Oscar Grant Shooting Case Moves to Los Angeles Today

The trial of Johannes Mehserle, the former transit cop accused of shooting unarmed  BART passenger Oscar Grant gets its first day in court here in Los Angeles.  The trial was moved from Alameda County after a survey of potential jurors showed that the majority of people n the Bay Area already saw the widely circulated video of the shooting and thought Mehserle was guilty of doing something really really bad…which is understandable considering that everybody in the Bay saw the video of him shooting Grant in the back, while he was laying on the ground, handcuffed, not resisting.  Tough case for the defense for sure.

The trial won’t start for months, and there’s a gag order on the case so that means no television and no blow-by-blow accounts of the trial. .  But we can tell you this for sure…once the actual trial starts it’ll be quick.  The case has been assigned to Judge Robert Perry, a veteran and well-known judge on the high-security 9th floor of the Criminal Courts Building in downtown L.A.

Judge Perry famous for famous for lightning fast trials.  Yeah, it’ll take months for this trial to actually start, but once it does, it’ll be over and over quickly.  Judge Perry starts his trials first thing in the morning and runs them until the end of the day.  No long recesses, no hand-wringing over rulings.  Attorneys better be prepared and ready to go first thing every day…or else.   The man is a whip-smart former federal prosecutor who handled the John De Lorean case back in the 20th century and as a judge handles nothing but serious trial matters.

Bottom line:  High-profile trials in L.A. can turn into a circus…which is probably why California Supreme Court Chief Justice George assigned this case to Judge Perry. This ain’t gonna be no circus. This ain’t gonna be televised.  There ain’t gonna be no minute-by-minute updates from the courtroom.  This is going to be a tight-ship of a trial.  And that’s a good thing.