INDICTED

Grand Jury Charges Yusuf Bey IV and Antoine Mackey in Chauncey Bailey’s Murder

By Thomas Peele,
Bob Butler and Mary
Fricker, The Chauncey
Bailey Project

A grand jury on Wednesday indicted Yusuf Bey IV, the scion of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, on three counts of murder for ordering the killings of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men in 2007, an Alameda County deputy district attorney announced.
The indictment of Bey IV, 23, includes charges with special circumstances — allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty against him. He allegedly told two of his followers that in exchange for killing Bailey, he would teach them how to file fraudulent loan applications that could reap hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Another man, Antoine Mackey, 23, was indicted on three counts of murder with special circumstances, including Bailey’s killing.
The grand jury also indicted Devaughndre Broussard, 21, in the killings Bailey and another man, Odell Roberson. His charges also carry special circumstances.
But Broussard, until Wednesday the only person charged in Bailey’s death, cut a deal with prosecutors in which he is expected to plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter in exchange for key testimony against Bey IV and Mackey.
In a statement to prosecutors last month, Broussard said Bey IV ordered him and Mackey to follow Bailey, learn his routine and then “take him out” before he could publish an article in the Oakland Post about the bakery’s troubled finances. Broussard said Bey IV promised the two help in securing loans worth hundreds of thousands of dollars through fraudulent applications.
Wednesday’s indictments came just hours after a judge for the second time ordered Bey IV to stand trial in an unrelated kidnapping and torture case from 2007 for which he faces a life sentence if convicted. The attorney representing him in that case, Anne Beles, declined to comment on the indictment.
Broussard will receive a sentence of about 25 years in exchange for his admissions and testimony, his attorney, LaRue Grim, has said. Grim said his client is prepared to plead guilty next week.
Bailey’s sister, Lorelei Waqia, said she grudgingly approves of the plea agreement with Broussard because it strengthens the chances of convicting Bey IV and Mackey in her brother’s slaying.
Bey IV “and Mackey are more dangerous than Broussard. In the perfect world, he (Broussard) would get life but that’s how a plea bargain is: You have to give a little to get a lot. It’s worth it to get the other guys,” Waqia said.
Still, Waqia said, the charges will bring little solace.
“Anything that happened from the day he passed until now is not going to bring him back. So, for me, there’ll never be closure because I’ve lost a brother; my father has lost his namesake; his son, my nephew, has lost a father who was a mentor to him,” she said.
Bey IV and Mackey are scheduled for arrangement next week. Bey IV is in Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail on unrelated charges, but Mackey is in San Quentin State Prison on a burglary sentence.
The indictments of Bey IV and Mackey come after a lengthy re-investigation of Bailey’s killing by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
The Oakland police homicide investigator first assigned to the Bailey case, Sgt. Derwin Longmire, is suspended and the department is moving to fire him after he was found to have compromised the investigation and had undocumented contact with Bey IV against orders.

DA Seeks Murder Indictment in Bailey Case

By Thomas Peele and
Bob Butler, and The
Chauncey  Bailey Project

Devaughndre Broussard spent hours on Tuesday telling a grand jury details about the killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men.
Broussard told grand jurors that he killed Bailey and another man, Odell Roberson, on the order of former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV, and that another man, Antoine Mackey, helped him. He also testified that Mackey admitted to him that he killed a third man, Michael Wills.
“Mr. Broussard is coming clean,” his attorney, LeRue Grim, said during a break in the proceeding. “He’s a human being seeking redemption. He has been living in a hell. He’s really suffered from this.”
Prosecutor Christopher Lamiero said he couldn’t comment. It was unclear when indictments would be handed up. Grim said he expected movement in the case next week. .
Broussard’s mother, Audra Dixon, waited outside as he testified in a sealed courtroom in the basement of the Wiley Manual Courthouse in downtown Oakland.
“I am lost and confused,”  Dixon said. She said she believes Broussard is “still covering up for somebody” and did not shoot Bailey or Roberson.
Grim said Broussard is being truthful about his involvement.
“I am satisfied the truth is being told,” he said.
Bey IV is jailed without bail in an unrelated kidnapping and torture case. Mackey is in San Quentin Prison on burglary charges. Both, in jail interviews with the Chauncey Bailey Project, denied involvement in Bailey’s killing.
Broussard told prosecutors that Bey IV kept a hit list of people “he wanted to get rid of” and that Bailey was on it along with other people he didn’t know.
Broussard said Bey IV ordered him and Mackey to kill Bailey before the journalist could publish a story about the bakery in the Oakland Post.
Bey IV offered the two help in creating fraudulent indemnities that he said would enable them to secure loans they could quickly default on, Broussard said in a statement given to Lamiero in March in preparation for Tuesday’s testimony.
Broussard is to plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter for killing Bailey and Roberson, according to Grim. In exchange for his testimony he will receive a 25-year sentence. He faced life in prison without parole.
.

Longtime to Fire Longmire?

Sgt. Derwin K. Longmire Allegedly Mishandled Case

By Post Staff,
Thomas Peele and
Kelly Rayburn
The Chauncey Bailey Project

Police Sgt. Derwin K. Longmire was suspended from duty Monday for his handling of the investigation into journalist Chauncey Bailey’s killing in August 2007.
Details of the suspension were sketchy, but Oakland Police Department sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed the move late Monday. It was unclear what administrative charges the veteran officer faces. He was transferred out of the homicide unit to patrol last year.
“I am not surprised, given the facts as I know them,” Oakland Attorney John Burris said in an interview with the Oakland Post.“There were real questions raised about his relationship with Bay IV,” he said. “Given that, he should not have been part of the investigation in the first place. One could easily see that this person had an apparent conflict, which on its face was troubling.” However, there still remains the question of why Longmire’s superiors placed him on the case and allowed him to remain in charge of it, said Burris. “There may be more heads to roll. You have to look to see whether the supervisors failed to do their jobs.”

Longmire has been under investigation by both the police Internal Affairs Division and the state Justice Department since last year for his handling of the Bailey case and his ties to the former leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, Yusuf Bey IV, who is jailed and awaiting trial on a host of charges, including kidnapping, torture, real-estate fraud, and assault with a deadly weapon.
The Chauncey Bailey Project reported in October that Longmire failed to document in his case notes evidence that pointed to Bey IV’s involvement in Bailey’s killing. Evidence not documented included a tracking device report that showed Bey IV’s car was parked outside Bailey’s residence fewer than seven hours before Bailey was gunned down in downtown Oakland.
Longmire also never documented in his case notes the existence of a secretly recorded videotape on which Bey IV mocked and laughed about Bailey’s killing, said he hid the gun used in the assassination in his bedroom closet and bragged that he ordered an underling, Devaughndre Broussard, to confess to protect the bakery.
On the same video, Bey IV bragged that Longmire was protecting him from charges.

Chauncey Bailey Project Honored

By Sean Maher
Oakland Tribune

Three journalists investigating the killing of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey were named finalists for the 2008 Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism awarded by Northwestern University.
Bay Area News Group-East Bay investigative reporter Thomas Peele, retired journalist Mary Fricker and Bob Butler, perhaps best known for his work on KCBS radio, were honored for their work in the wake of Bailey’s 2007 killing, exploring the circumstances of the killing and the police investigation that ensued.
The medal is awarded to “the individual or team of journalists, working for a U.S.-based media outlet, who best displayed moral, ethical or physical courage in the pursuit of a story or series of stories,” according to Suzanne Hagen of Northwestern University.

Chauncey Bailey Project reporters worked to investigate the people they suspected were responsible for Bailey’s killing, even as it began to appear he’d been killed for just such an investigation.
Tribune Editor Martin G. Reynolds said the project is a collaboration of many individuals and organizations and would not have been possible without the expertise and support from many corners of the journalistic, philanthropic and academic communities.
“Mary, Bob, Tom, and the many reporters and editors who worked on this project ignored the very real threat to their own safety and pursued this story with determination,” Reynolds said.

Dellums Expands Bailey Probe

By Post Staff

Mayor Ron Dellums has called for an expanded, in-depth investigation into the Police Department’s handling of the investigation of Chauncey Bailey’s assassination.

Dellums said “I’ve asked the attorney general to engage with us in a parallel investigation going forward. I asked Judge Henry Ramsey to act as a master in that process, he has agreed to that.”

When the Oakland Tribune revealed that Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey could still be alive if the Police had not changed their plans to raid the Your Black Muslim Bakery, it caused a storm of concern from the Mayor, City officials and faith-based leaders.

They have called on Attorney General Jerry Brown to expand his investigation of the Police Department(OPD) Administration.

“Everything should be on the table in this investigation,” said Dellums. [Read more]

Faith leaders sound off on Bailey Assassination

By Dion Evans,
The Baptist Post

It has now been over a year since Journalist Chauncey Bailey of the Oakland Post was gunned down on the streets of Oakland. His memory is still alive, but for many in political power and or in the police department – they would rather hope this assassination just “goes way” like the other unsolved murders in the streets of Oakland.

Mayor Ron Dellums seems to know something that he is not letting the rest of the community know – so he has requested an independent outside investigation be conducted. Is this too much for the Mayor to ask? Doesn’t the community care about justice? I sat down with some East Bay Clergy to gather their take on Mayor Dellums’ request. I contacted over 50 faith-based clergy in the city of Oakland to comment on the Mayor’s petition – many, unsure of what to say or because of their own personal fear – support the Mayor in silence. Here are some brave soldiers for Christ who care more about justice for Chauncey Bailey and his family than they care about the politics that may cut funding to their faith-based organization.

If you would like to comment on the Mayor’s request for an independent investigation into the murder of Chauncey Bailey – send your comments to pastord@alldifferent.org (50 words or less). [Read more]

Police Admit Wrongdoing In The Killing of Bailey

By Post Staff

Last week, the Oakland Police finally admitted they had botched the investigation into the murder of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey.Deputy Chief Jeff Israel said “We definitely made a mistake,” when he referred to an account of a witness who had reported hearing Yusuf Bey IV gloating over Bailey’s death just hours after the killing. This revelation, which was recently given to the District Attorney, was acknowledged by Deputy Chief Howard Jordan.

Jordan had given misleading and inaccurate statements to 60 minutes when he claimed the police learned of Bey IV’s Bakery connection to Bailey’s killing from the Post’s publisher. [Read more]

New piece of Bailey slaying puzzle surfaces

Jaxon Van Derbeken,
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, December 7, 2008

Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV summoned the woman to watch a TV news story about three hours after Bailey, 57, was gunned down on his way to work on Aug. 2, 2007, she told homicide investigators.

As they watched the report on the Oakland Post editor’s slaying, Bey told her, “That will teach ‘em to f- with me,” she said.The woman worked at the bakery headquarters on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland and stayed in Bey’s room there the night before Bailey was killed, she said. The Chronicle obtained a tape of her account and police notes of her interview, but is not naming her at the request of authorities who say her safety could be threatened.

The woman’s statement came to the attention of the Alameda County district attorney only within the past two months, authorities said - mysteriously, in the file of a separate criminal investigation into the bakery. The lead police investigator into Bailey’s killing, who has long been a friend of Bey’s, did not mention it in his official account of the probe. [Read more]

Barack Obama and Chauncey Bailey

Chauncey Bailey interviews his old Tribune buddies at the Cafe just one week before his murder.Left Chauncey Bailey, Paul Cobb, Dave Newhouse ,Tribune columnist and Lee Susman, cartoonist. Photo by Gene Hazzard.

By Dave Newhouse
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

A confluence of thoughts hit me Monday: Chauncey Bailey Project, the Oakland Tribune, the Pulitzer Prize, Oakland’s disturbing crime situation, Barack Obama, Paul Cobb, and the last time I saw Chauncey Bailey, one week before his killing.

The Tribune has won two Pulitzers for photographic excellence - Bill Crouch’s 1950 photo of two airplanes nearly colliding in midair, and the Tribune’s coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Now the Tribune has launched The Chauncey Bailey Project, whose leader-of-the-pack investigative reporting of Bailey’s death has graced this newspaper and is worthy of Pulitzer consideration. [Read more]

Zimmerman Honored for Transformation of Your Muslim Bakery

(Top, left to right) Exterior view of Your Muslim Bakery before the restoration. Interior view of Vital Life Services AIDS / HIV center after restoration. (Bottom, left to right) Omar Benjamin, Executive Director, Port of Oakland, Peggy Bush, Executive Director, Vital Life Services, Kurt Zimmerman, Managing General Partner NCK LLC and Principal at RN Field Construction, Nancy Zimmerman, and Judy Briggs Marsh. Photo by Gene Hazzard.

By Post Staff

The San Francisco Business Times honored developer Kurt Zimmerman for his conversion of Your Muslim Bakery to the Vital Life Services AIDS / HIV Center.

Zimmerman did a multimillion dollar renovation and conversion of the bakery, located on Telegraph Avenue, Oakland. [Read more]

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