The former BART police officer charged with killing an unarmed Hayward man now has a new attorney.
Well known lawyer Mike Rains is representing Johannes Mehserle.
Rains is an expert cop lawyer.
He specializes in defending police officers accused of misconduct.
Rains was the lead attorney for four Oakland cops known as the Riders, who were accused of making false arrests, and he represents homerun king Barry Bonds who is accused of perjury.
Mehserle is charged with murdering Oscar Grant on New Years day.
The shooting, captured on cell phone cameras and widely viewed on the Internet, has inflamed long-running tensions between law enforcement authorities and many African-American residents and black community leaders, who have berated BART officials at several public meetings since the incident.
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Mehserle is scheduled to be back in court next week. At this point, he has not publicly told his side of what happened the day of the deadly shooting.
