Mehserle Hearing to Take One Week Break

During the fifth day of the preliminary hearing for former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle, accused of murder for fatally shooting  Oscar Grant III, a prosecutor again accused BART police of exaggerating the  danger at the Fruitvale station early on New Year's Day.
   
Prosecutor David Stein asked BART police Officer Marysol Domenici if she had exaggerated, "so you could make it appear that officers were in  more danger than you really were."

Domenici, who was under cross-examination this morning in Alameda County Superior Court as a defense witness for Mehserle, denied that she had  overstated the danger.

The purpose of the hearing is to determine if there's enough evidence to have Mehserle, 27, ordered to stand trial on murder charges.

Stein made a similar accusation of Officer Jon Woffinden on Tuesday, suggesting that in Woffinden's police report, he had "exaggerated  the facts to justify Officer Mehserle shooting Oscar Grant."

Woffinden said he didn't exaggerate anything and was truthful in his report and his testimony.

At one point today, Domenici testified that 30 or 40 people had come off the train that had stopped at the Fruitvale
station, but Stein then  played a video that appeared not to show anyone getting off the train.

Officer Tony Pirone is expected to follow Domenici on the witness stand.

The hearing will adjourn until June 3.