ACLU in Berkeley Landlord Case
Lawyers to assist teenagers brought over from India
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 18, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/10/18/MN110585.DTL


BERKELEY -- The American Civil Liberties Union will help represent those who may have been victimized by a Berkeley landlord accused of smuggling teenage girls from India for sex and cheap labor, attorneys said yesterday.

The teenage girls and others in the case involving Lakireddy Bali Reddy, 62, and his son, Vijay Lakireddy, 30, will be represented in part by lawyers with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project in Oakland, said attorney Lucas Guttentag, project director.

``We want to ensure that the interests and legal rights of the victims are fully protected,'' Guttentag said. The ACLU agreed to coordinate a team of attorneys at the request of community organizations, he said.

Guttentag declined to specify the number of persons being represented or detail any legal strategies separate from the federal prosecution, including whether the defendants could face civil suits.

Reddy, Berkeley's wealthiest landlord, was indicted in February on federal charges that he brought young Indian girls to Berkeley for sex and cheap labor. Reddy could also face state charges of statutory rape.

Reddy and Lakireddy also face charges of submitting false visa applications that allowed them to import the girls.

The case came to light after two girls who arrived from India in the summer of 1999, 17-year-old Chanti Prattipati and her 15-year-old sister, were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes in November in a Bancroft Way apartment, where authorities said Reddy, the owner, had sex with them.

Prattipati died accidentally from the gas, and her sister survived. Guttentag would not say whether that girl was among his clients.

A third defendant, Venkateswara Vemireddy, 30, allegedly posed as the father of the two sisters and was indicted in March on charges of smuggling them into the United States with the help of Reddy and Lakireddy.

Joining Guttentag will be ACLU attorney Jayashri Srikantiah, Oakland immigration attorney Nancy Hormachea and San Francisco attorney Michael Rubin, whose firm specializes in labor and employment law, immigrant rights and civil-rights litigation.

A federal grand jury could indict other people in the case, prosecutors said. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy would not say yesterday whether he had been in contact with the ACLU.

Reddy remains free on $10 million bail, Lakireddy on $500,000 bail and Vemireddy on $50,000 bail. A hearing before U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong is scheduled for Tuesday.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

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