Georgia DA Finds No Crimes Committed by SCLC Board Members

Well it is about time, we have some resolution to the long-awaited investigation of SCLC Board Members  Raleigh Trammell and Spiver Gordon  allegedly stealing more than $500,000. Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting the found no proof any crime had been committed.  Now, maybe everyone can stop locking gates and changing locks and get busy doing whatever it is (somebody remind me) what they are supposed to be doing today.

 

By  Rhonda Cook and Shelia M. Poole

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has determined there is no proof that two former members of the Southern Christian Leadership Board of Directors stole about $560,000 in SCLC funds and has closed the investigation without bringing criminal charges against them.

A draft of the report  capped an 18-month-long investigation. The two men at the center of the probe — former SCLC Chairman Raleigh Trammell of Dayton, Ohio, and ex-SCLC Treasurer Spiver Gordon of Eutaw, Ala., and their supporters have urged officials to make it public.

“Well, I knew we had not done anything wrong,” said Trammell. “Leading a civil rights organization is a very difficult task. Most people know there are no funds available to misuse because it takes all the funds you can manage to run the organization. I just thank the district attorney’s office for their investigation into the matter. People wanted to destroy our names, our families and our integrity. We just have to pray for them.”

Gordon said he was also pleased about the report’s findings. After decades of being a member of the Atlanta-based civil rights organization, which was co-founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Gordon  said he was “terribly hurt and disappointed that the people I worked for all those years have been engaged in such negative and untruthful statements concerning me and Rev. Trammell. All we’ve done all of our lives is to try to help the least among us through our civil rights activity.”

The report said there was “insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges against” Gordon and Trammell but the DA recommended in the report that the SCLC make policy changes that make clear the responsibilities of staff and board members and would prevent the theft of SCLC funds.

“The Fulton County district attorney’s investigation concludes a fractious and unseemly chapter in our storied history,” SCLC President Isaac Newton Farris Jr. said in a statement.  “Thankfully that door is closed as we move aggressively forward.”

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