Free Republic

OAKLAND — The lead detective assigned to investigate journalist Chauncey Bailey's killing ignored evidence linking Yusuf Bey IV, former leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, to a role in the killing and interfered in two other unrelated felony cases involving Bey IV, according to an investigation by the Chauncey Bailey Project. The Bailey Project's reporting has led to a police internal affairs investigation of that detective, Sgt. Derwin Longmire, and whether his relationship with Bey IV may have compromised the case. Law enforcement officials said the investigation of the Bailey killing is in crisis. If Longmire is charged with administrative...

Former homeowners say they have lost a combined $1.77 million in property and equity to Bey associate and her spouse -- An Antioch real estate broker with ties to Oakland's Bey family and her husband have, since 2003, acquired nearly $2 million worth of East Bay properties through deals tainted with allegations of deceit. The revelations about Esperanza Johnson and Antron Thurman come as authorities scrutinize the extensive real estate dealings of the Bey family, their bankrupt Your Black Muslim Bakery and Johnson's role as the broker for an Oakland woman attempting to buy the bakery's headquarters. Johnson bore four...

Oakland police put the main suspect in the killing of a journalist investigating Your Black Muslim Bakery in an interrogation room with the bakery's leader after the two were arrested, then left them alone and didn't record the conversation, sources close to the case said Friday. The suspect, bakery handyman Devaughndre Broussard, promptly confessed to police after the late-night session Aug. 3 with the bakery's leader, Yusuf Bey IV, said two law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. An attorney for Broussard, 19, called the police tactic highly unusual and said that...