New Information on the Death of Journalist Chauncy Bailey

Thomas Peele of the Chauncey Bailey Project reports that, according to a statement taken by the Alameda County District Attorney's office from a confidential informant, Yusuf Bey IV, former leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, bragged about ordering the murder of Bailey in 2007. Bey, who remains uncharged in the killing, has been in jail awaiting trial on unrelated kidnapping and torture charges.

The Chauncey Bailey Project obtained documents that describe several new details of the case:

Bey bragged that the lead detective on the case, Oakland homicide Detective Sgt. Derwin Longmire, was a "sympathizer" of the bakery. According to the confidential informant, Longmire, who has not pursued the charges, has been receiving sexual favors "set up" by Bey.

Shortly before his death, Bailey told a co-worker at the Oakland Post that he had received threatening phone calls from "the Muslims."

Bey is said to be behind Devaughndre Broussard's confession to Bailey's murder, and also his subsequent recanting of that confession, and his plea of not guilty.

Leslie Littleton, a former district director of Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said that Sandra Andrews, another staff member, knew Bey and urged Littleton to write a letter of support for him in the bakery's bankruptcy proceeding. Littleton told investigators that she cut off contact with Bey and Ali Saleem Bey, a former member of the bakery who had also asked Lee's office to intervene.

Christopher Lamiero, the prosecutor trying the only person charged in the case, has said the investigation of Bailey's killing is ongoing. Broussard's trial is set to begin May 19.