NEWS ROUND-UP FROM AROUND THE BAY
- Mehserle's lawyer seeks new trial (SF Chronicle)
Johannes Mehserle's lawyer asked a judge Monday to set aside the former BART police officer's manslaughter conviction for shooting an unarmed passenger and order a new trial, saying new evidence of a similar shooting by a Kentucky policeman undercuts the prosecution's case. Full story
Here's a report on the 2008 Kentucky shooting from the Kentucky Herald-Leader.
- The mother of Issiah Downes, an inmate in San Francisco County Jail who suffocated while being restrained by sheriff's deputies, is suing city for $50 million (SF Weekly) Coroner initially issued this seemingly contradictory statement, as reported by Chronicle:
Hart's office ruled that the manner of death was homicide but said that the ruling "does not relate to, or make any inference, as to any criminal activity or wrongdoing. It is an indication that, absent the actions of others, Mr. Downes would not have died at the time."
- Palo Alto, Atherton and Menlo Park launch new lawsuit against California High-Speed Rail Authority (Palo Alto Online)
- The Bay Citizen reports that in light of last week's police shooting of Michael Lee in a Tenderloin hotel, Marlene Tran, the public safety commissioner for Bayview and Ingleside, has been "urging the police to conduct an in-depth investigation" into a n Visitacion Valley shooting last year by officers of a "mentally disturbed new immigrant from China."
- Jury awards $175k to parolee and local Oakland rapper over gun-planting by OPD (SF Chronicle)
Incidentally, according to KLAW's The Informant, the City Attorney’s Office reported Oakland paid out $8.84 million to settle misconduct and brutality claims against the the city's police department.