Berkeley landlord's attempt to close plea hearing refused
Matthew Yi
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Oct. 31, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Examiner

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/10/31/NEWS7472.dtl



Judge says publicity no bar to fair trial in alleged smuggling

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 and four of his relatives 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 defendants last week pleaded not guilty to charges ranging from conspiring to illegally bringing in immigrants to smuggling in teenage girls for immoral purposes.

But they were set to change their pleas in an undisclosed deal with prosecutors Monday, according to court records.

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

"There already has been intense publicity in this matter," Reddy's attorney Ted Cassman said before the judge Monday. "The plea will include admissions (by the defendants) . . . and if the court were to reject the plea, the statements would be public record."

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy said the government also wanted 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."

"There is substantial danger that that would happen," he said.

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 Cassman requested more time.

The judge ordered a probationary report be written first and if both sides still want to pursue a plea bargain, he told the defendants to be in court on Feb. 6 for change of plea and sentencing.

Defense attorneys and Kennedy refused comment after the hearing.

Myers said he wasn't surprised by Armstrong's ruling.

Large potential jury pool

"It did not seem to me that the publicity was so pervasive . . . that it would taint the entire jury pool in Northern California, which stretches from Monterey to the Oregon border," he said. "It's to the court's credit that it recognized that the original order (for a closed hearing) . . . was not supported by the type of evidence that was needed."

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 conspir

ing 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.

Charges expanded

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.

Reddy also faces possible state charges at the conclusion of the federal case.

Statutory rape is very much a possibility, said Berkeley police Lt. Russell Lopes.

"Everything pretty much right now is federal jurisdiction," he said. "Once the feds are done, we'll have to talk to the (Alameda County district attorney)."

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 Reddy's indictment in January, 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 class action 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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