CIR: The Chauncey Bailey Project

Chauncey Bailey Project reporters win McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage

Sarah McHie — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:15:00 -0800

Four reporters associated with the Chauncey Bailey Project will be awarded the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage on Wednesday, March 24, at the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The reporters are Thomas Peele, Josh Richman, Mary Fricker and Bob Butler. The four wrote more than 100 stories about the group, the murder, and the police investigation. Chauncey Bailey was editor of the Oakland Post, who was murdered in 2007 while investigating members of Your Black Muslim Bakery, headquartered in Oakland, California. The four reporters continued to tell the story despite obvious dangers. The award is named after Ralph McGill who was regarded by many as "the conscience of the South" for his editorials challenging racial segregation. Richman and Butler said they were honored and humbled by the award. Peele said, "To win an award that memorializes the work of Ralph McGill is a high honor."

Detective Longmire cleared of misconduct in Chauncey Bailey case

CIR Staff — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:26:48 -0700

The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that Sgt. Derwin Longmire, the Oakland police sergeant who led the investigation into the 2007 slaying of journalist Chauncey Bailey, "has been cleared of internal charges that he compromised the probe to keep the leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery from being implicated." Longmire has been on paid leave for six months as an internal investigation looked into the state attorney general's conclusion that he had mishandled the probe of the Aug. 2, 2007, Bailey slaying. State investigators had found "Longmire's inquiry was 'inexcusably lacking' for allegedly failing to look into bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV's possible role in the killing," the Chronicle reports. Oakland police officials apparently disagreed, and Police Chief Howard Jordan has ordered that he return to duty. Upon returning, he will serve a five-day suspension for minor problems with other homicide cases, the Chronicle reports. Longmire's attorney Michael Rains told the Chronicle that Longmire "always believed that Bey had orchestrated Bailey's killing ... and did nothing to keep him from being charged. Any problems in the case were, at worst, caused by Longmire being 'sloppy and inattentive to detail.'" Reporters at The Chauncey Bailey Project have reported extensively on the ties between Sergeant Longmire and the Bey family, some of whom were suspects in the murder case. An investigation by Thomas Peele, Bob Butler, and Mary Fricker last October found Longmire ignored evidence of Yusuf Bey IV's possible involvement in the Bailey slaying, and that he interfered on behalf of Bey IV in two other felony cases. See the CIR timeline of Longmire's ties to the Bey family and the mounting evidence connecting Bey IV to the Bailey murder here: According to the Chronicle article:

Longmire and Bey IV had known each other for two years before the Bailey killing. Several police investigators interviewed as part of the state probe cited that friendship in faulting the decision to put Longmire on the case. In a memo to [Police Chief Howard] Jordan, acting Capt. Sean Whent, head of the police internal affairs unit, said the state findings showed Longmire "deliberately did an inadequate investigation ... most likely due to a relationship" with Bey. Even Jordan told state investigators in February that given Longmire's friendship with the bakery leader, "I don't see how you can form the conclusion that it's not affecting his ability to investigate the case thoroughly."

The Chauncey Bailey Project wins two ONA awards

CIR Staff — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:34:56 -0700

The Chauncey Bailey Project won two awards at the 2009 Online Journalism Awards event in San Francisco over the weekend. The Project, a collaboration of two dozen news organization that fielded reporters, photographers, journalism students and editors to investigate the 2007 murder of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, won the Knight Award for Public Service and the Investigative Journalism Award in the Small Site Category. “We were all extremely proud to be a part of the Chauncey Bailey Project,” said Robert J. Rosenthal, who served as the Project’s executive editor and is executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR). “It’s especially meaningful to be honored by your peers, and we are proud to be part of the team that investigated this story. We want to thank the Online News Association for shining a light on the importance of quality investigative journalism in America and congratulate everyone who worked so hard to deliver a story with such impact.” The collaboration that grew out of Chauncey Bailey’s tragic death is an example of what a diverse group of journalists can do when they agree to collaborate. Soon after Bailey’s murder, Sandy Close of New America Media, Dori Maynard of the Maynard Institute and Linda Jue of the Society of Professional Journalists gathered the many journalists and media outlets that became the Chauncey Bailey Project. Their collective reporting appeared in more than 20 news outlets throughout the Bay Area over the course of two years and led to multiple charges of conspiracy to kill Bailey, investigations of the Oakland Police Departments handling of the homicide, and the suspension of the lead detective on the case. The judges who awarded The Knight Award for Public Service noted that, “The reporting is good and relentless under what were obviously and literally dangerous circumstances,” and that, “The reporters didn't shy away from exposing both criminals and police. The Chauncey Bailey Project is absolutely exemplary -- a type of investigation that we wish more organizations could pursue. Its role is necessary, the reporting great.” In addition to The Knight Award for Public Service, the Project received a $5,000 cash prize from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. When explaining the best Investigative Journalism, Small Site award, judges stated that the Project was, “A tenacious and precise investigation of an institutional scandal that focuses on the murder of a journalist but explains much more about the community that created the conditions for his death.” The review continues, “…an exceptionally written and presented package….Strong photojournalism and timeline storytelling techniques… Outstanding ongoing effort two years hence.” Lisa Pickoff-White, who joined CIR’s California Watch project in August 2009 as a multimedia producer, won a separate award for her student work at the Graduate School of Journalism at U.C. Berkeley. Pickoff-White won the Student Journalism, Small Team award for It Happens at Midnight. The judges stated, “It's fun, it's entertaining, it's creative… It as a fine example of how to tell an online story in multiple components.” Pickoff-White was also one of more than two dozen U.C. Berkeley Journalism students who worked on the Chauncey Bailey Project. The organizations that took part in the Chauncey Bailey Project were:

The Online Journalism Awards were launched in May 2000. They are administered by the Online News Association, in partnership with the University of Miami's School of Communication. Download

Chauncey Bailey Project a finalist in ONA awards

CIR Staff — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:43:31 -0700

The Online News Association announced finalists for its 2009 Online Journalism Awards this week. The Chauncey Bailey Project, a collaborative multimedia reporting project by CIR, New America Media, The Maynard Institute, and the Bay Area News Group, among others, is a candidate in both the Investigative and the Knight Award for Public Service categories. The awards will be announced at the ONA Conference in San Francisco on October 1-3, 2009.

Two years after Chauncey Bailey's slaying

CIR Staff — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:18:04 -0700

At a shrine for journalist Chauncey Bailey, mourners remember
his slaying two years ago this week.

On August 2, 2007, journalist Chauncey Bailey was gunned down on a sidewalk in Oakland, California. Within weeks a team of reporters and editors coalesced to form The Chauncey Bailey Project, a collaborative effort to continue Bailey's reporting on Your Black Muslim Bakery, a controversial Oakland group, and to investigate the circumstances of his death and the slow-moving police investigation. Two years later, the relentless reporting by the team—led by Thomas Peele, Bob Butler, and Mary Fricker—has produced tangible results. A nine-part series by The Chauncey Bailey Project, published this week, commemorates Bailey's death and reveals new details about his slaying and the motives behind it. >> Read the series online.

Grand jury votes to indict bakery leader in slaying of Oakland journalist

Carrie Ching — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:09:26 -0700

Antoine Mackey, Yusuf Bey IV, and Devaughndre Broussard.

OAKLAND – A grand jury today voted to indict Yusuf Ali Bey IV, the scion of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, for ordering the killings of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men in 2007, authorities familiar with the situation said. Prosecutors are likely to bring the case with special circumstances – allowing them to seek the death penalty against Bey IV, 23. 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 Arelus Mackey, 23, is also to be charged. The indictments are based largely on the testimony of Devaughndre Broussard, 21, Bailey’s admitted killer. The existing charges against him will be amended to include charges for the killing of another man, Odell Roberson, Broussard’s lawyer, LeRue Grim said. Broussard will then plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter, one for each slaying, probably next week, Grim said. He will receive a set sentence of about 25 years in exchange for his admissions and testimony. It was unclear when Bey IV and Mackey will appear in court. 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 and will have to be brought back to Oakland for arraignment. The charges against 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. Longmire was friendly with Bey IV and used him to solicit Broussard’s original confession a day after the killing. The Chauncey Bailey Project reported last year that Longmire didn’t document evidence in his case notes that pointed to Bey IV’s alleged involvement in a conspiracy to kill Bailey. That evidence included a report from a tracking device that showed Bey IV’s car parked outside Bailey’s apartment less than seven hours before the Aug. 2, 2007 killing and a secret jailhouse video, recorded as part of a separate case, on which Bey IV mocked and laughed about Bailey’s death, said he put the shotgun used in the attack in his bedroom closet afterwards, said he played “hella dumb” when questioned, and bragged that Longmire was protecting him from charges. The charges against Bey IV mark the first time in the nearly 40-year history of the former bakery started by his father, Yusuf Bey, that a person associated with it, other than Broussard, faces murder accusations. Authorities, though, have long investigated the organization on suspicion that members killed for retribution and power, dating back decades ago to a forerunner of the organization in Southern California. Members are suspected in the unsolved slayings of at least five other people — husband and wife Wendell and Birdie Mae Scott in 1968; Ronald Alan in 1982; Peter Kaufman in 1986; and Waajid Bey in 2004. 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. Grim, Broussard’s lawyer, describes his client as “a human being seeking redemption” and who regrets his actions. The crime for which he is to plead guilty, voluntary manslaughter, seems not to fit the cold-blooded nature of the killings to which he has admitted. California law defines voluntary manslaughter as “the unlawful killing of a human being … upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.” Broussard said he shot Roberson with an assault rifle as the man stood before him with his hands in the air. An autopsy showed Roberson was hit with about 14 bullets that caused “extensive destruction” to his head, left arm and torso. According to Broussard’s statement to prosecutors that is the basis of the plea, he and Mackey hunted for Bailey and Broussard shot him three times at point black range with a load of buckshot. The third shot, which eviscerated much of Bailey’s face, was fired as the victim lay on the ground dying. Thomas Peele is an investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Reach him at Tpeele@bayareanewsgroup.com. Bob Butler and Mary Fricker are independent journalists who can be reached at bobbutler7@comcast.net and Maryfricker@hughes.net. To learn more about the Chauncey Bailey Project, visit chaunceybaileyproject.org.

Broussard talks to grand jury about Chauncey Bailey killing

CIR Staff — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:08:39 -0700

As Devaughndre Broussard spent hours on Tuesday telling a grand jury details about the killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men, his mother waited outside a closed door and said she still doubts her son pulled the trigger. Broussard’s secret testimony in a sealed courtroom in the basement of the Wiley Manual Courthouse is expected to continue Wednesday morning. >> Read this story and more by The Chauncey Bailey Project.

Broussard’s statement may help police clear two more killings

Carrie Ching — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:32:17 -0700

OAKLAND — On the order of Yusuf Bey IV, Devaughndre Broussard and Antoine Mackey in July 2007 lured a homeless man to a dark corner where he was shot dead after raising his hands over his head, according to a statement Broussard gave prosecutors last month. Broussard also said Mackey admitted to killing another man with an assault rifle and joking about it, describing himself as “Elmer Fudd” on a hunting trip. Broussard, who admitted in the document to killing journalist Chauncey Bailey, is scheduled to describe all three killings to an Alameda County grand jury next week as part of a plea agreement. Prosecutors then expect to charge Bey IV and Mackey with multiple murders. For weeks, Broussard said, Bey IV, then the leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, told him to follow the man, Odell Roberson, in preparation for killing him. The reason, he said, was revenge for the 2005 killing of Bey IV’s brother, Antar Bey, by Roberson’s nephew, Alonza Phillips. On the night of July 8, 2007, Broussard, Mackey and Bey IV were “talking and chopping it up” when Bey IV suddenly gave the order: Roberson’s time was up. Broussard told investigators from the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office that he took Roberson to a dark spot on Herzog Street, where Mackey passed him an assault rifle, according to a transcript of the interview. “I took the safety off and pointed it at him,” Broussard said. “He tried to break. I’m like, stop, then he turned around and put his hands up and I (shot) him. … Then he probably turned and I know I just kept hitting him. … His body hopped off the ground and moved a couple of inches.” Broussard is scheduled to tell a grand jury next week that he killed Roberson and Bailey at Bey IV’s order. He also is to testify that Mackey killed another man, Michael Wills, on July 12, 2007. Bey IV and Mackey are then expected to each be charged with multiple counts of murder. Broussard has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter. In exchange for his testimony, he would receive a prison sentence of about 25 years with a guaranteed release date. Both Broussard’s attorney, LeRue Grim, and deputy district attorney Christopher Lamiero have declined to comment on the testimony or plea agreement, which Broussard signed this week. His testimony comes more than 20 months after police say he shot and killed Bailey near downtown Oakland. He told Lamiero during questioning in preparation for grand jury testimony that Bey IV ordered Bailey killed because the reporter was working on a story about the bakery’s financial problems and internal strife. Bey IV remains uncharged in Bailey’s killing. He is charged with a host of other crimes, including kidnapping and torture, and is jailed without bail and has denied involvement in Bailey’s killing. In addition to detailing the slayings of Bailey and Roberson, Broussard said in the interview that Bey IV kept a “hit list” of people he wanted killed for “revenge, retribution.” Broussard said that Bey IV also told him to be ready to kill others in Phillips’ family in retribution for the slaying of Antar Bey — plans that were still being developed when police raided the bakery Aug. 3, 2007, the day after Bailey was killed. Broussard also told investigators that Mackey told him he shot and killed Wills. Broussard said he was at the bakery and heard shots. Moments later, Mackey and Bey IV rushed in. Broussard said he followed Mackey to his room where Mackey described the killing. “He said the dude tried to run and then he shot him,” Broussard said, adding that Mackey was laughing and described himself as the cartoon character Elmer Fudd out hunting. “I ran over there and I went to look” at where the killing happened a few blocks from the bakery. “Yusuf was like, ‘Go look for yourself.’” Broussard said he dressed in jogging clothes so he could claim he was exercising if police stopped him. As he neared Wills’ body, he said he heard a woman yell, “Somebody killed that boy! Somebody killed that boy!” Wills apparently was a random target chosen because he was white, according to the Broussard’s account. Broussard said Mackey told him he and Bey IV were discussing the 1970 Zebra Killings in San Francisco, in which African-Americans had killed whites, when they saw Wills, a chef who lived nearby, who was walking home from a convenience store after finishing work. A few days later, Broussard said Bey IV “said we got a devil. … He was cocky like.” Both Bey IV and his late father, bakery founder Yusuf Bey, have often referred to whites as “devils” while preaching. In telephone calls recorded from the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and obtained by the Chauncey Bailey Project, Bey IV often makes similar statements, referring to “white and Jew devils” and “media devils” he claims are trying to destroy him.

Additional murder charges imminent in journalist Chauncey Bailey’s killing

Carrie Ching — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:55:52 -0700

OAKLAND—Murder charges are imminent against former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV and another man in the August 2007 killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey under a plea deal reached with the only person arrested in the case, law enforcement and other sources said Wednesday night. Devaughndre Broussard, who confessed to killing Bailey and later recanted, has signed an agreement to testify that Bey IV ordered the hit to silence the journalist and that Antoine Mackey, another of Bey IV followers, helped carry it out. Bey IV and Mackey would face murder charges if indicted by a grand jury. Charges in two other killings in July 2007 that police long have suspected bakery members committed also are likely. Broussard will admit to killing Odell Roberson and testify that Mackey shot and killed another man, Michael Wills. Both Roberson and Wills were slain in July of 2007 near San Pablo Avenue in North Oakland. Grand jury testimony is scheduled for next week, followed by indictments of Bey and Mackey. In exchange for testimony, Broussard would plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter and receive a set sentence of between 20 and 30 years, officials said. Broussard would also admit to killing Roberson at Bey IV’s order. Roberson was the uncle of Alonza Phillips, who was convicted of killing Bey IV’s older brother, Antar Bey, in 2005. Bey IV is jailed without bail on a host of unrelated charges, including kidnapping and torture. Mackey, who San Francisco police suspect was involved in multiple unsolved gang killings, is serving an unrelated burglary charge in state prison and could be released within a year. Deputy District Attorney Christopher Lamiero said he could not confirm any details Wednesday night. “We are very close to a point where we are going to be able to hold accountable all of those responsible for Bailey’s murder,” he said. He declined to say anything further. LaRue J. Grim, Broussard’s lawyer, only would say he expected significant developments in the case to happen quickly. “It’s hard, very hard” to potentially not take the case to trial, he said, adding that Broussard has “expressed remorse” over his actions, and that makes a deal more palatable. Legal experts said it makes sense for District Attorney Thomas Orloff to approve a deal that would result in additional charges in Bailey’s death as well as clear other killings. “Nailing this thing shut is worth dealing with Broussard,” said Peter Keane, Golden Gate University Law School dean emeritus, recently, speaking of a possible agreement. “It would be a righteous deal.” Former Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell called it “a hell of a deal. The (district attorney) got everything that he could possibly get and maybe more. He solves three murders, he gets Mackey, and he gets the alleged mastermind, Bey IV.” Bailey’s sister, Lorelei Waqia, said she was thankful additional charges could be filed soon. “At least we’re getting to the truth, and I think that’s important that everybody that’s involved has to pay the piper,” she said late Wednesday. Lamiero has been leading an aggressive investigation of Bailey’s killing in the wake of a bungled Oakland police investigation of the slaying. The lead detective in case, Sgt. Derwin Longmire, is close to being fired after an investigation found he compromised the handling of the Bailey inquiry. Longmire was put on paid administrative leave Monday. Bey IV has been recorded bragging Longmire was protecting him from charges. A confidential informant told investigators Bey IV was overheard in jail describing Longmire as bakery sympathizer. Longmire and Bey IV spoke at least twice on the phone last year while Bey was being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on kidnapping and torture charges. The Chauncey Bailey Project reported last year Longmire failed to document in his case notes evidence of a conspiracy involving Bey to kill Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post. A masked man shot Bailey three times with a sawed-off shotgun at 7:24 a.m. Aug. 2, 2007. Broussard confessed the next day, saying he killed the journalist “because he was going to write bad things about the bakery” and Bey IV. From the beginning, it was clear Broussard didn’t act alone. He, Bey IV and Mackey stalked Bailey less than seven hours before the killing, parking near his Lake Merritt apartment. The next morning witnesses told police that they saw another man driving the white van in which Broussard fled the killing scene. Mackey has long been suspected of being the driver. Broussard was arrested during an Aug. 3, 2007, raid of the bakery. He at first denied involvement. Longmire then left Broussard and Bey IV alone for seven minutes and did not record the conversation. Broussard then confessed. A few days later, police secretly video taped Bey IV and two co-defendants in an unrelated kidnapping and torture case. Bey mocked Bailey’s killing, laughing and throwing his head back and saying, “That fool said pow, pow, poof!” to imitate the fatal shots.

Chauncey Bailey case investigator suspended

CIR Staff — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:32:56 -0700

The Chauncey Bailey project reported today that 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. A timeline produced by the Center for Investigative Reporting last fall chronicles Longmire's involvement with members of Your Black Muslim Bakery: From the article:

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 that 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. Broussard is the only person charged in Bailey’s death. Broussard confessed that he killed Bailey to stop him from “writing bad things about the bakery” and Bey IV, but he has since recanted. His trial is scheduled for next month.

>> Read the full article. >> View the full timeline of Sgt. Derwin Longmire's involvement with members of Your Black Muslim Bakery.

Bakery Leader Bragged He Ordered Killing of Oakland Journalist

Carrie Ching — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:19:29 -0800

Former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV bragged in jail about ordering the killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey in 2007 because Bailey had financial information that Bey IV "didn't want to get out," according to a statement taken by investigators late last year. Bey IV said he had to "sacrifice a soldier" to "take out" the Oakland Post editor to protect the bakery, according to the statement taken by the Alameda County District Attorney's office from a confidential informant. Bey IV remains uncharged in the Aug. 2, 2007 killing of Bailey; he is jailed awaiting trial on unrelated kidnapping and torture charges. This and other documents obtained Wednesday by The Chauncey Bailey Project add these new details to the case: – Bey IV bragged that Oakland homicide Detective Sgt. Derwin Longmire, the lead detective in the Bailey case, was a "sympathizer" of the bakery who was not pursuing charges against him and was receiving sexual favors set up by Bey IV, according to the confidential informant. Reached Wednesday night, Longmire said that police department policy banned him from commenting. He referred questions to his attorney, Michael Rains, who did not return a phone call Wednesday night. – Bailey told a co-worker at the Oakland Post shortly before his death that "the Muslims" had been making "threats on his life" in phone calls. This statement came from Nisiyah Yahudah, who was once married to bakery founder Yusuf Bey. – Devaughndre Broussard confessed to killing Bailey to stop him from "writing bad things" about the bakery. He then recanted and pleaded not guilty. In the statement from the informant about Bey IV, Bey IV is said to have claimed that he ordered Broussard to recant "so the confession would 'lose credibility at trial.'" Longmire left Bey IV and Broussard alone in a police interrogation room for about six minutes — without recording their conversation — immediately after which Broussard confessed. Before the time with Bey IV, he had denied the killing. – District attorney investigators interviewed a former district director of Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who told them Bey IV and his entourage were showing up so often at Lee's Oakland office in 2007 that she had to tell him to not come without an appointment. Leslie Littleton, the former director who now works for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, said that Sandra Andrews, another staff member, knew Bey IV, describing him as "like a son to her" and urged Littleton to write a letter of support for Bey IV in the bakery's bankruptcy proceeding. – Ali Saleem Bey, a former member of the bakery, also was asking Lee's office to intervene against Bey IV in the bankruptcy case. Littleton told investigators that she cut off contact with both parties. Julie Nickson, Lee's chief of staff, said that Lee could not comment because of the ongoing investigation of Bailey killing. How much weight the district attorney's office is giving these statements is unclear. Nancy O'Malley in the District Attorney's Office declined to comment Wednesday night. Christopher Lamiero, the prosecutor trying the only person charged in the case, could not be reached. Bey IV has made other incriminating statements about the Bailey killing, as documented by the Chauncey Bailey Project. A bakery worker also told police in 2007 that Bey IV watched a television news report on the killing and boasted that the slaying would "teach them to (expletive) with us." After a brief court appearance by Broussard last month, where his trial was set to begin May 19, Lamiero said the investigation of Bailey's killing remained ongoing. The state justice department and police internal affairs division are investigating Longmire's handling of the case and the oversight of his then-supervisors, Lt. Ersie Joyner and former Capt. Jeffrey Loman. Longmire and Joyner were transferred to patrol this year, a move that police said was routine. Loman is suspended with pay pending the outcome of an unrelated sexual harassment investigation. Oakland Tribune reporters Kelly Rayburn and Paul Rosynsky and independent journalist Bob Butler contributed to this story.

Chauncey Bailey Project featured in New York Times

CIR Staff — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:59:42 -0800

The investigative prowess of reporters and editors working on The Chauncey Bailey Project was applauded by The New York Times:

[The Project] has had a deep impact on the city’s public life, revealing a jailhouse videotape that suggested a wider conspiracy in the murder and which the police seemingly ignored, and helping force the resignation of the Oakland police chief, Wayne Tucker. The group has said that much of its work is done, but it says it will not shutter the operation completely until the investigation of Yusuf Bey IV, a son of the founder of the bakery, has been completed.

Congratulations to reporters Tom Peele, Mary Fricker, and Bob Butler, and the many others who have contributed to the project.

FBI Investigating Oakland Police Department

Carrie Ching — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:20:40 -0800

SPECIAL FEATURES
• FBI Investigating Oakland Police Department

• Documents say Oakland police beat suspect who died

• Video: John Sasaki reports on FBI investigation into Oakland police misconduct

OAKLAND – The FBI is investigating allegations that the head of the Oakland Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division nearly nine years ago beat a drug suspect who later died and then ordered subordinate officers to lie about it, according to police sources, some of whom federal agents have recently interviewed. The beating allegations are just one aspect of a wide-ranging FBI probe, covering many of the department’s recent high profile problems, including the handling of the 2007 slaying of journalist Chauncey Bailey, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of workplace reprisals. Capt. Edward I. Poulson, who heads Internal Affairs, was suspended by the department Thursday. Poulson, of Danville, did not return messages Thursday. Police Chief Wayne Tucker refused requests for an interview. In a written statement released Thursday night, Tucker said the department was cooperating with the FBI. The FBI is investigating allegations that Poulson, working with an undercover team in April, 2000 kicked a drug suspect, breaking his ribs, the sources said. The suspect, Jerry Amaro, died about a month later of pneumonia caused by broken ribs and a collapsed lung, according to police documents. Before Amaro died he told several people about the incident, according to police reports. Internal Affairs investigators at the time found that Poulson ordered subordinate officers to lie about his involvement, and they called for his firing, according to the sources. Then-Police Chief Richard Word instead suspended Poulson for two weeks. No charges were brought in Amaro’s death following a homicide investigation, the sources said. During that investigation, officers who arrested Amaro said they saw no use of force as he was captured, according to homicide case notes obtained by the Chauncey Bailey Project. But during a subsequent Internal Affairs investigation, the same officers said Poulson ordered them to protect him, according to an officer familiar with their statements. It was those statements that that led to administrative charges against Poulson and the two-week suspension. Officers with knowledge of the matter said colleagues were angry that a member of the command staff who had been punished for interfering in an Internal Affairs investigation was later put in charge of Internal Affairs, and they alerted the FBI. Two senior members of the department said Thursday that Tucker had been advised last year not to put Poulson in charge of Internal Affairs becasue of the Amaro case. The investigation of Poulson comes as the Internal Affairs Division remains under the oversight of U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson and a team of independent monitors under the Negotiated Settlement Agreement reached following the infamous Riders corruption case in 2001. The U.S. Attorney for Northern California, Joseph Russanello, said Thursday he couldn’t confirm nor deny the investigation, adding that the only confirmation could come from people FBI agents interviewed. Mayor Ronald Dellums was returning from inauguration festivities in Washington and could not be reached on Thursday. A former federal officer with knowledge of the matter said two teams of agents are conducting the investigation – one concentrating on possible civil rights violations and the other on public corruption. Two police officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday FBI agents have interviewed them in recent days about the Amero’s arrest and death, and a raft of other incidents that include:

• The department’s handling of Bailey’s Aug. 2, 2007 slaying, for which police arrested only one person on murder charges. The Chauncey Bailey Project reported in October that the lead detective in the case, Sgt. Derwin Longmire, failed to document in his case notes evidence of a conspiracy pointing to former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV’s involvement in the killing. • The recent scandal involving the falsification of search warrants. Department leaders last week notified 11 officers of their intention to fire them. Another officer was fired last month. • A whistle-blower complaint that police Lt. Lawrence Green filed last month alleging that Tucker squashed a rank-and-file vote of no-confidence in his administration by promoting then police union president, officer Robert Valladon, to "acting sergeant," a move that increased Valladon’s pay and boosted his eligibility for a higher pension. • Allegations that former City Administrator Deborah Edgerly’s last year leaked news of a pending drug raid to a nephew who was a gang member. • The conduct of Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Loman who is accused of sexually harassing a subordinate female officer and is also being investigated for his supervision of Longmire’s work in the Bailey case.

The FBI probe comes nearly three months after Dellums requested the state Justice Department conduct a parallel investigation of an internal affairs probe of how the Bailey case was handled. Since then, the department fired officers in the warrant-falsification scandal, sexual harassment charges were filed against Loman, and Green filed the whistle-blower complaint about Tucker and Valladon. In the statement he issued Thursday night, Tucker urged Oakland residents "not to allow recent allegations misconduct to overshadow the successful policing efforts achieved by" the department. City council members provided a harsher view. "We are in chaos and no end in sight to some of the problems we are facing here when it comes to the police department," City Council member Ignacio de la Fuente, a frequent department critic, said Thursday. Council President Jane Brunner said Poulson’s record should have been considered. "The lead Internal Affairs investigator should have been vetted," Brunner said. "It’s like in Congress and the person who is leading the ethics commission, you need to vet the people doing Internal Affairs to the point that they need to be squeaky clean." Oakland Tribune reporter Kamika Dunlap and Roland De Wolk, of KTVU-TV, contributed to this report.Thomas Peele is an investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Bob Butler is an independent journalist. Reach them at Tpeele@bayareanewsgroup.com and Bobbutler7@comcast.net.

Delayed raid likely cost Chauncey Bailey his life

Carrie Ching — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:59:51 -0800

OAKLAND — The August 2007 raid on Your Black Muslim Bakery was postponed 48 hours to accommodate the vacation schedules of two senior SWAT commanders, a delay that likely cost journalist Chauncey Bailey his life, according to police sources and a lawyer representing an officer deeply involved in planning the raid. During the delay between the first scheduled date, Aug. 1, and the raid Aug. 3, a masked gunman killed Bailey — a slaying in which authorities believe bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV was involved. Officers familiar with the raid's planning and execution say Bailey's killing could have been prevented if not for the delay. While police did not know Bailey was being targeted, they strongly suspected bakery members had begun a killing spree that had resulted in two July 2007 deaths and described the need for the raid as paramount. Police have for 15 months denied delaying the raid. "I was never given any other date" other than Aug. 3, Assistant Chief Howard Jordon told Bay Area News Group-East Bay in October 2007. On Monday, police Chief Wayne Tucker made varying statements about the matter in an interview with the Chauncey Bailey Project. First, Tucker said there was no delay, then he said the decision to delay the raid from Aug. 1 to Aug. 3 was because "we were not ready. "... It was my decision and mine only to delay." Then Tucker contracted further, saying, "It was never scheduled to go on the 1st. My staff may have wanted to go on the 1st. I didn't want to go on the 1st. And I made the decision based on what my comfort level was and my assurance that it was going to be successful." Questions about the delay were "call(ing) my reputation into question," he said. Four officers involved in the raid and two other senior members of Alameda County law enforcement confirmed the first scheduled date of Aug. 1, and said it was delayed because two senior SWAT commanders, Deputy Chief David Kozicki and Capt. Ed Tracey, were on a backpacking trip, and they wanted to be present. Kozicki and Tracey did not respond to messages Monday or attend Tucker's brief interview at police headquarters. Michael Rains, an attorney representing another officer involved in the raid planning, said his client, homicide Lt. Ersie Joyner III, knew of the delay, and objected to it. "A decision was made to delay and put off the (raid) and the service of the search warrants to Aug. 3," Rains said. That postponement came "over (Joyner's) very strong statements. He was prophetic" that Bey IV would order more killings, Rains said. Rains is representing Joyner and detective Sgt. Derwin Longmire in an internal affairs and state Department of Justice investigations into the handling of the Bailey case. A former Oakland lieutenant who was a watch commander in 2007 about the time of the raid said the delay was unfortunate but not intentional. "There was no violation of protocol, there was just an unfortunate set of circumstances. So just own up to that," said retired Lt. Patrick Garrahan. In midsummer 2007, police believed bakery members were responsible for two North Oakland gun killings: Odell Roberson on July 8, 2007, and Michael Wills four days later. On July 25, at the urging of Joyner and homicide Sgt. Lou Cruz, the police Targeted Enforcement Task Force began night surveillance of Bey IV. After several nights of watching the bakery, the raid was scheduled for Aug. 1, officers said. The idea was to hit the compound to search for evidence in the Wills and Roberson cases — which remain unsolved — and a May 2007 kidnapping for which Bey IV and three followers face life sentences if convicted. On Monday, July 30, 2007, SWAT teams drilled at the Oakland Army Base in preparation for raiding the bakery less than 48 hours later. They practiced storming buildings and ripping through doors with a chain saw to gain entry. But then, officers said, they were ordered to stand down. The raid was pushed back two days — to Friday, Aug. 3, because Kozicki and Tracey had been on a backpacking trip and wanted to participate, according to Rains and police sources. Police on July 30 rented two U-Haul trucks to carry a strike force to the bakery from a staging area several blocks away. They tried to extend the rental agreement on the vehicles, but were turned down and had to hurriedly rent other trucks from the Penske company to use Aug. 3, officers said. Credit card slips and rental agreements obtained from the city under the public records act confirm the transactions. The four officers said that the nature of SWAT operations requires a constant state of readiness and the ability to react with little notice. There were more than enough senior officers available to supervise the operation Aug. 1, they said, even though the risks were thought to be high. "Based on the (intelligence) we received we knew that it was going be rough," said one SWAT officer. "We expected to take some casualties on this." We were doing a final run-through at the Oakland Army Base on Monday to prepare for Wednesday's raid when word came down that we had to wait until Friday when Kozicki and Tracey got back." Because of the delay, the officers assigned to watching Bey IV stood down in the early morning hours of Aug. 1. The officers had been working double shifts, were exhausted, and were needed for the raid, rescheduled for Aug. 3, said police sources. On Aug. 2, shortly after midnight, Bey IV and two of his followers, Antoine Mackey and Devaughndre Broussard drove from the bakery to Bailey's apartment near Lake Merritt and parked there for 14 minutes, according to a tracking device on Bey IV's car and police statements. Police also have a recorded statement of a bakery worker saying Bey IV was highly agitated Aug. 1. The person also is said to have told police that Bey IV prayed for strength with Mackey and Broussard. A man who lived at the bakery told police he loaned Bey IV a white minivan without license plates about 6 a.m. Aug. 2. Bailey was gunned down about 90 minutes later near downtown. Witnesses told police they saw the masked killer flee in a white minivan without license plates. The bakery worker who spoke to police said Bey IV said of Bailey's killing "that will teach them to (expletive) with me." The next morning, Aug. 3, 200 officers raided the bakery compound on San Pablo Avenue without incident. Later that day, Broussard confessed to killing Bailey, a statement he has since recanted. But the operation was too late for Bailey. "The police department, they just fumbled everything," said Bailey's sister, Lorelei Waqia. "They caused the death, really. If they had moved on it, my brother would still be alive." Retired Lt. Garrahan said SWAT officers told him "all the coordination had been done; that the reason I kept getting was that this backpacking trip was the reason for the delay." Garrahan retired in April, but keeps in touch with many officers. Many of those officers, he said, are angry that police commanders have never acknowledged the raid delay. "If the guy on the street, the man or woman that's driving around in that police car out there, is held accountable to a standard where you must be honest, you must be truthful, then that should go all the way up the chain of command," he said. Mary Fricker, an independent journalist, also contributed to this report. Thomas Peele is an investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Bob Butler is an independent journalist. Contact them at tpeele@bayareanewsgroup.com, bobbutler7@comcast.net, and maryfricker@hughes.net.

State to participate in examination of Chauncey Bailey case; more evidence ignored

CIR Staff — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:14:58 -0800

Who's in charge of investigating the handling of Chauncey Bailey's murder case? It seems to be a political hot potato, according to a new article from The Chauncey Bailey Project. The California Attorney General's office recently sent a letter to Mayor Ron Dellums declaring that state investigators want to be present when Oakland police internal affairs detectives interview members of their command staff. But the Attorney General's office will not take over the entire investigation, which according to the letter, is what Oakland internal affairs investigators requested. The Oakland police being investigated by internal affairs include Detective Sgt. Derwin Longmire, the lead investigator of Bailey's killing; his boss, homicide unit Lt. Ersie Joyner; and Deputy Chief Jeffrey Loman. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle this week also added more details about police blunders in the Bailey murder case. An eye-witness account of the actions and statements of Your Black Muslim Bakery's leader Yusuf Bey IV immediately before and after Bailey's shooting on August 2, 2007, apparently was put in a different case file. The eye-witness report surfaced two months ago when a prosecutor found it by chance after requesting access to the other file. The Chauncey Bailey Project reported that police ignored several key pieces of evidence, including this eye-witness account, in an October 25 story:

The Bailey Project has also learned that police have a statement from another bakery associate who said Bey IV called a meeting the night before the killing. He ordered his followers to pray for strength, said two police officers knowledgeable of the statement. The bakery associate told police that Bey IV, Mackey and Broussard also prayed together separately and complained that they had to wake at 5 a.m. the next day. After the killing, there was a mood of celebration at the bakery, the associate told police. Officers asked that the person’s name not be revealed, saying disclosure could endanger the person’s life.

The Chronicle provided further details this week:

... A woman who worked at the black self-empowerment organization on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland had told police that bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV was in a celebratory mood at the news of Bailey's slaying on Aug. 2, 2007. "That will teach 'em to f- with me," she quoted Bey as saying. The woman also related how Bey was "not happy" with Bailey's reporting on the bakery's financial collapse, and said she had overheard a telephone conversation in which Bey and another man apparently were "scoping out" Bailey's whereabouts the day before the Oakland Post editor was shot to death on a downtown Oakland street. Hours before the killing, she said, Bey awoke at 5 a.m. to pray.

Oakland police admitted to the blunder Monday. Deputy Chief Jeff Israel told the Chronicle that Sergeant Derwin Longmire, the lead detective investigating Bailey's murder, had been notified of the eye-witness account, but the detectives involved later decided the statement was not relevant to Bailey's case. "We definitely made a mistake here, no question," Israel told the Chronicle. "It's very troubling ... After I've listened to the interview, it was obviously relevant."

Overseas Press Club concerned by 'muddled investigation' of Bailey's murder

CIR Staff — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:32:43 -0800

The Overseas Press Club sent a letter to the California Attorney General in support of a re-investigation of Chauncey Bailey's murder:

November 17, 2008 Hon. Edmund G. Brown Attorney General California Department of Justice P.O. Box 944255 Sacramento, CA 94244 Attn: Public Inquiry Unit Dear Mr. Attorney General: The Overseas Press Club of America, a world-wide organization of six hundred international correspondents and editors, has been defending the rights of journalists around the world for nearly seven decades. It is rare that we find it necessary to speak out for freedom of the press in the United States. But the case of Chauncey Bailey, murdered editor of the Oakland Post, demands that we join the voices of so many others in calling for a fresh investigation of his murder. Now that you have agreed to open an investigation, as has the Alameda County District Attorney, we hope that this case can finally be resolved. The Oakland police and the detective in charge of the investigation, Sargeant Longmire, have so muddled the investigation, shown favoritism and failed to bring out basic evidence that the case built up against Devaughndre Broussard seems unlikely to stand up in court. Sargeant Longmire had an association with Yusuf Bey IV, Broussard’s employer and head of the now-defunct, Your Black Muslim Bakery. Bey has a long criminal record and is now under arrest for a kidnapping. Within hours of the murder, Sgt. Longmire had decided to charge Broussard without bothering to follow up several important leads. Two years earlier, he had interfered on Bey’s behalf in two criminal investigations being conducted by other officers. Presumably, you are far more familiar with these and many other details than we are. Our concern arises because a journalist has been silenced by murder. Bailey, as you know, had been investigating the Your Black Muslin Bakery. We note that Paul Cobb, publisher of the Post Newspaper Group, has since reported threats on his life. Some employees at the Oakland Post have quit for fear of violence, advertising is drying up and the paper itself may become a second victim of the assassination. Murder is a common way of silencing journalists in some other countries but is fortunately rare in the United States. Chauncey Bailey’s case should not become an example of how to silence the press here. The mayor of Oakland has ordered a new investigation and at the same time requested your intervention. The mayor and others clearly believe, as we do, that this case should be investigated anew by an organization with the powers and prestige of your office. We ask for the courtesy of an early reply. Very truly yours, Jeremy Main Kevin McDermott Freedom of the Press Committee

Reinvestigating the Bailey case

CIR Staff — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:10:23 -0800

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international organization that defends journalists worldwide, issued a statement today in support of the decision by California authorities to reinvestigate the Chauncey Bailey murder case: From the CPJ website:

Bailey slaying to be investigated anew New York, November 4, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the decision by California authorities to undertake additional investigations into the August 2007 murder of U.S. editor Chauncey Bailey. The move follows a lengthy report by a consortium of San Francisco Bay-area news organizations and journalists known as the Chauncey Bailey Project. In an October 25 report, the group outlined alleged police irregularities in the investigation; other questions were raised earlier this year by the CBS News program "60 Minutes." The alleged irregularities include a failure to pursue evidence that the murder was the product of a conspiracy. To date, one suspect has been charged in the crime. In a lengthy statement released on Saturday in response to the Chauncey Bailey Project report, Oakland police said the investigation has been handled appropriately. But the statement, authorized by Assistant Chief Howard Jordan, confirms several facts reported by the Chauncey Bailey Project. The Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff told journalists last week that he would take the unusual step of assigning his own investigators to examine the case. On Thursday, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums asked California Attorney General Jerry Brown to open another investigation into the murder. "It is imperative that an investigative agency outside the city also conduct an investigation," he wrote in an October 30 letter to Brown. Dellums told journalists he was making the request in response to the report by the Chauncey Bailey Project. "We welcome the additional investigations into the slaying of our colleague Chauncey Bailey," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "The report put together by Bay-area journalists raises a number of very important and troubling questions that must be resolved." Bailey was killed three blocks from his office by a masked person firing a shotgun. At the time, the journalist was investigating the financial dealings of Your Black Muslim Bakery, a local business that was associated with criminal activities, according to one of his sources, Saleem Bey, who later appeared on "60 Minutes." Witnesses said they saw a driver waiting in a white getaway van at the time of the murder, according to the Chauncey Bailey Project. Hours after the shooting, police analyzing shotgun shells found at the scene discovered the same weapon was suspected in a separate shooting linked to the bakery, according to the Chauncey Bailey Project. Oakland police confirmed in their statement Saturday that bakery associates were considered murder suspects within 24 hours of Bailey's slaying. Early on the morning after the killing, Oakland police raided the bakery and made several arrests on unrelated charges involving the kidnapping and torture of two women. Detectives began to question those suspects about the Bailey murder. The lead detective, Sgt. Derwin Longmire, has had a long association with the proprietor of the bakery, Yusuf Bey IV, who is indicted on a series of unrelated felony charges. Assistant Chief Jordan told Anderson Cooper of "60 Minutes" in February that he was aware of Sgt. Longmire's longtime relationship with the suspect Yusuf Bey IV. Jordan said it was "unusual, but not unethical" for the sergeant to be assigned to the murder case. Longmire did not respond to requests for an interview, according to the Chauncey Bailey Project. He did not immediately return a message left by CPJ seeking comment. The Oakland Police Department statement defended Longmire's handling of the case, saying that he properly pursued evidence and leads. After police raided the bakery, Longmire put two of those arrested--Bey and bakery employee Devaughndre Broussard--together in an interrogation room by themselves, according to "60 Minutes." Oakland police did not record their subsequent conversation. Assistant Chief Jordan told "60 Minutes" that "in a perfect world" the conversation "should have" been recorded. Broussard told "60 Minutes" that Bey pressured him to take responsibility for the murder during their conversation in the interrogation room. After the conversation, Broussard confessed to Bailey's murder, saying he had acted as a lone gunman. Broussard's statement to police was widely reported, but he later recanted after speaking with a lawyer. Broussard told "60 Minutes" that he was innocent, but that he knew who killed Bailey and that he would reveal this information at his own trial. The Chauncey Bailey Project report raises questions about a tracking device as well. Police investigating alleged crimes unrelated to the Bailey murder had placed the device on Bey's car prior to the murder. Data from the device shows Bey's car being parked outside Bailey's apartment building seven hours before his murder, according to the Chauncey Bailey Project. Police sources told the group that Bey, Broussard, and a third man--bakery employee Antoine Mackey--were in the vehicle at the time. Mackey was among those arrested during the raid of the bakery. The report from the Chauncey Bailey Project also questions whether Bey's cell phone records were analyzed. The Oakland police statement said that Sgt. Longmire sought the cell phone records in two search warrants, but that he had to wait for the cellular company to provide the records. The records have since been delivered to the Office of the Alameda district attorney. The Chauncey Bailey Project, which said it independently obtained the cell phone records, reported that Bey was involved in a series of calls within minutes of the killing, including one to Mackay. Mackay, according to the Chauncey Bailey Project, is currently incarcerated on an unrelated burglary. He has not commented publicly. Also in its report, the Chauncey Bailey Project questions whether Oakland police followed up on a video of Bey speaking with two other men in an interrogation room at the San Leandro Police Department. The video, posted on the Web site of the Chauncey Bailey Project, has the imprint of the San Leandro Police Department including the date and time of recording. Much of the dialogue is difficult to understand, although the Chauncey Bailey Project enhanced the recording. Several key parts of the recorded video are clear. San Francisco Bay-area media outlets have broadcast the video. The video shows Bey telling associates in the interrogation room that he put the gun used to kill Bailey in his closet after the shooting. On the video, Bey mocked the fatal blast to the journalist's head and boasted that Sgt. Longmire was protecting him from being charged. Bey also is heard saying that he and Longmire decided to blame Broussard alone for the murder. The other suspects in the room are Bey's brother, Joshua, and Tamon Halfin, both of whom are associated with the bakery, according to the project. Police in the San Leandro Police Department recorded their conversation as part of their investigation in the kidnapping and torture case, according to the Chauncey Bailey Project. Once detectives saw that the recording included dialogue related to the Bailey murder, they turned over the tape over to homicide detectives. While disputing several specific charges by the Chauncey Bailey Project, the Oakland police statement does not address why no other suspect besides the alleged gunman has been charged. Neither does the statement address the San Leandro police video. Asked by CPJ if Oakland police had any comment about the video, Public Information Officer Jeff Thomason said: "We're letting the statement speak for itself. We're not going to comment further." Bey was asked by police on June 11, 2008, about the video, according to the Chauncey Bailey Project. He said he was trying to mislead police by making up stories, and he denied having any role in the Bailey murder.

Evidence Ignored in Chauncey Bailey Murder Case: A Timeline

Carrie Ching — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:08:31 -0700

An investigation by The Chauncey Bailey Project has found that Sgt. Derwin Longmire, the lead detective assigned to investigate Chauncey Bailey's slaying, is a supporter of Your Black Muslim Bakery and has failed to document that he has analyzed evidence of the bakery CEO's possible involvement in the murder. The detective has also interfered for bakery CEO Yusuf Bey IV in two other felony cases, according to the Project's investigation. >> Read the full story that ran in the Oakland Tribune and other outlets: EVIDENCE IGNORED IN CHAUNCEY BAILEY MURDER CASE By Thomas Peele, Bob Butler, and Mary Fricker >> Click image to View timeline:

AJR features Chauncey Bailey Project

Rhyen Coombs — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:30:29 -0700

The American Journalism Review features the Chauncey Bailey Project in its August/September issue, with senior writer Sherry Ricchiardi calling it "the biggest journalistic show of force since 1976." From AJR:

During the past 10 months, media professionals in the Bay Area have taken collaborative journalism to new heights as they produced more than 140 stories related to Your Black Muslim Bakery and Bailey's assassination. It's the biggest journalistic show of force since 1976, when reporter Don Bolles' car was blown up by a bomb while he was investigating organized crime in Phoenix. Journalists from all over the country gathered to continue Bolles' work under the banner of the Arizona Project. At the first anniversary of Bailey's death, reporters continue to peel away layers of intrigue about a Bay Area crime family that for years confounded Oakland police and city officials. Leadership of Your Black Muslim Bakery, founded by Yusuf Ali Bey in 1971, has been implicated in such crimes as torture, murder and child rape. As the project broke important stories, a one-for-all-and-all-for-one mentality took hold among the core group of reporters and news managers. "We're competitive with each other until something like this befalls one of us," says [Oakland Tribune reporter Josh] Richman, who has devoted large blocks of time to the investigation. "Then we work as a team to get to the truth."

More recent news on the Chauncey Bailey Project: >The National Association of Black Journalists has honored the project with its Best Practices Award, reports the Oakland Tribune:

"It is horrendous when a journalist is killed for reporting on a story that needs to be told," said Barbara Ciara, president of the association. "This is really something that deserves to be honored, so it was an easy decision."

>The trial of Devaundre Broussard, the bakery handyman charged with murder in the 2007 slaying who since recanted, has been postponed. From the Oakland Tribune:

Judge C. Don Clay granted the delay to allow Broussard's attorney, LeRue Grim, more time to review evidence in the case. Clay set Sept. 19 for a hearing to set a trial date.

According to Grim, the secret police video released by the Chauncey Bailey Project on June 18 may exonerate his client. From KCBS:

Grim claims law enforcement videotape shows Devaughndre Broussard was ordered by Yusuf Bey IV, the leader of the now-defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, to falsely confess to Bailey's murder.

Watch the video or share it with others on Vimeo, YouTube or blip.tv. See more stories by the Chauncey Bailey Project.

Secret video raises questions about journalist Chauncey Bailey's killing

CIR Staff — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:58:00 -0700

On August 2, 2007, journalist Chauncey Bailey was gunned down in Oakland, California. Bailey was investigating Your Black Muslim Bakery, a once prominent Oakland African-American organization. The next day, Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV was arrested during a raid for a separate kidnapping case. Police placed Bey and two associates involved in the case, his brother Joshua Bey and Tamon Halfin, in a San Leandro police department room, where they were secretly videotaped. Bey IV has repeatedly told police he knew nothing about Bailey's death. But, on the tape, Bey IV says he hid the gun used in the attack, and brags of playing "hella dumb" when investigators asked him about the killing. Bey IV, 22, hasn't been arrested or charged in connection with Bailey's Aug. 2 slaying. Oakland Police have charged only one of his associates, Devaughndre Broussard, now 20, who claimed, at least initially, that he acted alone. The secret video raises fresh questions about Bey IV's possible role in the crime and why police haven't brought charges against others in the high-profile slaying, according to experts who viewed the tape at the request of the Chauncey Bailey Project. >> Read the article in the Oakland Tribune. Similar stories are also appearing on KTVU, KGO, KQED, New America Media, in the SF Bay Guardian, Contra Costa Times, and other Bay Area News Group publications. >> Listen to CIR Executive Director Robert Rosenthal and reporter Tom Peele discuss The Chauncey Bailey Project on Forum with Michael Krasny. WEB EXTRAS: >> Van owner: I gave the keys to Bey IV One of the key discrepancies in the case revolves around the white van Broussard said he used to get to the scene of the shooting. Documents obtained by The Chauncey Bailey Project raise questions about circumstances surroundingthe van. >> Audio: Chauncey Bailey Project reporter Bob Butler reports on the investigation. Visit The Chauncey Bailey Project website for web exclusives and links to more stories.

Chauncey Bailey Project finds ties to 1968 shootings

Shahien Nasiripour — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:17:56 -0700

Police in Santa Barbara, California, have reopened an investigation into the unsolved 1968 shooting deaths of a couple linked to the late founder of Your Black Muslim Bakery. The couple were members of the same Santa Barbara mosque as the Oakland bakery's founder, Yusuf Ali Bey. Bey died in 2003; his brother, who was the focus of the original police investigation into the killings, now lives in Oakland, California. Police reopened the case after inquiries by The Chauncey Bailey Project, a coalition of Bay Area journalists investigating the assassination of slain Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey. Bailey was killed August 2 while investigating Your Black Muslim Bakery's finances and internal disputes. Police are looking for connections between the 1968 slayings and Bailey's case. >> Read the full article on the Chauncey Bailey Project's website.

The best investigative reporting awarded by IRE

CIR Staff — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:05:02 -0700

The 2007 awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. were announced today. Two awards went to CIR associates: The Chauncey Bailey Project and Loretta Tofani. Tofani reporting was partially funded by CIR's Dick Goldensohn Fund for International Investigative Reporting, and CIR is a media partner in The Chauncey Bailey Project reporting team. The Chauncey Bailey Project received the Tom Renner Award for investigating the slain Oakland Post editor and continuing his reporting on the Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland. The IRE judges commented:

These stories would have been difficult to pursue under any circumstances, but it took extreme dedication to get at the truth following the assassination of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey. In the tradition of the Arizona Project, this coalition of Bay area journalists delved into questionable real estate deals and contracts involving the owners of Your Muslim Bakery in Oakland. The reporters raised questions about the thoroughness of a police investigation into the group before Bailey's murder. They probed the interrogation and confession of Bailey's alleged killer. And they carried on the work that Bailey intended to pursue before his death.

Reporter Loretta Tofani also received an IRE medal, the highest honor bestowed by the organization, for her Salt Lake Tribune series "American imports, Chinese deaths." The judges commented:

This ambitious project shows that the mundane creature comforts of American lives have debilitating and sometimes deadly consequences for the people of China who make them. Freelance reporter Tofani and The Salt Lake Tribune take readers to manufacturing plants where young workers touch and inhale carcinogens without gloves, masks or proper ventilation in order to make cheap products that are shipped to America. Through powerful writing, tenacious investigative reporting in often dangerous situations, Tofani exposes the abuse of Chinese workers while American industry conveniently fails to discover bogus safety audits and fake record keeping. Over 15 months of reporting, freelance reporter Tofani analyzed hundreds of pages of records written in Chinese and gained the trust of workers in a closed society. We are inspired by her determination, impressed with her precision and awed by the compassion she brought to this important work.

Tofani wrote about the twists and turns of her reporting process in a Reporter's Notebook for The Muckraker Blog: "How I got the story." In the essay she explains that becoming a furniture importer gave her access to Chinese factories on a level that she never had as a journalist:

I had only been inside the factory for about 15 minutes. But it was enough. I thanked the sales manager. Once outside, I had trouble swallowing. My throat felt tight. I knew that Chinese oil-based paint contained lead. I began wondering about the workers: Didn't they get lung cancer?

60 Minutes reports on Chauncey Bailey's murder

Carrie Ching — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:14:33 -0800

In a 60 Minutes report, Anderson Cooper looks into the history of Your Black Muslim Bakery and the circumstances surrounding Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey's murder. The report includes footage of bakery members performing a "show of force" military drill and interviews with those involved, including accused gunman Devaughndre Broussard. Broussard tells 60 Minutes he didn't shoot Bailey, and that bakery leader Yusef Bey IV told him he had to "take the fall." >> Watch the 60 Minutes report: "The Murder of Chancey Bailey"

Oakland police officer cracks the case against Your Muslim Bakery leader

CIR Staff — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:52:04 -0800

The latest story by the Chauncey Bailey Project chronicles the methodical investigation by Oakland police officer Jim Saleda, who cracked the case against Black Muslim Bakery patriarch Yusuf Bey for his abuse of women and girls. Also, check out The Chauncey Bailey Project's slick new website, which archives all of the print, audio, and video stories produced so far.

The most dangerous job in journalism

Carrie Ching — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:24:16 -0800

Sometimes the most dangerous stories are the small ones: Local stories on ethnic minorities that get little coverage in the mainstream media. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit "dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide," 11 of the 13 journalists murdered in the United States since 1976 were killed in apparent retaliation for their reporting on ethnic minorities. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle points out that three of those murders happened in the Bay Area. The most recent being the murder of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, who was reporting on the scandals and financial problems at Your Black Muslim Bakery, "a black-owned business and self-empowerment group." Bailey was gunned down in the street in Oakland on August 2, 2007. From the Chronicle story:

"It's exactly that kind of person who covers the local community in a grassroots level who is most vulnerable to these kinds of attacks," said Abi Wright, a spokesperson for the [Committee to Protect Journalists]. She said writers are more at risk than broadcasters. "It's not the leading guy for the leading newspaper in the country. It's the guy who's covering his local community ... they're closer to the story. They don't have the institutional protections from a larger news organization."

According to the article, the other two Bay Area murders were:

Lam Trong Duong, who had written stories in a Vietnamese language newsletter supportive of the communist government of Vietnam, was shot in 1981 near his apartment in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. A group of anti-communist Vietnamese claimed responsibility for the slaying.
Henry Liu, author of a Chinese-language book accusing Taiwanese officials of corruption, was killed in 1984 in his Daly City home by hit men hired by the Taiwanese government.

>> Read "Grassroots ethnic reporting a perilous calling" on SFGate.com. >> Read CPJ's report about journalists killed worldwide in 2007.

Bailey Project exclusive

Will Evans — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:23:34 -0700

The Chauncey Bailey Project reports in the Oakland Tribune today:

Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV denies any role in the killing of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey and other violent crimes linked to the organization, claiming he has been set up by relatives and associates trying to seize the organization's reins. In an exclusive interview Wednesday at Alameda County's Santa Rita county jail in Dublin, where he has been held since Aug. 3, the Bey family scion said it makes no sense for him to be involved in violent crimes of any kind because he was on the verge of getting the bakery business out of bankruptcy. Court records would seem to belie Bey IV's assurances of social civility, as he has amassed at least nine court cases in four counties in just 2 1/2 years.

The Chauncey Bailey Project

Will Evans — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:08:35 -0700

When Chauncey Wendell Bailey Jr., editor of the Oakland Post newspaper, was gunned down August 2, apparently in retaliation for his investigative reporting, journalists throughout the region vowed to join together to continue his work. The result, The Chauncey Bailey Project, has launched. It involves more than two dozen journalists reporting a series of stories on the activities of Your Black Muslim Bakery, which Bailey was investigating at the time of his death. A handyman for the bakery originally cofessed to Bailey's murder, though he later recanted and implicated the bakery CEO. One of the project's first stories pursues the question: "Did cops drag feet on bakery probe?" It reveals that police had clues linking members of the bakery to the torture of a woman in East Oakland nearly three months before they raided the bakery and arrested its leaders. The raid came one day after Bailey was shot. The project also reports on the struggles of the African-American newspaper where Bailey worked, and its publisher's refusal to share information about Bailey's reporting. The unusual collaboration of journalists on this investigation recalls the Arizona Project, which formed in response to the 1976 murder of Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles. Reporters from around the country descended on Arizona to investigate organized crime. Both the Arizona and Chauncey Bailey projects show that killing a reporter won't stop the press.