Contra County Times
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Published Saturday, January 22, 2000


Bail hearing delayed for Berkeley landlord
U.S. magistrate waits until Tuesday to size up the wealth of the suspect, who is accused of bringing teen girls here from India for sex
By David Ferris
TIMES STAFF WRITER




BERKELEY -- A prominent Berkeley landlord accused of importing teen-age girls from India for sex will remain jailed over the weekend after a federal magistrate declined Friday to set bail until he can better gauge the suspect's wealth.

Lakireddy Bali Reddy appeared in a crowded U.S. District Court in Oakland, with some two dozen relatives and employees looking on in support.

Some family members had signed a bond offering as collateral a building on Parker Street that Reddy's lawyer claimed is worth around $2 million. Prosecutors countered that Reddy owns at least $50 million in property in Berkeley alone. He also has ready means to flee, according to a legal brief filed by Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, a native of India who is helping police.

Under Reddy's bed, police found a suitcase full of gold jewelry and bars of gold bullion, along with $2,500 in cash, the brief states. They also found $55,000 in cash in the Reddy Realty office. None of the money was seized.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy and Albuquerque argued that Jan. 17 plane tickets for India that Reddy bought late last year for himself and two of the girls, as well as Reddy's substantial wealth, made him a flight risk.

"A $2 million bail is nothing. It is chump change for someone with that kind of property," Albuquerque said.

Reddy, a 62-year old former UC-Berkeley engineering student who became a local real-estate magnate and restaurateur, has been held in North County Jail in Oakland since his arrest Jan. 14.

Federal prosecutors claim Reddy used false names and bogus visas intended for high-tech workers to bring cheap laborers and at least three teen-age girls from his homeland to Berkeley. Prosecutors allege Reddy had sex with two sisters and a third girl who roomed with them in a Bancroft Way apartment building he owned.

Police and federal authorities say they began to uncover the alleged scheme after the 17-year-old sister died Nov. 24 of carbon monoxide poisoning from an improperly ventilated gas heater. Her 15-year-old sister, who lived with her, survived.

Reddy faces two federal charges of bringing illegal aliens into the country, and bringing them in for the purpose of sex. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to 15 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. Police said there may be more victims.

Ted Cassman, Reddy's attorney, called the allegations against his client "inflammatory and salacious."

Cassman said Reddy has many reasons to stay in the United States. His immediate family, including four brothers, one sister, two sons and their children, all live in California. He also said Reddy had cooperated as police and INS agents interviewed the two surviving girls and two adults who posed as the girls' parents to bring them into the country.

"When police asked for an interview of these people, they got it. When they wanted a second interview, they got it," Cassman said. "There was no attempt to flee and no attempt to evade."

But Federal Magistrate Wayne Brazil on Friday delayed his bail decision until Tuesday to weigh more evidence of Reddy's holdings.

"I am concerned about the ignorance I have about his wherewithal outside the city of Berkeley," Brazil said. "I think it will be a very high bail."

Albuquerque, in her brief and in court, argued that if Reddy is released, he has the power to influence potential witnesses and victims.

She compared Reddy's influence in his home town of Velavadam, in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, as equal to that of a company president in a one-company town.

"His economic control and social control is very great," she told the judge.

Members of Reddy's family shook their heads and chuckled when Albuquerque implied that the fact that some of the gold was printed with "Switzerland" indicated that Reddy had money squirreled away around the world.

Out of court, they denied that Reddy had undue influence in his village of 3,000 in India, where Reddy set up a business college and visits twice a year.

His brother, Jay Reddy, said Friday that Reddy held only the 30 acres that are allowed each person under Indian law.

"It's a small, small town. Everyone has their own piece of land," said Jay Reddy.

Albuquerque also argued in her brief that Reddy showed his flight risk by not calling an ambulance or police on the day of the 17-year-old girl's death. The brief claims Reddy may have been one of several people seen carrying the girl's body out of the building. The roommate, said Kennedy, was dragged along, "screaming hysterically."

The brief said a witness described what appeared to be an attempt to load the body and girl into a van owned by Reddy Realty. The passing motorist asked someone behind her to call police, the brief said. By the time police arrived, the people "melted away," the brief said. The girl's body was found lying on an exit landing.

The girl's death touched off an investigation by police and federal immigration agents into the status of the girls and the couple who claimed to be their parents. Police said the man who claimed to be the father later admitted to faking his identity at Reddy's behest to bring over the sisters.

That man and his sister, who posed as the girls' mother, also are being held, said Chuck DeMore, district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The dead girl's sister and their roommate, who may be 18, are in protective custody with state child services, DeMore said.

The INS is looking through computers and documents seized from Reddy, DeMore said.

David Ferris covers Berkeley. Reach him at 510-262-2713 or e-mail dferris@cctimes.com.

©1999 Contra Costa Newspapers, Inc.