Stung by reports of shoddy work in the Chauncey Bailey murder investigation, as well as Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums’ call for an outside agency to take over the case, the Oakland Police Department has decided to fight back. Department spokespeople issued a statement over the weekend, denying allegations that Sergeant Derwin Longmire, who handled the case and has long-standing ties to members of the Yusuf Bey family, did not look into key evidence connecting Yusuf Bey IV to the murder. Earlier, the Chauncey Bailey Project had reported that Longmire did not check Bey’s cell phone records, which would have indicated that a Bailey acquaintance called Bey while he was parked right outside Bailey’s apartment the night before the murder. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the police claim that another cop handling the torture and kidnap case that allegedly implicates the Bey family had those cell phone records, and that the district attorney was fully aware of them. “We hope that reporters covering this story will not jump to conclusions without first understanding accepted police interrogation and investigation procedures,” the statement read.
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