Yusuf Bey IV's attorneys Lorna Brown, left, and Anne Beles leave courtroom Wednesday (Dean Coppola/MediaNews)

Yusuf Bey IV's attorneys Lorna Brown, left, and Anne Beles leave courtroom Wednesday (Dean Coppola/MediaNews)

By Paul T. Rosynsky, The Chauncey Bailey Project

OAKLAND — Attorneys for the leader of the now-defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, who is accused of ordering the killings of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two others, won a court motion Wednesday temporarily preventing anyone from speaking about the case.

The order, issued by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Allan Hymer, will be in place until at least May 29th when both Yusuf Bey IV, the bakery’s leader, and Antoine Mackey are scheduled to appear in court to enter a pleas on three counts of murder.

Both were scheduled to enter pleas Wednesday but had their case postponed because the court-appointed attorney chosen to represent Mackey, Albert Wax, said he was unsure he could take the case.

Hymer also said the court will hear motions on May 29th which seek to unseal transcripts of the grand jury testimony which lead to the indictments against Bey IV and Mackey.

A criminal grand jury voted earlier this month to indict Bey IV and Mackey for the killing of Bailey after former bakery handyman Devaughndre Broussard, originally charged in the murder of the journalist, took a plea deal in exchange for his testimony against Bey IV and Mackey.

The grand jury indicted Bey IV on three counts of murder for allegedly ordering Broussard and Mackey to kill Bailey before he could publish a story about financial problems at the bakery.

Bey IV was also indicted for telling Mackey and Broussard to kill Odell Roberson for retribution because Roberson’s nephew killed Bey IV’s brother and telling Mackey to kill Michael Wills, a white man, because, according to Broussard’s statement to prosecutors, he was “a devil.”

Bey IV was also indicted on a charge of ordering the shooting of a car Dec. 7, 2006. The owner of the car was the father of a bakery woman’s children.

Meanwhile, Mackey was indicted on three counts of murder for allegedly accompanying Broussard to the Bailey killing and serving as his driver; for helping Broussard lure Roberson to a dark corner and providing the assault rifle Broussard used to kill him; and for shooting Wills at Bey IV’s order.

While Bey IV’s plea on the murder charges was delayed, he did enter a “not guilty” plea in an unrelated case in which he and three other bakery members are charged with kidnapping two women and torturing one of them.

Also entering not guilty pleas in that case were Tamon Halfin, Yusuf Bey V and Richard Lewis.

A jury trial was scheduled for June 29th in that case but not before attorneys attempt to have their clients tried separately in the case. Attorneys for Lewis and Bey IV both submitted motions to have their clients separated from the rest when the case goes before a jury.

Those motions will be heard June 3rd.