OAKLAND, Calif. -- A new accusation against Johannes Mehserle involving the use of force has emerged after an Oakland man told KTVU Mehserle was among a group of overly-aggressive BART officers who beat him up two months ago.

And he says if his attempt to complain about it had gone differently, New Year's Day might have gone differently too.

Kenneth Carrethers is carrying a heavy burden. He says if he'd pushed harder and if BART made it easier to complain about a problem police officer, then its possible Oscar Grant would still be alive.

When discussing the fatal officer-involved shooting early New Year's Day that led to Grant's death, Carrethers has plenty of empathy with the victim: "I definitely felt like that could have been me."

That's because Carrethers says six weeks earlier, an officer he now knows from a police report was Mehserle and other BART officers confronted him at the Oakland Coliseum BART station.

Ken Carrethers said he'd just gotten off a BART train and was talking to a woman passenger he didn't know about how someone had broken into his car in the BART parking lot twice.

"There were approximately 6 to 7 police officers standing there, I leaned over and said 'See, that's why; because they stand around with their hands in their pockets.' At this point, one of the officers heard me and said I needed to mind my own business," remembered Carrethers.

In his police report about the incident, Mehserle wrote that Carrethers was yelling and took a combative stance toward an officer. Carrethers said Mehserle was the aggressor.

"Mehserle said 'Have you learned not to mess with police?' And I said 'All I know is you beat me up,'" said Carrethers.

Carrethers, a hotel engineer, was checked out in a hospital en route to jail. He's now charged with resisting arrest.

"If the charge is resisting arrest, then the question becomes arrest for what?" said attorney John Scott when asked about Carrethers description of the incident.

Carrethers called BART to file a excessive force complaint against Mehserle and just got this letter and form dated January 7th.

BART first questioned why Carrethers waited until after the New Year's shooting, but Thursday night confirmed Carrethers did contact BART before Christmas. Apparently the lone officer who handles complaints was on vacation until last week, a week after Oscar Grant was killed.

"I attempted to get help, but nobody would listen," said Carrethers. He now hopes the charges against him will be dropped since the officer he allegedly resisted, now charged with murder, is not likely to be available to testify in court.