Jury seated in Mehserle trial

(06-08) 18:55 PDT LOS ANGELES -- A jury of eight women and four men was seated Tuesday in the murder trial of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who fatally shot unarmed train rider Oscar Grant during an arrest at Fruitvale Station in Oakland on New Year's Day 2009.

Opening statements in a courtroom in downtown Los Angeles - where the trial was moved to escape heavy publicity in the Bay Area - are scheduled for Thursday. Today, Judge Robert Perry plans to rule on a final round of legal motions by attorneys in the case.

Six alternate jurors - five women and one man - were selected after a day of questioning by Alameda County prosecutor David Stein and defense attorney Michael Rains. The panel will be partially sequestered, court officials said, taking breaks in isolation but going home each night.

The jury includes no African Americans, disappointing Grant's family and some activists who see the shooting as part of a larger problem of police brutality against young men of color. Grant was black and Mehserle is white.

Grant's uncle, Cephus "Bobby" Johnson, said he would have preferred that some African Americans be included on the panel. But he said he was more concerned about decisions on evidence by the judge, including a ruling that allows the defense to tell jurors that Grant resisted San Leandro police during a 2006 arrest.

"This case is about the evidence presented," Johnson said.

The trial is expected to last about a month and revolve around video footage of the shooting taken by other BART passengers. Mehserle's attorneys say he meant to use a Taser to subdue Grant, but accidentally fired his gun.

Prosecutors call the Taser story a fabrication and say Grant was not a threat when he was shot.

The final legal motions included a bid by Rains to exclude evidence relating to former BART police Officer Anthony Pirone, who detained Grant after a 2 a.m. fight on a train and made the decision to arrest him for allegedly resisting.

Just before Mehserle took Grant to the ground and shot him, video footage shows, Pirone shouted at Grant, "Bitch-ass n-, right? Bitch-ass n-, right?"

Pirone, who is appealing his recent firing from the BART force, was responding to being called the name by Grant, Rains said. He said Mehserle hadn't heard the slur, but that jurors might penalize him for it unfairly if they learn of it.

Stein said Pirone's words were relevant to Mehserle's state of mind and Pirone's credibility as a witness.

"Not only did defendant hear those words, but he reacted to them," Stein wrote. "He reacted by pushing Mr. Grant face-first onto the train platform. After he did so, Officer Pirone then responded to the defendant's action by shouting, 'Yeah!' "

Another dispute involves video footage of the incident that was taken by BART riders. Both sides spliced together images from several cameras into one flowing video, allowing jurors to see what was happening at any given time from multiple viewpoints.

But the footage apparently varies, depending on the source. The prosecution video suggests that Grant had both hands behind his back when Mehserle shot him, while the defense video does not, according to Rains. He is seeking to exclude the prosecution's video as "unreliable."

E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle