problem with "the pace of the investigation and a lack of public confidence" and said he wants "to make sure that justice is served."

Brown said he has talked to Orloff about having someone from his office monitor the investigation and promised "I won't second guess and interfere."

Brown declined to say who he will appoint to monitor the investigation but said it will be "someone who will advance the process and not retard it."

Elihu Harris, who like Brown, formerly served as mayor of Oakland and now is chancellor of the Peralta Community College District, said, "Justice delayed is justice denied" and he thinks Orloff already should have charged Mehserle.

Harris said, "There's a video and there was no probable cause" for Mehserle to shoot Grant, who was the father of a 4-year-old daughter and worked as a butcher at an Oakland grocery store but who also had several felony convictions and served time in state prison in 2007 and 2008.

Harris said, "There's nothing to stop him (Mehserle) from fleeing," but Orloff said on Thursday even though Mehserle, who has resigned from his BART post, has so far refused to talk to investigators he does not think Mehserle will flee and authorities know where he is staying, even though he has had to move at least twice because of death threats against him.