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Move to dismiss smuggling charges
Bob Egelko
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
June 13, 2000
Š2000 San Francisco Examiner

URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/06/13/
NEWS15645.dtl

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/examiner/archive/2000/06/13/NEW
S15645.dtl&type=printable

Accusations too vague, Berkeley landlord's lawyer says

OAKLAND - The attorney for a Berkeley landlord accused of smuggling in
Indian teenage girls said Tuesday he would seek to dismiss charges of
importing illegal immigrants for immoral purposes because they are too
vague.

Lakireddy Bali Reddy's lawyer Ted Cassman had filed motions earlier to
dismiss other charges, also saying that they are not detailed enough.

The new motion, directed at two of the nine charges against Reddy, will
argue that the indictment failed to describe the alleged immoral purposes.
U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong gave Cassman until Aug. 8 to
file his papers, with a prosecution reply due two weeks later. She plans to
rule at a hearing Sept. 12.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy also told Armstrong investigators would
need more time. Last April, he told the judge that a new indictment with
additional charges was expected. On Tuesday, he said he expects the new
indictment in August, but did not say what it would contain.

Reddy, who owns about 1,100 apartment units in the East Bay, was arrested in
January on charges of illegally bringing in at least three teenage girls
from his home village of Velvadam so he could have sex with them. The case
came to light when one of the girls - later found to be pregnant - died of
carbon monoxide poisoning in one of his apartments in November.

Reddy's son, Vijay Kumar Lakireddy, also faces federal charges of conspiring
to bring in illegal immigrants.

Venkateswara Vemireddy, the man who posed as the father of two of the girls
when they were brought over from India, also was arrested on federal
conspiracy charges.

None of the defendants was present at Tuesday's brief hearing.

Š2000 San Francisco Examiner Page A9