CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SAN FRANCISCO
The Bay Area transit officer charged with murdering an unarmed man was released Friday after posting $3-million bail, authorities said.
Johannes Mehserle, 27, was picked up by a bail bondsman at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin about 3:45 p.m., according to Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. J.D. Nelson. He had been in custody since his Jan. 13 arrest.
Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder in the New Year’s Day shooting on a train platform at Oakland’s Fruitvale station.
Prosecutors say he shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back while the man lay facedown and restrained on the ground. But the defense says he may have mistakenly pulled his pistol instead of a stun gun.
-- associated press
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