Archive for 2009

Three trials of Your Black Muslim Bakery followers set for early 2010
Three trials involving allegations of violent crimes by former members of Your Black Muslim Bakery – including triple murder charges against its leader, Yusuf Bey IV – are scheduled to begin in early 2010. Bey IV and co-defendant Antoine A. Mackey will face three counts of murder each in a trial that will begin May 17. One of Bey IV’s former followers, Richard Lewis, will face kidnapping and torture charges in early January, in a case unrelated to the murders, and several former bakery members will face assault and torture charges in a separate case, a jury for which is expected to be chosen the week after New Years.

Former Your Black Muslim Bakery members to stand trial on torture charges
Four former members of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery were ordered Friday to stand trial later this month on torture and assault charges for allegedly beating a man and threatening to rip out his teeth and tongue with pliers for disrespecting the memory of the organization’s late founder, Yusef Bey.

BART board strips Bey firm of contract
Despite racially charged demands for more time from a longtime Your Black Muslim Bakery associate and his supporters, the BART board of directors voted Thursday to give a lighting-improvement contract to another firm.

Former bakery associate loses BART contract
Nedir Bey, a longtime Your Black Muslim Bakery associate with a checkered past in handling public money, lost a BART lighting-improvement contract worth up to $1 million when he failed to provide certain documents by a Thursday-evening deadline.

Bey firm awarded BART contract for up to $1 million
BART has inked a half-million dollar contract — with options to double it later — with a longtime Your Black Muslim Bakery associate who has a checkered past in dealing with public money. But the joint venture led by Nedir Bey’s Solar Eclipse Group was unable to provide required insurance, bond and license documentation by last Friday’s deadline, so the contract includes a clause that it will become effective only if Bey produces those documents by the close of business Wednesday.
Commentary: Longmire’s case shows dysfunctional culture within Oakland Police Department
Commentary: We have little doubt that Oakland Police Sgt. Derwin Longmire’s conduct seriously compromised a police investigation into the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey. -MediaNews editorial

Longmire: I was the best man to investigate Chauncey Bailey slaying
Sgt. Derwin Longmire’s defense of his work on the Chauncey Bailey homicide investigation is perhaps best captured in one short sentence: “I was the best man for the case, and I knew it.” That is what Longmire told state investigators who asked if his relationship with Yusuf Bey IV posed a conflict of interest for him in investigating Bailey’s 2007 killing, according to a document prepared by Longmire’s lawyer.

Lawyer: DA not interested in wider probe in journalist Bailey’s slaying
The investigation into journalist Chauncey Bailey’s 2007 slaying may have languished in the days after the crime because of an impression that former District Attorney Tom Orloff wasn’t interested in aggressively pursuing a larger case than the initial charge against confessed gunman Devaughndre Broussard, according to a memo prepared by a lawyer.

Former bakery associate awarded BART contract
A longtime Your Black Muslim Bakery associate with a checkered past in dealing with public money persuaded BART’s board of directors on Thursday to award him half of a seven-figure energy-efficiency contract, despite BART staffers’ recommendation to the contrary. Nedir Bey, 48, was a confidant of the late Yusuf Bey, Your Black Muslim Bakery’s founder. His background includes a $1.1 million Oakland city loan never repaid, campaign matching funds questionably spent and a no-contest plea to a felony false imprisonment charge.

Longmire returning to duty after OPD declines to discipline officer
Despite state investigators and other experts saying that a detective’s ties to Your Black Muslim Bakery’s young leader compromised his investigation of a journalist’s slaying, the Oakland Police Department will decline to discipline him, police sources say. Sgt. Derwin Longmire will return to work within days, according to three department sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.