Former state Sen. Leland Yee will seek a delay in the June 22 trial date of his trial on racketeering, gun running, money laundering and fraud to some time in mid-August his lawyer told the court Tuesday.
Yee’s attorney James Lassart notified U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer that he has a two-month trail starting this week in Oakland.
With an end date for the trial sometime in mid-April that would push it too close to th4e June 22 trial of Yee, according to the filing by Lassart.
Yee was charged in March 2014 in an alleged racketeering conspiracy with onetime gang leader Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow and 27 others as the culmination of a five-year undercover investigation.
The latest version of the indictment, filed January 29, alleges that during Yee’s 2011 mayoral campaign and again in his 2014 run for California secretary of state that he solicited contributions from undercover agents and informants in exchange for “official action” as a lawmaking, including help importing firearms.
Federal agents accused Chow of running a criminal organizations that engaged in drug trafficking, weapons sales and laundering more than $2 million.
The Chow investigation led them to Keith Jackson, a former San Francisco school board member who was charged in an alleged conspiracy to arrange a murder for hire, against a fictitious victim created by the FBI.
Yee is not involved in those charges or affiliation with chow.
The indictment states Yee rejected a $5,000 offer in 2012 from an undercover agent to help Chow get rid of an ankle monitoring device. Yee, then a state senator, refused over concerns about Chow’s criminal reputation.
He was charged with soliciting $62,000 in bribes in exchange for legislative favors for a fictitious software company and allegedly working to help import firearms from the Philippines illegally.
Case: U.S. v. Chow, No. 14-cr-196CRB
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