Lawyer says Shrimp Boy a victim of entrapment and racism [Leland Yee case]
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
(04-08) 12:15 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- As state Sen. Leland Yee and his codefendants pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of political corruption, gun-running and other crimes financed by payoffs from undercover agents, a lawyer for one defendant accused the FBI of entrapment and racism.
"The government created the crime, the government financed the crime, and the government ensnared my client," Tony Serra, lawyer for Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, told reporters after 21 defendants were arraigned in federal court. "We will put the government rightfully on trial."
Chow, a Chinatown gang leader, was released from federal prison in 2003 after a racketeering sentence and promised to turn his life around. As leader of an association called the Ghee Hung Tong, or Chinese free masons, he has been honored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee for his work with troubled youth.
But an FBI affidavit last month said Chow was at the center of a five-year corruption investigation that began in Chinatown and led to Keith Jackson, an associate of Chow's and a consultant to Yee, and ultimately to the now-suspended state senator.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Lawyer-says-Shrimp-Boy-a-victim-of-entrapment-and-5385990.php
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