We all know the tragic story of Oscar Grant and Johannes Mehserle - one man's life taken by accident on January 1, 2009 at the Fruitvale BART Station; a second man's life and law enforcement career devastated by the harsh reality of weapons confusion leading to the mistaken drawing of a gun instead of a taser.   

 This is the story of BART Police Officer MarySol Domenici, who was wrongfully terminated in the politically and racially charged aftermath of the New Year's Day incident just because she was doing what she was hired to do - trying to keep the peace. 

Arbitrator William E. Riker today overturned the termination of Officer MarySol Domenici,  and ordered her reinstated with full back pay.  The Arbitrator specifically found that "there was no basis for the conclusion that Officer Domenici was untruthful."  Officer Domenici was defended by  Alison Berry Wilkinson, who was assisted by a team that included Labor Relations Representative Mark O'Connell, Investigator Jesus "Jesse" Zuniga, Jr., and Associate Attorney Jeff Martin.  Officer Domenici is grateful to the PORAC Legal Defense Fund for providing the resources necessary to aggressively challenge the termination.  

The New Year's 2009 Incident: Domenici's Perspective

For Officer MarySol Domenici, this infamous day started more than sixteen hours before the shooting when she began an overtime assignment riding the BART trains to serve as a visible law enforcement presence as people readied themselves for the New Year's festivities.  That overtime shift began at 10 a.m., with her regular shift starting at 3:15 p.m.  Around 6 p.m. on New Year's Eve, Officer Domenici was assigned by her sergeant to work with Officer Anthony Pirone patrolling the beat that included both the Oakland Coliseum and Fruitvale Stations.

At 2:02:44 a.m. on January 1, 2009, dispatch assigned Officer Pirone to investigate a fight reported on board the train that was holding at the Fruitvale station.  When this dispatch was broadcast, Domenici had been standing in the downstairs area of the Fruitvale Station chatting with a Station Agent about the agent's recent vibrant choice of hair color.

When Pirone headed up to the platform to investigate the fight call, Domenici immediately followed but was waylaid by two patrons engaged in a verbal dispute.  A minute later, Pirone radioed Domenici and requested that she "98" on the platform.  Domenici then told the two arguing patrons that she had to go, ran up the escalator, and arrived on the platform in less than fifteen seconds.

At the top of the escalator, Domenici was immediately struck by the fact that the eight-car train was jam-packed with festive and intoxicated patrons who were on the way home from celebrating the New Year, and that the platform was overwhelmingly noisy because the voices of the revelers were projecting out the open train car doors.

Domenici then saw that her partner was approximately 285 feet down the platform to her right standing in front of three individuals that he appeared to have detained.  As she ran in Pirone's direction, Domenici heard some patrons on the train singing the new "lady cop" song, and she noticed that there were other patrons on the platform near the front of the train past the area where her partner was detaining the subjects. 

When Domenici reached Officer Pirone, he directed her to stay with the detainees so that he could return to the train to retrieve the additional subjects that he believed to have been involved in the fight. Officer Domenici then directed the three individuals who were standing at the wall to sit on the ground with their legs outstretched, and to keep their hands out of their pockets.

The two additional individuals that Pirone removed from the train were Oscar Grant and Michael Greer.  Both men fit the description of the suspects in the fight (black males wearing all black) and been spotted by Pirone hopping back onto the train car in an apparent effort to avoid police contact.

When Michael Greer resisted being removed from the train by Officer Pirone, several of the detainees popped  up  quickly onto their feet, began yelling aggressively that this was "all fucked up", and started stepping away from the wall towards Domenici.   Domenici told them to "stay out of it, just stay out of it," pushed them back toward the wall, and directed them to sit down.  As Domenici tried to control these three highly-agitated men who were yelling in her face, she simultaneously sought to monitor what her partner was doing by taking quick glances over her shoulder towards Officer Pirone.   As a result, Domenici only saw bits and pieces of the extraction and takedown of Michael Greer.

After Pirone finished handcuffing Greer, he walked over to the wall to assist Domenici in controlling the other detained subjects.  Officer Domenici only caught the approaching Officer Pirone in her peripheral vision while she was directing Jackie Bryson, Jr. to sit down and was pushing him back towards the wall.  Simultaneously, Nigel Bryson (who was seated against the wall to Jackie Bryson, Jr.'s left) captured Domenici's attention because he was calling "hey blood" towards people who were off to the side on the platform. 

Because her attention drawn toward what Nigel Bryson was doing, Domenici only saw Pirone reaching with an open hand towards Oscar Grant.  She also saw that  Nigel Bryson had been calling to three men that were quickly approaching the detention area from her right flank.  These men had angry looks on their faces, were yelling, and were calling her a "fucking bitch".  Domenici then fully turned in their direction, pulled her taser, and told them to step back.   Domenici focused on one of the subjects who would step back for a short while, and then step again towards her in a threatening manner while shouting curses.  As she started to raise the Taser to deploy it at the individual, Officer Knudtson arrived and tackled the subject.  Within seconds after the tackle, the shot was fired by Officer Mehserle.

The Aftermath

In the media frenzy that followed the shooting of Oscar Grant by Officer Johannes Mehserle, there were suggestions that the other officers on the platform covered up what really happened.  As a result, the PORAC Legal Defense Fund assigned Alison Berry Wilkinson to represent five of the six other officers who were on the platform at the time of the shooting - Officers Domenici, Flores, Guerra, Knudtson, and Woffinden.  Officer Anthony Pirone was assigned to PORAC Legal Defense Fund attorney William R. Rapoport. The arbitration of his termination is still pending.

As the cover-up allegations intensified, BART hired the law firm of Meyers Nave to perform the administrative investigation.  Although that report exonerated four of the officers on the platform (Flores, Guerra, Knudtson, and Woffinden), it indicted Officer Pirone for his actions, and concluded that Domenici lied to cover up what he did.   Today, the arbitrator rejected those findings. 

The Arbitrator's Decision

In concluding that there was no basis for the finding that Domenici was untruthful  and that the evidence did not support the charge, the Arbitrator found that the reliance by BART on the Meyers Nave Report was "misplaced."  The arbitrator specifically stated:

"The Report did not contain a full vetting of the evidence as it related to the allegations against Officer Domenici, the investigators did not ask witnesses certain key and critical questions about the actions of Officer Domenici, and the analysis of the multitude of videos related to the allegations about Officer Domenici's conduct appears flawed.  The Arbitrator finds, as a result, that the Report prepared by the outside consultants [Meyers Nave] was not a full and complete investigation of Officer Domenici's actions, and that critical information necessary to the evaluation of whether Officer Domenici acted appropriately during the events of January 1, 2009 was not made available to the District by the investigators."