Contra County Times


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Published Thursday, January 20, 2000


Berkeley landlord faces sex charge
One of the city's most prominent property owners is accused in federal court of bringing underage girls from his native India for sex
By David Ferris and Demian Bulwa
TIMES STAFF WRITERS


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BERKELEY -- One of Berkeley's most prominent landlords has been charged in federal court with bringing underage girls to the city from his native India for sex.

Among them, police said, was a 17-year-old girl who died in November after being exposed to carbon monoxide in an apartment building owned by the suspect.

Lakireddy Bali Reddy, 62, who today controls a small real estate empire around the UC-Berkeley campus and restaurants here and in India, was arrested Friday. He is being held without bail in North County Jail in Oakland.

Police and city officials said they are looking for other victims whom Reddy may have brought into the country for sex.

"Mr. Lakireddy was instrumental in arranging for the entry of adults and children from India into the U.S. using false identities, fictitious jobs and fictitious family relationships," said Berkeley police Capt. Bobby Miller.

"These individuals, most of whom were laborers, worked long hours for little more than room and board in most cases and ... some of the women, including minors, were sexually molested."

Reddy's lawyer said Wednesday his client was innocent and that he would be asking a judge to set a reasonable bail amount at a detention hearing Friday at U.S. District Court in Oakland.

"Mr. Reddy is a fine, upstanding, law-abiding citizen of Berkeley," said the attorney, Ted Cassman. "The allegations against him aren't true, and it will be proved to be so."

Prasad Reddy, the accused man's son, said Wednesday that the family is devastated by the charges.

"He's a kind-hearted person, and we stand by him. We believe he's innocent," Prasad Reddy said. "We're all still together and we'll see what happens."

The U.S. Attorney on Tuesday charged Reddy with one count of illegally bringing aliens into the United States. The other charge, according to an affidavit, said Reddy "did import and aid and abet the importation into the United States of aliens for the purpose of prostitution and for other immoral purposes."

Reddy faces up to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted, the affidavit said. Miller said the police investigation is ongoing and other charges may be filed later.

Reddy owns about 1,000 apartment units in Berkeley, many of them clustered around the Cal campus and occupied by students. He also owns eight of the city's historic landmarks, more than any other landowner, said Susan Cerny, a board member for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

"He's been around for some time," said Mayor Shirley Dean, who has received campaign contributions from Reddy. "He is a prominent land owner, probably one of the biggest in the city ... It's very shocking."

Prasad Reddy said his father's story is one of hard work, success and helping others build a more prosperous life.

Lakireddy Reddy came to the U.S. when he was in his 20s, from the southern India state of Andhra Pradesh, his son said. He studied engineering at Cal and earned a graduate degree, then took a good job with an East Bay engineering firm.

"The little money that he could save, he invested in real estate," said Prasad Reddy.

In 1985, he said, Lakireddy Reddy and his siblings opened a food stand in the EmeryBay Public Market in Emeryville. Four years later, the family opened Pasand Madras Cuisine on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, offering authentic Indian fare with "imported herbs and spices."

The family has since opened restaurants in Santa Clara, San Rafael and San Francisco, and Reddy had plans to open more.

Reddy came to the attention of Berkeley police Nov. 24, when a 17-year-old girl known as Seetha Vemireddy died in her sleep at a Bancroft Way apartment building owned by Reddy. Investigators later found a faulty wall heater had spewed high levels of deadly carbon monoxide into the apartment, killing the girl and hospitalizing her 15-year-old sister.

Later, Berkeley police received four or five anonymous letters alleging that Reddy was involved in illegal immigration, Miller said. Police called in the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which in 1998 had received an anonymous letter that Reddy had filed fraudulent visas for workers and their dependents.

The immigrants ended up working at the Pasand restaurant, the affidavit said.

Starting Jan. 11, police and INS agents interviewed the dead girl's sister, a young woman who had been living in the apartment and a couple living nearby who claimed to be the sisters' parents.

Last Friday, the supposed father, Venkateswara Vemireddy, admitted that neither he nor the woman he lived with were related to the girls, the affidavit states. The woman he lived with, he said, was his sister.

He told police that Reddy had arranged for him to come to the U.S. by having Reddy's son petition for a temporary work visa. Reddy paid Vemireddy to fly with his sister to Berkeley, where he and the sister worked part-time at the restaurant and lived rent-free.

Reddy's son's company, Active Tech Solutions, had 21 applications with INS for temporary workers, though the company has had between one and four employees since 1998, the affidavit said.

The dead girl's sister and the roommate both told officers Reddy brought them into his home in India and started having sex with them while the girls were in their early teens, the affidavit said.

The sister told officers that she had had sexual intercourse with Reddy since the age of 12, when "she was turned over to him by her parents," the affidavit said. She told officers the sexual relationship continued at the Bancroft Way apartment, the affidavit said.

The roommate told police that she had worked in Reddy's India home after her father sold her to Reddy during hard economic times. Reddy had sex with the girl starting at age 14, as well as with other minors, over the next four years, the affidavit said.

"Vemireddy said that this was well known and accepted by the people of the village in India because Reddy had brought a lot of people to the United States," the affidavit reads.

Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, who is Indian-American and has helped police in the investigation, said she worries that the case will stir up nasty stereotypes about foreigners.

"In India, just as in other parts of the world, there are evil people who abuse others," she said. "Every member of the Indian community that I have talked to is appalled."

Miller urged other female victims to put aside fears of language barriers, shame or fear of deportation.

"We have no interest in prosecuting innocent victims," Miller said.

Victims can call Berkeley police at 510-644-6062 or the Narika organization, a South Asian women's group, at 1-800-213-7308. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Berkeley police at 510-THE-COPS.



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