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A guilty plea by the fifth and final member of a notorious Berkeley real estate dynasty may spell the end of a sensational case that began with a young woman’s death by carbon monoxide poisoning in an apartment building owned by the family. 

The case exploded into the headlines when the dead girl’s sister told police she and her sister had been brought over from India and subjected to unwanted sex and cheap labor. 

Prasad Lakireddy entered a guilty plea in federal court Friday to one count of conspiracy to employ unauthorized aliens. He will receive five years on probation, including one year of house arrest, pay a $20,000 fine and perform 300 hours of community service if U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken accepts the sentence federal prosecutors brokered with Lakireddy’s attorney, Paul Wolf. 

If Judge Wilken accepts the deal, Reddy will be the third member of his family to avoid prison time in return for a plea. 

Should the judge reject the plea bargain before the Feb. 9 sentencing hearing, Lakireddy could opt to stand trial. Conviction on one count of conspiracy carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. 

Lakireddy’s plea may end four years of prosecution against the family—a process some activists say has produced punishments too lenient for the crimes initially charged. 

The case surfaced in November, 1999, when 17-year-old Chanti Pratipatti died from carbon monoxide fumes caused by a blocked heating vent in a downtown Berkeley apartment owned by the Lakireddys. 

Her 15-year-old sister survived. 

“I think it’s a travesty of justice,” said Marcia Poole of the local group Women Against Sexual Slavery, who alerted police when she saw the dead girl being surreptitiously removed from the apartment building. “It’s gone from sexual trafficking and indentured servitude to visa violations with no jail time.” 

Wolf countered that new evidence, withheld from the public pending a civil claim against the family, vindicated his client of the more lurid allegations against him. “Once Judge Wilken has received all the facts, she will see that this is a fair and appropriate disposition,” he said. 

The U.S. District Attorney declined to pursue wrongful death charges against alleged ringleader Lakireddy Bali Reddy, Prasad’s father, settling for a plea bargain that sentenced him to eight years in prison for transporting minors for illegal sexual activity, conspiring to commit immigration fraud and filing a false tax return. 

Reddy’s brother, Jayaprakash Lakireddy, spent one year in a halfway house for conspiring to commit immigration fraud. His sister-in-law, Annapurna Lakireddy, served six months of home detention for the same offense. 

Prasad’s brother, Vijay, received a two-year sentence after he pled guilty last year to a single count of immigration fraud. 

Prasad had originally been charged with nine counts, including conspiracy to import aliens for immoral purposes and witness tampering.