FBI conducts interviews in Atlanta with SCLC officials

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Three officials with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference met in Atlanta with federal and local investigators looking into allegations that the national chairman and former treasurer mishandled hundreds of thousands of the organization’s money.

Agent Michael Brooks with the FBI in Cincinnati confirmed Wednesday “investigation is continuing and that it has included interviews at Atlanta of SCLC representatives.”

The meeting in Atlanta was five days after FBI agents searched the Dayton, Ohio, SCLC office as well as the homes of  national chairman the Rev. Raleigh Trammell and his daughter, Angela Goodwine. The agents took boxes of records and computers from all three locations in Dayton.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported last month that Trammell and former national treasurer Spiver Gordon of Eutaw, Ala., may have diverted at least $569,000 of SCLC money to bank accounts they controlled. The newspaper also obtained records indicating checks drawn on SCLC accounts were made out to Trammell, Gordon or their relatives.

Law enforcement agencies in Georgia, where the SCLC is based, Ohio and Alabama have been provided information about the possible mismanagement of funds. But the FBI said search warrants were executed last week only in Dayton.

Investigators met with board member and Florida chapter chairman Art Rocker, former interim national president the Rev. Byron Clay from New Orleans, and Dexter Wimbish, the SCLC’s Atlanta general counsel who has voluntarily and temporarily stepped down.

Rocker said after the meeting Wednesday that the questions from FBI agents and investigators from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office concerned “mismanagement of funds” and if the board approved the expenditures.

Rocker said he had sent agents additional documents over the weekend and Clay had given the FBI financial records that included evidence that Gordon made two wire transfers of $6,000 in SCLC funds to a Dayton bank account controlled by Trammell.

"We had a meaningful meeting," Clay said. "Justice will prevail. This is a sacred organization and it has a sacred mission. It's not about us. It's about the mission."

On Tuesday, the Montgomery County, Ohio, Emergency Food and Shelter Policy Board cut off federal funding for two programs run by Trammell’s Dayton-based nonprofit groups.

The Dayton Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s domestic violence shelter and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance’s pantry and food programs had received a combined $124,558 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency last year. The board was considering an application for $88,016 more for 2010, but the request was denied.

Just last week, the Dayton SCLC told the United Way that the shelter and food pantry had closed in August. The most recent application for federal dollars, signed by Trammell and Goodwine,  made no mention that the programs were closed.

The Dayton Daily News contributed to this article.