Judge Sentences Ex-Transit Officer To 2-Year Prison Term

The Bay Area transit police officer who shot an unruly, unarmed subway passenger to death — and claimed he pulled his gun trigger when he thought he had gripped his Taser — was sentenced to two years in prison today.

Johannes Mehserle was given credit for the 292 days he has already served in county jails, awaiting trial, by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry.

The judge acknowledged that the sentence for killing Oscar Grant on an Oakland train platform in 2009 was far less than the 14 years sought by prosecutors. He said he knew it would anger people who believe that an unarmed black man had been senselessly gunned down by a white police officer, as prosecutors charged.

“I understand my decision will not be received well by many people, but please remember I did my best,” Perry said.

The sentence was comparatively light, the judge said, because the law required him to overturn the jury’s sentencing enhancement that would have added 12 years to Mehserle’s term, because the jury found he intentionally used a gun in a crime.

That would be a legal impossibility, the judge said, because the jury returned a verdict of involuntary manslaughter, meaning the policeman could not have intentionally shot Grant.

Grant’s surviving families walked out of the courtroom angry after the heard the judge pronounce the two-year term, and one of them described the sentence as curse word. Mehserle’s family cried and hugged each other.

A Los Angeles jury had on July 8 convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter instead of the murder charges bought by prosecutors. The case has inflamed racial tensions in the Bay Area, where the white police officer’s prosecution was demanded by minority communities.

Minutes before the sentence was passed, Mehserle again took the stand to tearfully testify that the shooting was a tragedy that has ended his career and wrecked his life. “I’m not proud of what happened … it brings me great sadness how I accidentally took Mr. Grant’s life.”

Five members of the victim’s family also cried as they described the impact of Grant’s death on them. “We have a family that still sees this as a murder,” said Cephus Johnson, the victim’s uncle.

Prosecutor David R. Stein from Alameda County had demanded the full 14- year prison term.”This was an intentional shooting by a police officer, at a time when the victim posed no threat.”

But defense attorney Michael L. Rains had asked for time served, and said there have been eight previous cases of “weapons confusion” resulting in the deaths at the hands of police in California. None of those ended in the prosecution of the officers, much less jail time, he argued.

Tensions ran high outside the courthouse on Temple Street, where one man was arrested in a a scuffle on the sidewalk. “No peace, no justice,” chanted a few people.

In downtown Oakland, storeowners today boarded up their windows, in advance of possible civil unrest there.

Perry said today he has received more than 1,000 letters from people demanding he impose the maximum penalty. But the judge said most of those letters cited incorrect facts, an indication that community perceptions in Oakland may be based on incorrect assumptions.

“The community is greatly polarized, and in my view that is part of the tragedy of this case,” the judge said from the bench.

Perry also said he had “serious concerns” about the validity of the gun enhancement charge used by prosecutors to get a longer prison term for the one-time BART officer. The judge said jurors may have been confused on their instructions, and improperly applied the sentencing enhancement even though it could be applied if Mehserle acted with intent — a legal impossibility given the jury’s finding of involuntary manslaughter.

Mehserle, who is white, was an officer working for Bay Area Rapid Transit police when he shot Oscar Grant, who was black, to death at an elevated rail platform on Oakland’s south side. Several officers were grappling with Grant, who had voluntraily departed a train full of holiday partiers after it was stopped because of over-boisterous activity.

Several cellphones were recording video when several officers wrestled with Grant, and a shot rang out. Racial tensions in the Bay Area escalated in the aftermath.

The trial was moved to Los Angeles, where a local jury convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter instead of murder. Some protesters set fires, smashed windows and trashed businesses in downtown Oakland.