The same officer that shot and killed Oscar Grant, and is being accused of murder, was also accused of assaulting another black man a month before the shooting death on New Years Eve.
Another BART rider alleges beating by police
(01-14) 16:15 SAN Francisco - -- Six weeks before fatally shooting Oscar Grant at BART's Fruitvale Station, Officer Johannes Mehserle was involved in another nighttime confrontation that sent a 41-year-old passenger to the hospital.
The incident ended with Mehserle and three other officers grabbing Oakland resident Kenneth Carrethers, binding his arms and legs and taking him to a Pleasanton hospital. There, he was treated for face and chest bruises before being booked into county jail for resisting arrest.
"I got beat up," Carrethers said Wednesday in his attorney's office in San Francisco, where he told the story of his Nov. 15, 2008, confrontation at BART's Coliseum Station.
"He had a really cocky, you-can't-touch me attitude," Carrethers said about Mehserle. "He figured he was better than everybody else and that they better do what he wanted them to do."
Carrethers said he was on his way home from work and leaving the station with another passenger when, according to Carrethers and to Mehserle's BART police report, Mehserle and other officers overheard him making disparaging remarks about police officers.
Carrethers and the report differ on what happened next.
According to Carrethers, he tried to walk away from the officers but was grabbed from behind by Mehserle, who wrestled him to the ground and beat him.
According to Mehserle's report, Carrethers approached the officers, "yelled in a threatening manner" and "pushed off of me ... and took a bladed fighting stance." At that point, Mehserle's report said, "I grabbed hold of Carrethers' right arm (and) swept Carrethers' feet out from beneath him ... he began to violently resist by kicking at me."
The other passenger, whom Carrethers said he did not know, left the scene and was unavailable for comment. No witnesses have come forward to back up his story, Carrethers said.
Carrethers, who said he works as a building engineer in a San Francisco hotel, is free on $2,500 bail while awaiting trial. He said he has served time in prison for theft and burglary.
He said he declined an offer to plead guilty to a lesser charge of disturbing the peace because one of the conditions was that he agree to stop riding BART.
"I need to ride BART to get back and forth to work," he said. "I don't have any problem with BART."
BART spokesman Linton Johnson noted that Carrethers has not filed a formal complaint of police abuse against BART, and he questioned Carrethers' timing and his motivation for coming forward.
"Would he have done so if Mehserle's name had never surfaced?" Johnson said. "I don't know."
According to KTVU Kenneth Carrethers did file a complaint with the BART Police but it was delayed because the officer who handles that was on vacation.
Another BART rider alleges beating by police
(01-14) 16:15 SAN Francisco - -- Six weeks before fatally shooting Oscar Grant at BART's Fruitvale Station, Officer Johannes Mehserle was involved in another nighttime confrontation that sent a 41-year-old passenger to the hospital.
The incident ended with Mehserle and three other officers grabbing Oakland resident Kenneth Carrethers, binding his arms and legs and taking him to a Pleasanton hospital. There, he was treated for face and chest bruises before being booked into county jail for resisting arrest.
"I got beat up," Carrethers said Wednesday in his attorney's office in San Francisco, where he told the story of his Nov. 15, 2008, confrontation at BART's Coliseum Station.
"He had a really cocky, you-can't-touch me attitude," Carrethers said about Mehserle. "He figured he was better than everybody else and that they better do what he wanted them to do."
Carrethers said he was on his way home from work and leaving the station with another passenger when, according to Carrethers and to Mehserle's BART police report, Mehserle and other officers overheard him making disparaging remarks about police officers.
Carrethers and the report differ on what happened next.
According to Carrethers, he tried to walk away from the officers but was grabbed from behind by Mehserle, who wrestled him to the ground and beat him.
According to Mehserle's report, Carrethers approached the officers, "yelled in a threatening manner" and "pushed off of me ... and took a bladed fighting stance." At that point, Mehserle's report said, "I grabbed hold of Carrethers' right arm (and) swept Carrethers' feet out from beneath him ... he began to violently resist by kicking at me."
The other passenger, whom Carrethers said he did not know, left the scene and was unavailable for comment. No witnesses have come forward to back up his story, Carrethers said.
Carrethers, who said he works as a building engineer in a San Francisco hotel, is free on $2,500 bail while awaiting trial. He said he has served time in prison for theft and burglary.
He said he declined an offer to plead guilty to a lesser charge of disturbing the peace because one of the conditions was that he agree to stop riding BART.
"I need to ride BART to get back and forth to work," he said. "I don't have any problem with BART."
BART spokesman Linton Johnson noted that Carrethers has not filed a formal complaint of police abuse against BART, and he questioned Carrethers' timing and his motivation for coming forward.
"Would he have done so if Mehserle's name had never surfaced?" Johnson said. "I don't know."
According to KTVU Kenneth Carrethers did file a complaint with the BART Police but it was delayed because the officer who handles that was on vacation.
