SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle, who served one year for the shooting death of BART passenger Oscar Grant, won a defense verdict in a civil suit over the 2008 beating of a different BART passenger.
The federal jury deliberated for four hours, ultimately deciding that Mehserle and four other officers had behaved lawfully when they forcibly arrested Kenneth Carrethers for cursing at them and raising his fist toward one officer. Carrethers said the officers knocked him to the ground and beat him excessively for criticizing the BART Police force within earshot of the officers. Carrethers had been seeking up to $1 million in damages in the trial before U.S. District Judge Edward Chen.
