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Case chronology

Contra Costa Times/February 10, 2008

1968: Nora Bey, then 14, runs away from home to live with several Black Muslims, including Yusuf Bey. In sworn testimony, Nora Bey will later claim that Yusuf Bey soon began beating her, forcing her to have sex with him, making her work long hours at his family's bakery without pay and refusing to let her go to school. Nora Bey, whose birth name is Esperanza Johnson, has more recently been linked to allegations of real estate fraud using the Johnson name.

1975: Yusuf has a child with Nora Bey, 20.

1978: Jane Doe 1, 9, her older sister, Jane Doe 2, 10, and their brother are sent by their father to live and work at Yusuf Bey's Your Black Muslim Bakery at 5832 San Pablo Ave. in Oakland. Yusuf Bey begins sexually molesting Jane Doe 2, she later says in sworn testimony.

1979: Yusuf Bey begins sexually molesting Jane Doe 1, now 10, according to her later sworn testimony. This year he has at least three children with other women. Nora Bey becomes the legal guardian of Jane Does 1 and 2. She begins receiving welfare payments for them and gives the money to Yusuf Bey.

1982: Yusuf Bey has children with Jane Doe 1, then 13, and at least three other women. Jane Doe 1's stepmother asks the Alameda County social services agency to investigate the child's pregnancy, but Doe 1 lied about the father - at Yusuf Bey's direction, she said - and no action was taken.

1984: Yusuf Bey has children with Jane Does 1 and 2, ages 15 and 16, and with at least three other women.

1986: Jane Doe 1 has always planned to leave the bakery this year, when she turns 18. But she's pregnant by Yusuf Bey and cannot leave.

1988: Yusuf Bey has children with Jane Doe 2, 21, and at least one other woman. Nora Bey leaves the bakery because she does not want to turn the profits from her cookie business over to Yusuf Bey. Jane Does 1 and 2 soon follow her.

1994: Jane Doe 3 starts working at the bakery at age 13. Within a week, Yusuf Bey begins sexually assaulting her, she later says in sworn testimony.

1995: Jane Doe 3, now 15, leaves the bakery and reports the sexual abuse to her probation officer. Jane Doe 4, a minor, is sexually assaulted by Yusuf Bey, she tells police in 2002.

1996: Jane Doe 3's probation officer reports the sexual abuse to police. No action is taken after an attorney notifies police that Jane Doe 3 will not cooperate with the investigation. Jane Doe 3 later testifies that she did not know about the letter.

2002: Jane Doe 1, 34, goes to the police when her 18-year-old daughter says she has been molested by her father, Yusuf Bey. Oakland police investigator Jim Saleda digs up two earlier reports alleging sex abuse of minors by Yusuf Bey, and finds a dozen other people who say they know about Bey's abuse of minors. The Alameda County District Attorney arrests Yusuf Bey and charges him with sexually abusing young girls for nearly 20 years, based on the testimony of four Jane Does. Many of the charges are later dropped because the statute of limitations has run out.

2003: Jane Does 1, 2 and 3 file a claim with Alameda County for more than $10 million in damages the women say they have suffered because the county's social services agency failed to protect them from Yusuf Bey's abuse. County supervisors reject the claim. Jane Does 1, 2 and 3 sue Yusuf Bey, the bakery, Farieda Bey, Nora Bey, three county social services workers and Alameda County, accusing them of sexual assault and neglect and claiming more than $16 million in damages. Also that year, Yusuf Bey dies of colon cancer before his criminal trial begins.

2005: Jane Does 1, 2, and 3 and Nora Bey give sworn depositions in the civil suit, alleging that Yusuf Bey sexually assaulted and abused women and children at Your Black Muslim Bakery for nearly 30 years.

2006: Your Black Muslim Bakery declares bankruptcy and later liquidates.

2007: Judge dismisses two social workers from the 2003 lawsuit, saying there's no evidence they acted improperly. Judge later dismisses both Nora Bey and Farieda Bey, saying they did not participate in the sexual assaults and the statute of limitations has run. Alameda County agrees to pay the three Does $50,000 each, and their attorney $35,000, to settle the Does' remaining claims against the county and save the cost of going to trial.

Note: This list is not a complete accounting of Yusuf Bey's children.

Sources: Sworn testimony by Jane Does 1, 2 and 3 and Nora Bey in 2005;

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