OAKLAND (KRON) -- The trial of former BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle for the murder of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant will not take place in Alameda County.

Judge Morris Jacobson says massive pre-trial publicity means Mehserle has "met his burden of showing there is a reasonable probability that he cannot get a fair trial in Alameda County."

Now it will be up to a state panel to determine where the trial, scheduled to begin on November 2nd, will be held.

Mehserle is charged with murder for the New Year's morning shooting of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART Station.  Grant was detained for investigation of his alleged role in a fight on board a BART train.  Mehserle's lawyer, Michael Raines, has said the former officer meant to shoot Grant with his taser, not his gun.

In his order, Judge Morrison referred to what he described as massive and extensive media coverage of the case including more than 1,800 newspaper articles, 1,900 television stories, and large numbers of hits on Internet coverage of the shooting.

The judge also noted death threats aimed at defense counsel in the case as well as concerns from some Alameda Court workers about their personal safety in case of a trial in Oakland.  One such worker was allegedly named in a defense motion released to the press.

"Over the months that followed the bail hearing, this court heard from a number of employees about their concerns for their colleague and her husband after they had been publicly identified. Thus, this court knows witnesses in this case are truly frightened by the violence, civil unrest, and the death threats that have been directed at anyone in the path of this case.

Without a doubt, potential jurors have the same fears. Defendant’s survey shows that 82% of the potential jurors who were polled harbor this fear. The court accepts this proof and finds it to be true."

The judge ruled the coverage of the trial makes it impossible to find a fair jury in the case in Alameda County.

"It appears that this high volume of publicity, combined with the upsetting nature of the accusation of an on-duty uniformed police officer murdering an unarmed train passenger and the extraordinary level of political turmoil attached to this incident, makes it reasonably probable that defendant cannot get a fair trial in this County," Judge Morrison wrote.

Stay tuned to KRON 4 and KRON4.com for the latest details of this developing story.

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