OAKLAND -- A judge told Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV Tuesday that he should hire a new lawyer to represent him in a case in which he and three bakery associates are accused of vandalizing two West Oakland liquor stores on Nov. 23, 2005.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson told Bey, 22, that he should hire someone other than Oakland attorney Lorna Brown, who has represented Bey and his father, the late Yusuf Bey, who founded the bakery in 1968 but died in 2003, for many years because Brown will be busy most of this year in an unrelated death penalty case in San Joaquin County.

Jacobson said it's time for the liquor store vandalism case to go to trial because it's been nearly two-and-a-half years since the alleged acts of vandalism.

"This case is old," he said.

Bey seemed to be upset at the prospect of being represented by someone other than Brown, telling Jacobson, "She (Brown) said she would make herself available" for a trial in the vandalism case.

Bey said, "She understands" that Jacobson wants the case to be tried soon.

Jacobson said, "I'll let her tell me that" (about being available for a trial).

The judge said, "She's telling me that she's not available in 2009. But I'm willing to be persuaded that I have it wrong."

Jacobson ordered Bey and the other three defendants in the case to return to court on April 16 to be arraigned, finalize their legal representation and set a schedule for pretrial motions.

Jacobson also ordered Alameda County's court-appointed-lawyer program to send a lawyer to the hearing so that Bey will have a new lawyer.

Although Brown has represented Bey for many years, she currently is representing him through the court-appointed-lawyer program, as he apparently can no longer afford to pay her himself.

Donald Cunningham, Kahill Raheem and Dyamen Williams are charged with multiple counts of felony vandalism, false imprisonment and hate crimes in connection with the incidents at the New York Market at 3446 Market St. and the San Pablo Liquor Store at 2363 San Pablo Ave.

Initially, a total of eight adult defendants, plus one juvenile, were charged in connection with the incidents.

The hate crime allegations against the defendants stem from allegations that they asked the clerks at the liquor stores why a Muslim-owned business would sell liquor when it's against the teachings of Islam to do so.

Two defendants, Tamon Halfin and another bakery associate, James Watts, pleaded no contest to felony vandalism in 2006 and were sentenced to five years' probation. Charges were dropped against two other defendants because of a lack of evidence.

Brown didn't attend today's hearing. Kevin Taguchi, who represents Cunningham, told Jacobson that Brown got her dates mixed up and thought the hearing was on Monday. Taguchi appeared today on behalf of Bey and Williams in addition to Cunningham, as Williams' attorney, Diego Ortiz, also was absent.

Raheem, 27, will be in another courtroom, that of Judge Eric Labowitz, later today to be sentenced for being found in contempt of court last Friday for refusing to testify against Bey and three other bakery associates, including Halfin, in a separate case in which they're accused of kidnapping and torturing two women in Oakland last May 17.

Raheem refused to acknowledge on Friday that he even knows Bey even though he used to work at the bakery. If he continues to refuse to testify Judge Labowitz could throw him in jail. The preliminary hearing in the kidnapping and torture case is scheduled to resume on May 23.

At the end of the hearing in Jacobson's courtroom today, Raheem, who's out of custody, smiled and nodded at Bey, who's being held in the county jail, and put his right hand to his right ear, apparently to signal that Bey should call him.

Bey, who chewed on gum throughout the hearing, smiled back at Raheem and then was led by bailiffs back into a courthouse holding cell.