The Chauncey Bailey Project | Archive for 2010 March

Archive for March, 2010

Former Your Black Muslim Bakery member calls witnesses against him ‘liars’

A former member of Your Black Muslim Bakery on trial in connection with the kidnapping and torture of two women testified Monday that he had nothing to do with the incident and that numerous witnesses against him were liars. Richard Lewis, 26, who is charged with 13 felonies and faces life in prison without parole if convicted, repeatedly answered “no sir” when his attorney, Patrick Hetrick, asked him if he participated in planning and carrying out the attack on the women in May 2007.

Bakery leader thought robbing drug dealer would net $500,000 to save bankrupt business

As Your Black Muslim Bakery teetered on financial collapse in the spring of 2007, Yusuf Bey IV believed that robbing an East Oakland drug dealer known for wearing white suits and driving a Mercedes would net the business a $500,000 windfall, his half-brother, Yusuf Bey V, testified Monday. The bakery was more than $1 million in debt at the time and had filed for bankruptcy.

Former bakery leader ordered car shooting, Yusuf Bey V testifies

In late 2006 Yusuf Bey IV ordered five of his followers at Your Black Muslim Bakery to find the car of a man with whom he had a dispute and riddle it with bullets, his half-brother, Yusuf Bey V, testified Monday. Bey V said he had an AK-47 assault rifle and the other four men had shotguns, rifles and handguns. Cameron Cook’s car was shot scores of times.

Bakery member turned on his co-horts immediately upon capture, he testifies

A half brother of former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV testified Tuesday morning that he implicated four other men in the May 2007 kidnapping of two women and torturing of one of them immediately after being arrested two and half months later. Joshua Bey told jurors that he told a detective that Bey IV was the ringleader.

Former bakery member turns on fellow members in court

A former follower of Your Black Muslim Baker leader Yusuf Bey IV who once faced contempt of court charges for refusing to testify against Bey IV said in court Thursday that he no longer “gives a damn” about the fallen institution and its jailed leader.

Woman tells of being beaten, threatened

The victim in a kidnapping and torture case linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery ended two days of emotional testimony Tuesday, telling jurors she was beaten and threatened with being burned alive.

Former Oakland police officer testifies department backed off Your Black Muslim Bakery confrontations

Oakland Police had an unwritten policy of avoiding confrontation with members of Your Black Muslim Bakery, a retired officer testified Thursday, including once retreating from its San Pablo Avenue complex despite reports of a woman being held there against her will.

Defense: Lewis being framed in torture-kidnapping case

Richard Lewis, the first member of Your Black Muslim Bakery to be tried in the 2007 kidnapping of two women and the torture of one of them, is being framed by other defendants “who are out to save their own skin,” his lawyer told a jury Tuesday. Those men, Yusuf Bey V and Joshua Bey, “are snitches,” the lawyer said.

Your Black Muslim Bakery was ideological center, prosecutor asserts

Your Black Muslim Bakery was more than a bakery. Its employees were more than employees. They were people who “found a belief system there.” Those were the riffs a prosecutor continually hit Monday during opening arguments in the trial of Richard Lewis, who is charged with taking part in the kidnapping of two women and the torture of one of them in 2007.