Subject: [Stop-traffic] News/US: New Charges Filed In Berkeley Sex Case
From: Melanie Orhant (morhant@igc.org)
Date: Mon Nov 20 2000 - 09:23:52 EST
New Charges Filed In Berkeley
Sex Case
Five in family accused of
smuggling immigrants
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, October 26, 2000
BERKELEY -- A Berkeley landlord and
four relatives were charged yesterday
with conspiring for more than a decade
to smuggle into the United States at
least 50 Indian citizens, including
teenage girls who authorities say were
used for cheap labor and sex.
The criminal charges mark the
culmination of an investigation that
began after the carbon monoxide-
poisoning death last November of
17-year-old Chanti Prattipati in a
Berkeley apartment owned by
Lakireddy Bali Reddy, 63, the city's
wealthiest landlord.
Reddy, two sons, a brother and a
sister-in-law intend to enter guilty
pleas next week to some of the charges
as part of agreements with the federal
government, according to documents
filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland.
The defendants were charged
yesterday in a five-count document
known as a ``superseding
information,'' which replaces a
nine-count indictment filed in February
against Reddy and his 31-year-old son,
Vijay Lakireddy.
Lakireddy was also charged with
making false statements in visa
applications that said Indian workers
would be paid $42,500 a year at his
Berkeley company, Active Tech
Solutions, when he had no intention to
do so.
The document also detailed the
charges against three new defendants:
Prasad Lakireddy, 42, of Lafayette,
another son of Reddy's; Jayaprakash
Lakireddy, 47, of Oakland, the
landlord's youngest brother; and
Annapurna Lakireddy, 46,
Jayaprakash Lakireddy's wife.
All five were charged with conspiring
since 1986 to illegally bring aliens into
the United States from India by
submitting false visa applications.
Prosecutors said the five arranged for
Indian citizens to assume false
identities and sponsored ``sham
marriages'' to obtain immigration
benefits.
Vijay Lakireddy and his attorney,
George Cotsirilos of San Francisco,
declined to comment after an
arraignment yesterday in Oakland
before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wayne
Brazil. A standard not-guilty plea was
entered on Lakireddy's behalf.
Lakireddy, Prasad Lakireddy and
Jayaprakash Lakireddy are expected to
plead guilty on Monday, and
Annapurna Lakireddy is scheduled to
enter a guilty plea on Tuesday, court
documents show.
Reddy was charged yesterday with
two counts of transporting a minor in
foreign commerce for illegal sexual
activity and one count of making a
false statement on a tax return.
Lakireddy was accused of one count
of importing an alien for immoral
purposes for allegedly helping to
smuggle two girls so that his father
could have unlawful sex with them, the
document said.
Prattipati's 15-year-old sister was also
overcome by fumes but survived. She
and a third girl, both of whom Reddy
allegedly harbored in a Bancroft Way
apartment he owned, helped provide
details to Berkeley police and federal
agents about the alleged conspiracy.
The three roommates all worked at
Reddy's Pasand restaurant in Berkeley
or Jayaprakash Lakireddy's Jay
Construction without minimum wage
or overtime premiums, prosecutors
said.
The five defendants and others are the
target of a pending class-action civil
suit to be filed on behalf of the teenage
girls allegedly victimized in the case,
said San Francisco attorney Michael
Rubin, who along with the American
Civil Liberties Union is representing the
girls.
``This is something we have been
actively pursuing for quite a few
months,'' Rubin said yesterday. ``We're
talking about allegations or a complex
conspiracy that involves individuals
and victims beyond those outlined in
the information.''
E-mail Henry K. Lee at
hlee@sfchronicle.com.
Melanie Orhant
Stop-Traffic Moderator
Please contact me off-list for any questions about Stop-Traffic at
<<morhant@igc.org>>.
Women's Reproductive Health Initiative
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health
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