Checking the facts
The Dayton Daily News has covered controversies involving the Dayton SCLC for years, exposing the former president for stealing money from a food program for the poor and now checking claims by the current president to find that the group isn’t tax exempt or even affiliated with the national Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
The local group calling for the national SCLC in Atlanta to investigate allegations of systemic racism in the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office had its tax-exempt status revoked in 2012 and is no longer affiliated with the iconic civil rights organization, an I-Team investigation found.
Bishop Richard Cox says he is president of the Dayton chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a member of the group’s national board.
But Charles Brooks, general counsel for the SCLC in Atlanta, said in an interview Thursday that Cox is not on its board and that there is no official Dayton chapter.
After corrections officers went public with complaints about what they said was racial discord at the Montgomery County jail, Cox held a press conference Oct. 12 calling for Sheriff Phil Plummer to resign and said he would urge the national SCLC to investigate.
“They also have the backing of the national SCLC, because I’m a board member,” Cox said of the corrections officers who brought the complaints. “I may have the national office come in here on this particular incident.”
But Brooks said he has represented the SCLC since November 2013, and “(Cox) has not been a board member since that time period.”
There used to be a Dayton chapter, he said, before it collapsed under scandal and its leader Raleigh Trammell went to prison in 2013.
“Since that time period the only recognized chapter in the state of Ohio is Cleveland,” Brooks said.
IRS records show the local chapter’s tax-exempt status was revoked in 2012 for not filing required forms with the IRS.
“They have not called me and said I’m not on the national board and they have not called me and said there is no Dayton SCLC,” Cox said this week. “If that’s the case they need to tell me that.”
When asked about this, Brooks responded, “I’ve never made it a habit of randomly calling people and telling them they’re not on our board.”
Sheriff’s complaints
The corrections officers’ complaints about the sheriff’s office follow controversy over the pepper-spraying of an inmate in the Montgomery County jail. The inmate has sued over her treatment and her attorney produced a videotape showing her being pepper-sprayed while confined in a restraint chair, which Plummer has said is a violation of department policy.
The corrections officers made a number of other complaints, alleging that female inmates were being segregated by race, that deputies found to be exchanging racist text messages were allowed to take disability retirement after they were fired, and that complaints about racism weren’t properly investigated.
At the Oct. 12 press conference, Cox said racism at the sheriff’s office “is totally out of control.”
“Is it corruption? Is it coverup? Is it lies? Is it racism? I believe it is all of those things,” he said.
But Plummer called the allegations outrageous and said the complaints are coming from a small group of individuals within his department. One of the allegations — that inmates were racially segregated in the jail — was looked at by command staff and “they assured us this is not going on,” he said.
The I-Team confirmed that deputies fired over the racist text messages were allowed to take disability retirement, though such decisions are made solely by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. The only role a public employer plays is to confirm whether the employee worked there and to provide his or her job description, according to OPERS.
While Cox called for Plummer to resign, Dayton Unit NAACP President Derrick Foward applauded the sheriff’s handling of the incident involving the racist text messages, which resulted in the firing of two deputies and the suspension of three others.
Foward called for an investigation into the “flawed” pension system that approved the disability retirements.
SCLC turmoil
The national SCLC was founded by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957 and became a civil rights beacon as racial unrest soon roiled America’s cities. The Dayton chapter was formed in 1966.
Both the Dayton chapter and national SCLC hit turmoil in recent years. Trammell, who was president of the local chapter and chairman of the national SCLC, went to prison in 2013 in Ohio after he was convicted of stealing public funds from a home meal-delivery program in Dayton. The charges followed a Dayton Daily News investigation that found the SCLC-sponsored program claimed to provide meals to people who were not being served. Trammell was released from prison in 2015.
After the local chapter lost its non-profit status, Cox said he would seek to get it restored, saying future efforts to register voters and help victims of human trafficking would suffer without it. IRS records show the tax-exempt status was not restored, though Cox has continued to say he is president of the national group’s Dayton chapter.
Cox himself has been in the middle of controversy. In 2013 the father of a 13-year-old boy who lost a leg to cancer accused him of failing to provide any money promised from the proceeds of the group's annual Martin Luther King Jr. banquet. Cox said the group agreed to raise money for the boy but denied that it was to come from the banquet proceeds. The Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office investigated, but did not bring charges.
Former Dayton SCLC chairman Keith Lander quit the board after the banquet and subsequent controversy.
“Anybody who’s out there who’s claiming to be a civil rights organization or human rights organization, they should be looked at with some scrutiny as to whether they are running a legitimate organization or if they are scheming the community they are supposed to be helping,” Lander said this week.
Cox said donations to his organization are tax-deductible, though he said he doesn’t file any paperwork with the IRS and refused to share any financial records or his employer identification number.
“I don’t make enough money to provide information to the IRS,” he said.
The non-profit business filing for the Dayton SCLC was cancelled in 2009 for not filing records to maintain its existence, according to Ohio Secretary of State records. And in July of this year, the Dayton SCLC’s registration as a charity was dissolved by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, again for not filing required paperwork.
Cox says he doesn’t need a business license because he operates under the national SCLC.
“If there is no Dayton SCLC, why do they keep sending me emails about the national convention?” Cox said. “Don’t you think they would have sent me a letter? Don’t you think they would have said nationally, ‘There is no chapter here in Dayton?’”
‘He needs to be accountable’
Cox has been at the forefront of several local controversies. Last year he called for an investigation into the shooting of Dontae Martin by two sheriff's deputies. The sheriff's office says Martin pointed a gun at officers, but Martin's family disputes the deputies' account.
The Dayton SCLC raises funds at an annual banquet. This year’s event in January cost $40 a plate, and Cox has said there were about “300 or so” attendees. He said the money was used “to run the SCLC here in Dayton.”
Lander said Cox needs to publicly disclose how he spends the money he collects.
“You can’t scream and holler about everyone else being accountable, and not hold yourself to the same standards,” Lander said. “He needs to be accountable as well to the community.”
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