The Chauncey Bailey Project | Archive for 2009 June

Archive for June, 2009

Former Your Black Muslim Bakery matriarch to lose real-estate license

Esperanza Johnson, a former Your Black Muslim Bakery matriarch who left a trail of dubious real-estate deals from Antioch to Oakland, will have her real-estate broker’s license revoked effective today after a judge found she’s not “sufficiently honest” to keep it. (Johnson, at left, pictured in 2007 Oakland Tribune photo.)

Another plea in kidnap case tied to Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV

Yusuf Bey V, half brother of the jailed leader of the former Your Black Muslim Bakery, has pleaded guilty to helping kidnap two women in 2007 and agreed to testify against another defendant in the case, a prosecutor said Thursday. Bey V will testify against Richard Lewis but will not take the stand against his half brother, Yusuf Bey IV. The deal has Bey V receiving a 10-year sentence.

Release of transcript may be near in Bailey case

A judge on Thursday ordered the release of transcripts of grand jury proceedings that culminated in three murder charges against former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV, who is accused of ordering the 2007 killings of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men. But Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson delayed the unsealing of the documents, which the Chauncey Bailey Project sought, until Bey IV’s arraignment July 16.

Oakland bakery members accused of kidnap, torture back in court

Four members of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery charged with kidnapping and torturing two women in 2007 appeared in an Oakland courtroom Wednesday, in an effort by defense lawyers to separate their cases into different trials.