Former BART officer's trial is moved to L.A. County

The trial of a former San Francisco Bay Area transit officer who was videotaped shooting an unarmed man in a New Year's Day confrontation will be moved to Los Angeles County because of intense media coverage, the Associated Press is reporting. Here's the full story:

The trial of a white former San Francisco Bay Area transit officer charged in the killing of an unarmed black man will be moved to Los Angeles County because of extensive media coverage and other possible distractions to trial participants, a judge in Oakland ruled Thursday.

The decision by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson comes a month after he decided the murder trial of Johannes Mehserle would be moved out of that area.

State court officials recommended Los Angeles and San Diego counties to the judge as possible sites for a trial.

Mehserle, 27, is charged with fatally shooting Oscar Grant, 22, at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland on New Year’s Day. The incident was video-recorded by several bystanders, shown across the Internet and subsequently used as evidence in a preliminary hearing last spring.

“We must recapture our heritage and our identity if we are ever to liberate ourselves from the bonds of white supremacy. We must launch a cultural revolution to unbrainwash an entire people.” – El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)