Fulton DA opens probe into top SCLC officials

By Rhonda Cook and Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Fulton County District Attorney's Office has launched a formal investigation into alleged financial misconduct by top officials within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"On January 29, 2010, two officials representing the SCLC presented the District Attorney’s Office with a large number of documents and certain evidence related to the alleged misappropriation of funds belonging to the organization," DA spokeswoman Yvette Brown said. "After our initial review of the evidence and the supporting documents, we have now decided to conduct an official investigation with respect to the allegations raised by the SCLC officials."

The AJC reported last week that a Fulton County grand jury was investigating two SCLC officials. SCLC national board chairman Raleigh Trammell told the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News that he had heard about the grand jury proceedings.

Fulton's white collar crime unit was already looking into allegations that Trammell and former national treasurer Spiver Gordon of Eutaw, Ala., embezzled at least $569,000 from the venerable civil rights institution founded following the successful Montgomery bus boycotts of 1955 and 1956, District Attorney Paul Howard said.

The FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Alabama Attorney General's Office also are investigating. Federal agents searched the Dayton SCLC office two weeks ago along with the homes of Trammell and his daughter.

The criminal investigations were opened following an AJC report on Jan. 14 that showed SCLC funds were being funneled into accounts only Trammell and Spivey controlled.

"Investigating non-profit organizations ... is an unpleasant duty sometimes required of prosecutors," Brown said in a statement. "It is particularly so when the organization carries the storied legacy of SCLC. Nevertheless, when officials and board members make a request for such investigation in writing and provide supporting documentation, any emotional reluctance must bend to the requirements of the law."