Secret plea deal meeting halted
Matthew Yi
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Oct. 30, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Examiner

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/10/30/NEWS3023.dtl



Feb. 6 hearing set for Berkeley landlord in sex smuggling case

Attempts to hold a closed-door plea agreement meeting in a federal case involving a Berkeley landlord charged with smuggling teenage girls from India were squelched Monday by The Examiner, which argued the public has a right of access to the hearing.

Federal prosecutors and attorneys for Lakireddy Bali Reddy had asked U.S. District Judge Saundra Armstrong that the plea hearing be closed and the court proceedings be sealed at least until the judge approves a plea deal.

The defense argued that if the hearing is reported in the news and the judge rejects the agreement, it would be nearly impossible to find untainted jurors for the trial.

Examiner attorney Roger Myers argued to the judge by telephone that Northern California is a large metropolitan area with millions of potential jurors and the possibility of every one being tainted is remote.

The judge ruled in favor of The Examiner and ordered the proceedings be open to the public.

Prosecutors wanted to proceed right away, but Defense Attorney Ted Cassman requested more time. The judge ordered a hearing to be held Feb. 6.

The next hearing was set for February because the judge ordered a probationary report be written before the plea agreement is completed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy said the government also wants the hearing to be sealed because if the case goes to trial and the prosecution wins, he doesn't want "a conviction reversed on pretrial publicity."

Reddy, 63, was arrested in January and originally charged with illegally bringing in at least three teenage girls from India so he could have sex with them.

The landlord's son Vijay Kumar Lakireddy was also indicted earlier in the year on charges of conspiring with his father to bring in the immigrants.

Both pleaded not guilty to the charges in February. Reddy was freed on $10 million bail, while his son's bail was set at $500,000.

Updated charges were filed Wednesday. Also, Kennedy disclosed in court papers that Reddy, his brother, two sons and a sister-in-law have agreed to plead guilty.

The new charges allege that Reddy and the four relatives conspired between October 1986 and January 2000 to bring about 30 Indian nationals into the United States by misrepresenting them as relatives or dependents of U.S. citizens or as skilled workers.

Some workers went through sham marriages. Many went to work in the Reddy-owned Pasand Restaurant in Berkeley and other businesses. Prosecutors alleged they were given false identities and weren't paid legal minimum wages.

Authorities started investigating Reddy after two of the girls were found unconscious in their one-bedroom apartment owned by Lakireddy. Reddy owns about 1,100 apartment units in the East Bay.

One of the girls, a 17-year-old, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. She was found to be pregnant at the time.

A younger sister survived, and told police she was smuggled into the United States by Reddy. She was placed in protective custody.

Under terms of his release, Reddy was forced to relinquish day-to-day control over his real estate empire.

Even when the criminal proceedings are over, civil proceedings could bring the landlord's lawyers back to court. Numerous alleged victims have come forward since the January indictment of Reddy, an attorney said.

"We are representing a broad range of individuals, men as well as women who have been abused" by Lakireddy Bali Reddy, San Francisco Attorney Michael Rubin said.

Rubin is part of a team of lawyers led by the ACLU to represent the victims.

The attorneys are contemplating a civil lawsuit as well as finding solutions to the victims' immigration status in the United States.

Rubin won't say exactly how many people have come forward, but since Reddy's arrest in January, "numerous" people have called the Berkeley Police Department, his law firm, the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, and Narika, an East Bay nonprofit that works with South Asian domestic violence victims.


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