The United Reporter

Local: Death Unveils Importing Girls for Sex
By Frank Honey
UR Staff Writer, San Mateo County, CA
Published Thursday, January 20, 2000

BERKELEY -- A prominent landlord, who had shared his apartment with a 17-year-old girl who died from carbon monoxide poisoning, has been arrested on charges of importing young girls into the United States for illegal sexual activity, authorities said Wednesday.

Lakireddy Bali Reddy, owner of Pasand Restaurant and many other commercial and residential properties, was arrested Jan. 14 after an investigation by police and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Reddy previously told the Tribune he had lived in the apartment with the Nov. 24 carbon monoxide poisoning victim; her 15-year-old sister, who was also overcome by the odorless gas but survived; and a 20-year-old woman.

They were all brought to this country from India to serve as Reddy's personal sex servants, federal investigators charge in an affidavit supporting the arrest warrant.

"These young women we know were victims of sexual molestation," said Police Capt. Bobby Miller. "We don't know how far the case extends."

Police urged other victims to come forward without fear of prosecution for possible immigration violations.

Ted Cassman, Reddy's lawyer, said his client is a fine, upstanding, well-educated, law-abiding man who is very anxious to clear his name.

"We're confident that when all is said and done the charges will be (groundless)," Cassman said. "He came here in 1960, became a U.S. citizen; nobody has even made any allegations of any kind against him.

"He works with the police, his restaurant is a fine institution. There's no way he could be involved in anything like this." Cassman said.

Reddy is being held without bail and will be arraigned Friday in federal court in Oakland. If convicted, Reddy, 62, could be sentenced to 15 years in a federal penitentiary and fined $500,000.

The carbon monoxide poisoning death of the 17-year-old, who was living under the false name of Sitha Vemireddy, touched off a wide-reaching investigation that is still far from over, Miller said.

Questions immediately popped up after the girl's death: Why were the two under-aged sisters, both recent immigrants, living with Reddy instead of their parents, who supposedly lived in another apartment a block away? What was the relationship between Reddy and the three young women? Was the poisoning a homicide?

Police ruled out murder. But they did forward to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service anonymous letters alleging that the girls' parents weren't really their parents, and that the girls were no more than indentured servants -- and that servitude included sex.

"There were many things that didn't add up...As a result, we continued to investigate," Miller said.

"There were too many incongruities," agreed City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, who worked as a cultural interpreter for the investigators.

The two-count complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oakland mirrors police concerns.

The first charge, which states that Reddy imported aliens for the purpose of prostitution or other immoral purposes, is supported in statements filed by the two surviving young women. They both said they worked for Reddy at his home in Andhra Pradesh state in southern India, and that he had had sex with all three of them.

The 20-year-old roommate told investigators that her father had sold her to Reddy because of economic hardship when she was only 14, and that she had regularly had sex with him.

She told investigators that Reddy arranged a fraudulent marriage with another man to get her into the United States. Once in Berkeley, she moved in with Reddy and never saw her "husband" again.

In August, the two sisters arrived in the United States with a couple posing as their parents. Reddy set them up in the apartment at 2020 Bancroft Way, where the 20-year-old girl was also living.

The federal affidavit alleges the 15-year-old told investigators Reddy had sex with her and her sister the same day they arrived in the United States.

She said she had been having sex with Reddy since she was 12 when her parents gave her to Reddy in India. The sexual relationship between Reddy and the three women continued here in the United States, she stated.

The second complaint alleges that Reddy obtained fraudulent skilled worker claims to aid Indian citizens, including the three young women, entry to this country.

The purported father, Venkateswara Vemireddy, told police he agreed to falsify his family status in exchange for a special occupation skilled work visa. His sister, Lakshmi Garireddy, posed as his wife, Padma Vemireddy.

According to the affidavit, the work visas were obtained through Active Tech Solutions, an East Bay company owned by Reddy's son, Vijay Lakireddy.

Vijay Lakireddy said he was saddened by the allegations against his father and was sure they would be proven false.

"It's a sad situation, with distraught family members and the way they are being pushed around," the son said. "My father is a hard-working, honest fellow and these allegations are just ridiculous. It's shameful. My father has the full support of the family and tens of thousands of those overseas."

But not only do local investigators think Reddy should face charges, they believe the case could spread far beyond Berkeley city limits.

"We believe Mr. Reddy has victimized many other women," City Attorney Albuquerque said.

"That's why it's important to get the word out, so that other victims who might be afraid (to come forward) will know that the Berkeley Police and the federal government have taken the allegations seriously."

Albuquerque stressed that investigators are not interested in prosecuting Reddy's victims for possible immigration violations.

She asked victims or witnesses to call the Berkeley Police Department at 644-6062, or anonymously to 843-2677. People who feel more comfortable speaking in Hindi, Telegu or another Indian language, can call MAITRI at (888) 862-4874 or NARIKA at (800) 213-7308, both of which are South Asian women's organizations, or the Indo-American Community Service Center at (408) 748-1771.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, a community organizer who specializes in caste and gender issues in the Bay Area Indian community, said people were aware of Reddy's reputation.

"He's infamous for his activities, not only for the fact that he was using these women, but how he treated his immigrant workers," Soundararajan said. "This was a really long time in coming."

She said in India, often impoverished families are forced to sell their daughters for use as sex partners to pay off overwhelming debts.

But Albuquerque said this type of criminal behavior is not typical of India. "That's like asking if racism is a common practice in the United States," Albuquerque said. "In India, like in other places, there are evil people who abuse children."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs wouldn't say whether more arrests were forthcoming, but he did say the INS will continue to investigate all the allegations made by Reddy's victims up until his trial.

He said the investigation began in February 1998 when the INS received an anonymous letter about Reddy.

Residents of the Reddy apartment building, a half block east of Berkeley High School, were surprised about the arrest, but not exactly shocked.

"Since Mr. Reddy bought the building a year ago, there have been four or five young girls always coming in and out of that apartment," said Sean Tarham, who lives a few doors from the second floor apartment where the young girl died.

"The two girls who lived there were always working around the building," Tarham said. "I always thought they were very young to be working so hard."

He said he often saw them sweeping the entire basement parking structure by themselves. "They were very friendly and talked to my 2-year-old," he said.

"How do I feel about this? My feelings are indescribable. This is very sad."






Local: Drivers who ignore crosswalks cause a world of hurt
By Robert Cummings
UR Staff Writer, Oakland, CA
Published Thursday, January 20, 2000

I HAVE RESISTED getting up on a soapbox since becoming a columnist. I wanted to play this writing gig safe. Plus, I had no idea where to find a soap box. But I cannot remain silent on one issue any longer, so here goes.

Drivers, please yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Please stop at a crosswalk when other vehicles have stopped, even if you see no immediate reason to do so.

Pedestrians, please look at oncoming traffic. Do not assume that cars will stop for you.

"Wow, Suzanne," you say. "Such controversial points. What's your topic next week? Brushing after meals?"

"No, but thanks for the segue," I say in return.

Obeying traffic laws can be like practicing good dental hygiene. We know what we are supposed to do, but when time and patience are scarce, we take short cuts.

Drivers along the Park Street corridor have been conditioned to think twice before rolling through a crosswalk thanks to recent police patrols of the area. Sgt. Bob Glover of the Alameda Police Department says in 1999, 274 tickets were issued for pedestrian-related violations on Park Street between Lincoln and Central Avenues alone.

But there are better reasons to obey the law than avoiding a $104 citation and a terse phone call from your insurance agent. As Glover explains, every pedestrian-related accident is an injury accident. In 1999, Alameda's 39 pedestrian/vehicle accidents yielded 39 injuries -- one fatal.

I chose this topic because I have seen near misses all over town, from Webster Street to the East End to Mecartney Road. I can also say with authority that being hit by a car as a pedestrian really hurts. It happened to me -- vroom, bmmmp, thud, augghhhh, in that order -- more than eight years ago in Oakland.

The second question that popped into my head that morning, as concerned citizens rushed to my aid, was, "Why did this have to happen to me?" Now, I think I know. By sharing my experience in a column, drivers and pedestrians can have a concrete example of the effects of a moving car on the human body.

In case you're wondering, my first thought was, "Why am I facing this way?" For half a second I didn't realize the car had clipped my lower leg with its bumper. The impact from the vehicle, traveling around 35 miles per hour, spun me a full 180 degrees, yet the memory of my two-second twirl had been blacked out. I hope I won't ever need the other information stored in those brain cells.

The physical effects of that little nudge: My lower leg was broken in three places. During the next year, I had two opera tions, a few months of physical therapy and a titanium rod in my leg that got hung up on my knee cap every now and then.

Someone once said to me that the driver probably felt terrible after what happened. My answer: "Not as bad as I did.

Glover notes that a pedestrian receiving the full impact of a car traveling only 25 miles per hour, the speed limit on almost every street in Alameda, could sustain fatal internal injuries. Two of the local fatalities in recent years were not caused by speeders, but by drivers who failed to stop when another car had yielded to a pedestrian, he said.

In my case, the driver said he didn't see me. Glover says lots of people who get pulled over for crosswalk violations say the same thing: "I didn't see anybody there." To which the policeman has replied, "If I thought you had seen the pedestrian, I would have arrested you for attempted murder."

I have a whole different attitude about crossing the street. I only use unprotected crosswalks in towns with populations under 200 or when very large men in bright clothing are crossing the street with me. But I have no permanent physical damage from my accident. Not everyone who gets hit by a car is that lucky.





Local: Wastewater dumping approved
By Bob Macao
UR Staff Writer, Vallejo, CA
Published Thursday, January 20, 2000

OAKLAND - A state regulatory agency on Wednesday granted American Canyon the right to discharge treated wastewater from a new sewage treatment plant into the Napa River, calling it an environmentally superior option to staying hooked into the Napa Sanitation District's system.

Members of the California Regional Water Control Board's San Francisco Bay regional branch said "precedent-setting" pollution restrictions contained in the discharge permit coupled with the plant's design will actually result in a cleaner river.

"Based on discharge numbers in comparison to Napa, this facility will be an environmental benefit," board member Danny Wan said.

Obtaining the permit will allow the city to use a $12 million loan to finance the project that was set aside by the state. That means the city has only two major obstacles left before it can start building the plant - acquiring the land for it and receiving an economically viable construction bid.

American Canyon officials did not balk at stringent restrictions put on the project by the board.

"They aren't any kind of stringencies that we didn't already agree to," Mayor Lori Maples said. "I'm glad American Canyon is setting itself up as a precedent. We're very concerned about the environment and we're proud to be an example."

The city has proposed building a sewage treatment plant with a state-of-the-art microfiltration system that would discharge into reconstructed wetlands. It has also proposed a reclamation system that would recycle some 30 percent of treated water annually for vineyards and other uses.

Under the terms of the discharge permit, the city also agreed to severe discharge limits, tough water quality standards and a mercury source control program that would virtually eliminate mercury-containing products use by facilities owned or operated by the city.

The Napa Sanitation District currently discharges 8,871 million gallons of treated waste water and 145 grams of mercury into the Napa River annually, the board's staff noted. If American Canyon builds it own plant under conditions outlined in the permit, that total number would drop to 8,810 million gallons of water and 143 grams of mercury.

While the Napa Sanitation District reclaims approximately 20 percent of its water for re-use annually, the new plant would recapture between 25 and 37 percent of its yearly flows.

A handful of people representing various factions attended the board meeting to protest issuance of the permit.

Businessman Bud Cain and Pastor Morris Curry, both local and vocal opponents of the project, criticized the process on a number of points.

Cain argued that there had not been adequate time allowed to prepare for the meeting and that the city had not properly included the public in its decision-making.

"There's no reason for this plant," Cain said. "Napa San is fully capable of handling it and the public doesn't want it."

Curry added that he felt the board's staff was "pulling for American Canyon to get this permit." He added that it made more sense to accept the Napa Sanitation District's offer of $5.6 million to stay connected to its system than to build a new plant estimated to cost $20 million.

"That's $20 million we're spending on something that we can get settled for $5.6 million right now," he said.

Rod Cameron, business manager for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union No. 343 serving Napa and Solano counties, also argued that the permit needed to be improved because a great deal of it was not enforceable.

Jonathan Kaplan, a "BayKeeper" for Water Keepers Northern California, said the restrictions on the permit and the effluent released by an American Canyon plant were not strict enough and had loopholes the city could exploit to increase the release of pollutants.

"We're concerned the permit under consideration may result in a net environmental gain in the short term but it won't be the same gain in the long term," Kaplan said.

Other cities and dischargers also submitted written comments expressing concern that the new restrictions would set a precedent of needlessly strict rules for future projects.

"I realize there are those who feel this doesn't go far enough," said John Wankum, American Canyon's public works director. "Others feel like it goes too far. Personally, I think it's about right."

The city is now in the process of acquiring land for the project at the west end of Eucalyptus Road by using eminent domain proceedings against owners Robert and Patricia Couch. The city will also open construction bids for the plant on Feb. 17 and determine if the project is still economically feasible.