OAKLAND, Calif. -- KTVU obtained exclusive new information Monday night about the change of venue plans for the upcoming trial of a former BART police officer accused of murdering Oscar Grant that would move the controversial case to Southern California.

KTVU reporter Rita Williams has learned from three unnamed sources that only two locations are currently being considered for that change of venue. Neither of them is close to the Bay Area.

According to the sources, the only two choices the state judicial council gave the Alameda County judge who has to pick where to move the murder trial of former BART Police officer Johanes Mehserle were Los Angeles County and San Diego County.

Grant, an unarmed 22-year-old Hayward man, was shot in the back by Mehserle as he was lying face down on the ground at the Fruitvale station after Mehserle and other officers responded to reports of a fight between two groups of young men on a train early New Year's Day.

Mehserle, 27, who resigned a week after the shooting and is free on $3 million bail, is charged with murder in connection with the incident.

“You couldn't, in my opinion, get two more different counties,” said former prosecutor and legal analyst Jim Hammer when asked to weigh in on the two possible locations for the trial.

Here is why. San Diego County's 3 million residents are 5.5 percent African American and about 50 percent white. San Diego's considered more conservative and pro "law and order" than Los Angeles County, which has almost 10 million residents. Los Angeles County’s population make up is more than 9 percent black and less than 30 percent white.

By contrast, 13.5 percent of Alameda County's 1.5 million people are African American. One question that arises is whether the judge should even consider that aspect in the case.

“I think if the Alameda County judge were to try to balance the demographics and diversity that judge is stepping into a morass in which there is no guidance,” said Golden Gate Law Professor Peter Keane.

Keane has spent his career as a defense attorney. He said usually the defense would prefer Los Angeles because it's more liberal with more minorities who might distrust police. However, Keane noted that this is a case where the formulas don't apply.

That's because the person on trial for murder is a white former BART police officer accused of killing an African American.

“I would suspect the defense would fight pretty hard either behind the scenes or in court to keep it away from Los Angeles,” said Hammer.

But the former prosecutor said it's important for this emotionally-charged case to be tried by a racially diverse jury.

"The potential for havoc afterward and people not having any faith at all in this jury having delivered justice for the victim in this case is very, very high,” said Hammer.

With a gag order in this case, KTVU has not learned if negotiations are going on behind the scenes. But the next public hearing in the trial is scheduled for Monday, November 9th. It's likely the judge will hear from attorneys on both sides before deciding whether Johannes Mehserle will be tried for murder in Los Angeles County or San Diego County.