(06-17) 10:48 PDT LOS ANGELES — Johannes Mehserle is on trial for murder down here, but a lot of the heat has been directed at a former colleague on the BART police force.
It was Mehserle who shot unarmed train rider Oscar Grant while trying to handcuff him Jan. 1, 2009, at Fruitvale Station in Oakland. However, according to witnesses and video footage played in court, that was after Officer Anthony Pirone pulled Grant off a train for fighting and detained him and four friends so aggressively that other riders loudly objected.
The burly ex-Marine shouted profanities, pulled Grant to the concrete station platform, kneed him and told Mehserle to arrest him, announcing that "this mother- is going to jail."
One person who was on the same BART train as Grant, Marcus Torres, testified that when he heard the gunshot, he assumed Pirone had fired it "due to his behavior that evening."
Pirone, whose attorney has said he used force in self-defense, is expected to take the stand today. He is a key witness, as he was holding Grant down in the seconds before Mehserle shot him and was in position to see what the two were doing.
Pirone could influence the jury's conclusions on two major disagreements between the prosecution and defense: whether Grant was resisting Mehserle and whether Mehserle accidentally shot Grant while intending to shock him with a Taser.
Balancing act
Pirone's central role in the case presents challenges for Alameda County prosecutor David Stein and defense attorney Michael Rains. "He's a dangerous witness for both sides," said Steve Clark, a defense attorney and former Santa Clara County prosecutor who has followed the case.
Rains has walked a fine line with Pirone, defending some of his actions while trying to distance Mehserle from him. Rains said Mehserle had been on the train platform for just 2 1/2 minutes before he shot Grant and was unaware of many of the things Pirone had done.
Rains admitted the crowd was "angry at Officer Pirone," but he told jurors, "This is the trial of Johannes Mehserle."
After Stein referred to a statement Pirone made last year calling himself a "big brother" to Mehserle on the BART force, Rains said his client hadn't been trained by Pirone and seldom worked with him.
Stein has sought to link Mehserle to Pirone as part of a group of officers who allowed anger at Grant and his friends to cloud their judgment. However, Clark said, the suggestion that Pirone's actions upset other riders may play into the defense's case.
"It falls into their theory that it was a chaotic scene on the platform," Clark said. "Mehserle can say, 'At that point I'm trying to gain control, and I made a mistake.' "
In the spotlight
Pirone has long been a focus of the case. He's been sued by Grant's family and friends, and in April BART fired him for his actions on the platform, a move that Pirone is appealing. BART even turned over evidence about Pirone to prosecutors soon after the shooting, but they declined to charge him.
Witnesses at Mehserle's trial have described Pirone - who cut a striking figure with his flattop and muscular, 250-pound physique - as extremely aggressive as he dealt with Grant and his friends.
At the time, Pirone had been with BART for four years, after a two-year stint as a federal officer for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He also spent more than a decade as a Marine officer.
Leg sweep
The night of the shooting, Pirone was already at Fruitvale Station when he got a report of a fight on a train. He went up to the platform just after 2 a.m. and detained Grant and four friends.
After getting four men off the train, Pirone pulled out a fifth rider, Michael Greer, pushed him into a wall and then took him to the ground with a leg sweep.
Witness Lynda Kiersted testified that Pirone had repeatedly shouted "Get the f- off my train," before he "attacked" Greer, who she said was not resisting.
Her friend Pamela Caneva testified that Pirone had been "very angry, very hostile, very mean."
"A lot of people were upset on the train because of the profanity the officer was using," Kiersted said.
Grant and three others who had sat down against the wall stood up after Pirone took down Greer. Soon, footage shows, Pirone rushed up to Grant and pulled him to the ground, stirring up onlookers again.
A few minutes later, Caneva said, Grant took out his cell phone and Pirone asked him, "You f- taking a picture of me?"
Torres said Pirone had pointed at Grant and said, "This mother- is going to jail," then kneed Grant.
Pirone's version
Footage then shows Pirone leaning in close to Grant and shouting, "Bitch-ass n-, right? Bitch-ass n-, right?" Within seconds, Grant was on his chest with Mehserle and Pirone over him.
Pirone's attorney, Bill Rapoport, would not comment Wednesday because he is covered by a judge's gag order. But in the past, he has said that both Grant and Greer fought Pirone, and would have been convicted of resisting arrest if not for the shooting.
At a preliminary hearing last year, Pirone said Greer had resisted being detained, then had spun around with clenched fists in a "combative stance." He said he had taken down Grant after Grant cursed at him, made a threatening move toward his partner, and kneed or kicked him in the groin.
Pirone testified at the hearing that he had used profanity as a "level of force" to gain compliance. And he said that if he yelled "bitch-ass n-" at Grant, it was a response to Grant calling him the same name.
As for the shooting, Pirone said Mehserle had yelled, "I'm going to Tase him," and told Pirone to "get up" before pulling his gun and firing into Grant's back.
