Posted on 02/01/2008 2:22:25 PM PST by SmithL
OAKLAND - An associate of Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland who had been charged in a kidnap-torture plot switched sides and testified today against four accused accomplices, including bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV.
Joshua Bey, 19, reached a plea deal with prosecutors Tuesday. But the agreement wasn't publicly divulged until today during a preliminary hearing in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland for bakery associates accused of beating and threatening a woman with a hot curling iron if she didn't tell them where a friend kept his money.
Defense attorneys for Bey IV and the three remaining defendants complained to Judge Eric Labowitz that they hadn't been told of the guilty plea before today's proceeding.
They argued unsuccessfully to delay the hearing so that they could prepare to cross-examine Joshua Bey, a half-brother of Bey IV who agreed to testify in exchange for a three-year prison sentence on a kidnapping conviction.
Prosecutor Scott Patton said he hadn't intended to "hide the ball" from the defense. Instead, Patton said, he didn't divulge the plea deal until today because of concerns that Joshua Bey "would be in extreme jeopardy to be harmed by people who are in custody with him."
Patton added that the possibility of a defendant testifying against the others "cannot come as a total surprise" to the defense.
Michael Berger, attorney for defendant Tamon Halfin, said the plea deal - which was executed in a courtroom at the Hayward Hall of Justice instead of a county courthouse in Oakland - was "typical of the level of paranoia" for cases involving the bakery. Berger complained that the prosecution was releasing information "on a need-to-know basis."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
GRRRREAT news! Thanks for posting.
I would hazard a guess that this development is causing some distress among his co-defendants. Perhaps even the utterance of some naughty words.
Maybe blood isn’t thicker than water.
I think this guy’s future is going to be about as long as Obama’s would be if he won the Presidency with Hillary was his Veep.
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