Update to Bart Shotting!! (Oscar Grant)
0 Comment Published 11:54 AM in shotting in Oakland By shearoc
Newly released court documents allege that former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle, shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant III while Grant had his hands behind his back and another officer was kneeling on his neck.
Below are the court documents:
http://static.cbslocal.com/station/kpix/docs/2009/mehserle1.pdf
http://static.cbslocal.com/station/kpix/docs/2009/mehserle2.pdf
http://static.cbslocal.com/station/kpix/docs/2009/mehserle3.pdf
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Experts feel BART officer will be charged in shooting death Mehserle raised in Napa; New Tech and NVC grad
0 Comment Published 6:28 PM in By shearoc
4 p.m.SAN FRANCISCO — Widely aired video shows a BART police officer who grew up in Napa fatally shooting an unarmed black man lying face down on an Oakland train platform in the third hour of the New Year.
Those few seconds of grainy images have created tremendous legal and political pressures for Alameda County District Attorney Thomas Orloff, who must decide whether to charge Johannes Mehserle for the killing of Oscar Grant, 22.
Former prosecutors, law school professors and other legal analysts said the case boils down to Mehserle’s reason for pulling the trigger and his state of mind. And they said that task is complicated by Mehserle’s resignation from the Bay Area Rapid Transit police department and his refusal to speak with investigators.
Cellphone video of the shooting was aired widely on television and the Internet, stoking longstanding mistrust of law enforcement by many in Oakland’s African-American community.
State Attorney General Jerry Brown has assigned a prosecutor to monitor the case, and the U.S. Department of Justice has dispatched mediators to help avert violent protests such as one in Oakland last week. Activists have called for another protest Wednesday, culminating in a march to Orloff’s office.
Orloff, a Republican who has run unopposed for district attorney four times on a tough-on-crime platform, did not return telephone calls. And Mehserle’s lawyer, Christopher Miller, also could not be reached.
Johannes Mehserle’s father made a statement to the Register last week through a family friend — Napa County Supervisor Bill Dodd.
“It has been terrifying for them. They are really being terrorized at this time. The entire family, not just Johannes, is getting death threats. They have been forced to move” from their Napa home, Dodd said.
“You couldn’t write a script with more subplots,” said Darryl Stallworth, who worked as a prosecutor for Orloff for 13 years.
Stallworth said Orloff and his deputies are probably sorting through scores of witness accounts and viewing the videos frame by frame to determine if charges are warranted. “I suspect, from what I can see in the videos, there is going to be a charge,” he said.
Former San Francisco District Attorney Terrence Hallinan said the shooting appears to be “negligent homicide” and likely will lead to criminal charges.
Few legal analysts believe Mehserle will face first-degree murder charges because prosecutors would have to convince a jury that the former officer intended to kill Grant.
A less serious manslaughter charge — either voluntary or involuntary — is more likely, the analysts speculated.
Voluntary manslaughter carries up to nine years in prison and prosecutors need to convince a jury that the former transit officer’s actions were “grossly dangerous or grossly negligent,” said Golden Gate University law professor Peter Keane.
Involuntary manslaughter is a much less serious charge and could result in a sentence of probation. To convict Mehserle of that charge, legal experts said, a jury would have to conclude that he acted improperly but accidentally.
A second-degree murder charge carries a potential life sentence, but proving that Mehserle’s actions were so outside the norm to warrant such a serious accusation will be difficult, experts said.
“It’s hard to argue with those who believe this is a crime,” said Jim Hammer, a former San Francisco prosecutor who helped win a second-degree murder conviction for Marjorie Knoller after her vicious dogs fatally mauled a neighbor in 2001. “But were the actions so outrageous that he didn’t care about life?”
Michael Rains, a former police officer who defends them now as a lawyer, said he expects Orloff to charge Mehserle because of the case’s high profile. Rains said that prosecutors often “overcharge” a case to position themselves for a plea bargaining.
They attorney said he expects Mehserle to raise a self-defense argument because he was responding to reports of a brawl and people had not been searched before he arrived at the train station.
Orloff has handled many high-profile Northern California cases, including racially charged accusations that a group of Oakland police officers conspired to plant evidence on hundreds of suspects. Yet, the analysts say, this may be Orloff’s thorniest case yet.
“He has a potential Rodney King-debacle developing, and that puts him in a very difficult position,” Keane said. “But he can’t use this cop as a sacrificial lamb to throw to the mob to lower the political heat.”
AMY TEIBEL | January 11, 2009 02:05 PM EST |
The Ohio man, who rocketed to fame during the U.S. presidential campaign for asking Barack Obama about his tax plan, was in the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Sunday to tell readers of the conservative pjtv.com Web site about the rockets that rain down from the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The people of Sderot "can't do normal things day to day" like get soap in their eyes in the shower, for fear of rockets, said America's most famous plumber, whose real name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher.
"I'm sure they're taking quick showers," he said. "I know I would."
Wurzelbacher's status as a rookie was evident when he stood in front of a pile of spent rockets and said: "I have thousands of questions but I can't think of the right one."
What he could summon was contempt for Israel's critics, who are outraged by the more than 870 Palestinians killed in Israel's bruising air and ground onslaught against Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers. Thirteen Israelis have also died since the operation began, including four killed by the rocket fire that touched off the war in the first place.
"Why hasn't Israel acted sooner?" Wurzelbacher asked. "I know if I were a citizen here, I'd be damned upset."
He described himself as a "peaceloving man," but added, "when someone hits me, I'm going to unload on the boy. And if the rest of the world doesn't understand that, then I'm sorry.(Watch Joe's first report here)
The Burlington Liars Club in Burlington, Wis., revealed its 2008 Champion Lie on Monday as part of an annual contest.
Winner:
, "My grandson is the most persuasive liar I have ever met. By the time he was 2 years old he could dirty his diaper and make his mother believe someone else had done it." , Garth Seehawer of Oconto Falls, Wis.
Runners-up, in random order:
, "On a recent flight from New York to LA, we were watching the in-flight movie called Cocoon. It was during a pool scene that we encountered some very violent turbulence. It was so rough that the water in the pool in the movie splashed out onto the passengers and an onboard life raft inflated!! The flight crew had to hand out towels to dry us all off!!" , Jim Kubath of Palm Springs, Calif.
, "It used to be in the winter when I walked into my house my glasses would fog up. But now, at the cost of fuel, I have my temperature down so low that when I go outside my glasses fog up." , Jerry Olson of Bonduel, Wis.
, "I knew I had to lose weight when both the automatic in and out doors opened when I entered the grocery store." , Michael E. Peters, of Fox Point, Wis.
, "When my uncle wakes up in the morning he often yawns and says, 'I could stretch a mile.' Of course, he never does since he's too lazy to walk back." by Ellen Everts of New London, Wis.
, "This summer with gas at $4.25 per gallon, I drove up to a prepay gas station and asked the lady clerk for $5 worth of gas. She (broke wind) and handed me a receipt!" Gene C. Lasch of Shawano, Wis.
, "I have three German shepherds, outside dogs. This morning, it was SO cold outside that one of my dogs was trying to 'jump start' the other!!!!!!!" , Richard Bosanko of Bristol, Wis.
Worls Newest Oldest Living Lady!
0 Comment Published 10:09 AM in oldest living lady , shearoc By shearoc
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Gertrude Baines, a spry 114-year-old California resident, will likely be crowned the world's oldest woman, according to the organization that keeps track of such honors.
Gertrude Baines told CNN two years ago that she has taken good care of herself, "the way (God) wanted me to."
The previous oldest woman was Maria de Jesus, who died this week in Portugal at age 115, Guinness World Records said.
Baines -- born to former slaves in a small town south of Atlanta, Georgia in 1894 -- now lives in a Los Angeles nursing home.
Baines appeared cheerful and talkative when the Los Angeles Times interviewed her in November as she cast her vote for Barack Obama for president, whom she said she supported because "he's for the colored people."
"I'm glad we're getting a colored man in there," she said.
Baines apparently prefers using the older term for her race. She was well into her 70s when "African-American" became the common reference in the United States. Watch Baines speak to CNN
She told the Times she spends most of her time "doing nothing but eating and sleeping."
When CNN interviewed Baines two years ago, she was asked to explain why she thought she has lived so long.
"God. Ask him. I took good care of myself, the way he wanted me to," Baines said.
Her only child -- a daughter -- died of typhoid fever at age 18.
Much of her long life was lived in Ohio where she worked as a "house mom" at a state university. She eventually divorced and traveled to Los Angeles, where she retired.
Baines will not officially be given the title until after Guinness World Records completes an investigation, the organization said.
"Maria was crowned the world's Oldest Living Woman by Guinness World Records on 28 December upon the death of Edna Parker," the group said.
Parker -- an American -- was 115 years, 220 days old when she died on November 26, 2008 in an Indiana nursing home, it said.John Travolta's Son dies...
0 Comment Published 2:50 PM in dies , john Travolta , shearoc , son By shearoc
NASSAU (Reuters) - The teenage son of actor John Travolta died suddenly on Friday during a family vacation in the Bahamas, according to the family's lawyer.
Jett Travolta, 16, suffered a seizure at his family's vacation home at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel on Grand Bahama Island, attorney Michael Ossi said.
Attempts were made to revive him, but he died at the scene, Ossi said.
Jett, who had a history of seizures, was the eldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston. They also have a daughter, Ella Blue, who was born in 2000.