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Alleged Victim Testifies In Black Muslim Bakery Torture Case

A woman testified Monday that she was hit so hard in the head with a solid object when she allegedly was attacked by members of the Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland three years ago that she thought she had been shot.

Fighting back tears at times, the woman, identified in court only as Jane Doe 1 because prosecutors want to conceal her identity, said, "I felt like I was shot in the head."

The woman said she and her mother had been kidnapped after they left a bingo parlor in East Oakland about 10:30 p.m. on May 17, 2007, and her abductors put a large bag over her head so she couldn't see them or what they were doing.

She said that after she was struck in the head, "I felt like it was raining on me and I knew it must be blood."

The woman testified in the second week of the trial against Richard Lewis, a 25-year-old former football star at Mission High School in San Francisco who's accused of being one of several Your Black Muslim Bakery members who allegedly kidnapped and tortured the woman and her mother.

Lewis is the first bakery member to stand trial in the case.

Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV and Tamon Halfin, another member, are slated to be prosecuted together at a later date.

But before Bey stands trial in the kidnapping and torture trial he is first scheduled to stand trial in May on three counts of murder for allegedly ordering the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men in Oakland in July and August of 2007.

The woman said she and her mother were driving on Interstate Highway 580 in Oakland after leaving the bingo parlor when a dark car with its emergency lights flashing came up behind them.

She said she pulled to the side of the road because she thought it was a police car. Authorities allege that the vehicle was a decommissioned police cruiser that had been bought at an auction in Antioch.

The woman said she and her mother were then whisked to a house in a different part of Oakland. Authorities say it was at 6826 Avenal Drive.

The woman, who said she was handcuffed in addition to having a bag over her head and body, said she heard "a couple different voices" and one of the men asked her, "Where's Tim's money?"

Under questioning today by prosecutor Chris Lamiero, she said she assumed the man was referring to someone she knew named Tim Crawford.

In his opening statement in the case last week, Lamiero told jurors that the kidnapping was an attempt by Bey IV to get money to help pay down the bakery's debts. He said Bey IV thought the women would know where a drug dealer kept his money.

Two of Bey IV's half brothers, Yusuf Bey V and Joshua Bey, have pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the case in exchange for their testimony against Lewis, Halfin and Bey IV.

Joshua Bey may begin testifying late Tuesday.

Under cross-examination by Lewis's attorney, Patrick Hetrick, the alleged victim admitted Monday that she has bought cocaine from Crawford eight to 10 times for the purpose of re-selling it.

But she adamantly said, "I don't use cocaine."

The woman is expected to conclude her testimony Tuesday morning.

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