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U.S. NEWS Thursday 7 June 2018

Ex-NAACP head, once known as Rachel Dolezal, denies fraud

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) of circumstance" to the
— A court hearing was state agency, saying
postponed Wednesday for she did a one-time job
a former NAACP leader in in October 2017 worth
Washington state whose $20,000, court documents
life unraveled after she was said.
exposed as a white woman The former civil rights
pretending to be black. activist told investigators
Nkechi Diallo, formerly she "fully disclosed her
known as Rachel Dolezal, information" and declined
pleaded not guilty last to answer further questions,
week through her attorney the documents said.
to charges including She has said previously
welfare fraud, perjury and that she grew up near Troy,
false verification for public Montana, and began to
assistance. Her next court change her perspective
date is now set for June 20. as a teenager after her
Diallo resigned as Spokane's religious parents adopted
NAACP president when four black children. She
it was revealed in 2015 decided to identify as
that she was born to white publicly black years later,
parents. after a divorce.
The welfare fraud case The ruse worked for years
started in March 2017 until 2015, when her
when a Washington state parents, with whom she has
investigator received long feuded, told reporters
information that Diallo that their daughter was
had written a book. The white but was presenting
investigator reviewed herself as a black activist.
Diallo's records and found The story created an
that she had been reporting international uproar, and
her income as usually less she was fired as head of
than $500 per month, court In this March 20, 2017, file photo, Nkechi Diallo, then known as Rachel Dolezal, poses at the the Spokane chapter of
documents said. bureau of The Associated Press in Spokane, Wash. the NAACP and kicked
A subpoena for her self- Associated Press off a police ombudsman
employment records, which commission.
included copies of her between August 2015 and Health Services. soap making, doll making, She also lost her job
bank statements, showed September 2017, without The money came from and the sale of her art, teaching African studies
Diallo had deposited nearly reporting most of it to the her memoir, "In Full Color," according to the case file. at Eastern Washington
$84,000 into her account Department of Social and speaking engagements, Diallo did report a "change University.q

Man acquitted of rape after 25 years in prison to get $10M

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Phila- pointed to a former crack million before the end of ard Ross said there have law." A statement from
delphia has reach a settle- addict who died in a South August and $2.85 million been "tremendous reforms" Wright said he will never
ment of nearly $10 million Carolina prison. before the end of August in the Philadelphia police get over the years spent in
with a man who spent 25 Wright filed a federal law- 2019. department since Wright's prison or missing time with
years in prison before be- suit accusing police of writ- Mayor Jim Kenney called incarceration, citing ad- his mother and growing
ing acquitted in a retrial in ing a false confession and the agreement a fair reso- vances in forensic sciences son, but he was relieved he
the rape and murder of a coercing him to sign it with- lution of a case he called and changes in investi- could get on with his life.
77-year-old woman. out reading it and planting "tragic." gative procedures, such "For the sake of my young
Anthony Wright was sen- other evidence used to "Mr. Wright has shown as videotaping of interro- grandchildren, I am en-
tenced to life in prison convict him. great dignity throughout gations. David Rudovsky, couraged that the city of
in the 1991 slaying of his The city said Wednesday this process, and I hope this one of Wright's attorneys, Philadelphia will continue
neighbor, Louise Talley, the settlement doesn't in- resolution assists him and lauded the department's to take steps to make sure
who was raped and re- clude an admission of li- his family after what they "significant reforms" and that what happened to
peatedly stabbed. The ability and includes $4 have been through," he said he hopes such efforts me never happens to my
conviction was reversed in million to be paid before said in a statement. "will ensure that everyone grandchildren or any other
2014 after DNA evidence the end of the month, $3 Police Commissioner Rich- is treated fairly under the child," he said.q