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Nirshan Perera
The youngest brother of Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy is asking for leniency, now that the Reddy sex scandal has lost some of its high-profile lustre.
Jayaprakash Lakireddy asked Judge Saundra Armstrong to sentence him to just five months in prison last week, although he is hoping for no sentence at all.
Jayaprakash and his wife Annapurna had pleaded guilty to immigration fraud earlier this year.
He said he had helped his older brother bring Indian girls into the United States for cheap labour and sex by funnelling them through his Berkeley construction company, Jay Construction.
Bali Reddy was sentenced to eight years in prison last June and is serving them in a cushy white-collar prison in the California beach town of San Luis Obispo. Jayaprakash's sentencing, however, has been postponed to September.
In court documents filed last week, his lawyer, Bill Osterhoudt, told Judge Armstrong that Jayaprakash was an outstanding member of the Berkeley community and had a great, positive impact. He formally requested the five-month sentence, in spite of the maximum sixteen-month sentence that accompanies his client's guilty plea.
A normally tight-lipped Jayaprakash also spoke to The Daily Californian, the University of California newspaper, about his predicament.
"I don't think I should get nothing because everybody is [employing illegal immigrants]," he said. "I didn't do s***."
Jayaprakash compared his offence to a minor traffic violation. "I hired them because I saw their social security card -- I didn't care how [the girls] got them," he said.
When asked about the sexual abuse charged against his brother, he replied: "That's his personal business. Why should I care?"
His brassy comments upset dozens of local activists, already livid at what they describe as "kid-glove" treatment of the Reddys.
"I can't believe he said those things!" fumed Marcia Poole, an eyewitness in the Reddy case who has turned into an ardent activist. "It just goes to show you who these people really are."
The Bali Reddy Scandal: The complete coverage
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