Landlord, Kin Delay Pleas in Sex Case
Attorneys tried to close proceedings to press
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/10/31/MN13969.DTL


BERKELEY -- A Berkeley landlord and four relatives accused of illegally bringing young women from India to the United States postponed entering guilty pleas yesterday in Oakland after their attorneys tried to hold the hearing behind closed doors.

Lakireddy Bali Reddy, 63, Berkeley's wealthiest landlord, two sons, a brother and a sister-in-law will enter their pleas and be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong on Feb. 6.

Citing media interest in the case, their attorneys obtained an order from the judge Friday to bar news reporters from attending yesterday's proceedings, during which four of the defendants were to have entered guilty pleas as part of agreements with the federal government. Reddy's sister-in-law was to have entered a guilty plea today .

After a closed three-hour hearing during which Armstrong heard objections from San Francisco media attorney Roger Myers, the judge lifted her order.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy said he had no problems moving forward with the pleas. But Reddy's attorney, Ted Cassman of Emeryville, said the defense attorneys wanted to wait for probation reports to be completed before going forward with any pleas.

Attorneys on both sides had initially sought to keep the details of any pleas secret -- and the hearings sealed -- until the judge approved the plea agreements. If any guilty pleas were later changed to not guilty, the defendants' rights to a fair trial could be jeopardized if the pleas were made in public, they said.

Reddy, sons Vijay Lakireddy, 31, of Berkeley and Prasad Lakireddy, 42, of Lafayette, brother Jayaprakash Lakireddy, 47, and sister-in-law Annapurna Lakireddy, 46, have been charged with conspiring since October 1986 to submit false visa applications to smuggle into the United States at least 50 Indian citizens, including teenage girls used for cheap labor and sex.

The defendants were charged last week in a five-count document known as a ``superseding information,'' which replaces a nine-count indictment filed in February against Reddy and Vijay Lakireddy.

Vijay Lakireddy allegedly helped to smuggle two girls so that his father could have sex with them, authorities said. The girls worked for Reddy and Jayaprakash Lakireddy without minimum wage or overtime, authorities said.

The case came to light after the carbon monoxide-poisoning death last November of pregnant 17-year- old Chanti Prattipati in one of Reddy's apartment complexes.

The defendants and their attorneys declined to comment yesterday after the hearing.

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

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