Rachel Dolezal headed to trial on welfare fraud charges
In this March 2, 2015, file photo, Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, poses for a photo in her Spokane, Wash., home. (Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review via AP, File) more >
By - Associated Press - Monday, January 7, 2019
SPOKANE, Wash. — A March 4 trial date has been set in a welfare fraud case involving a former NAACP leader in Washington state whose life unraveled in 2015 after she was exposed as a white woman pretending to be black.
Nkechi Diallo, formerly known as Rachel Dolezal, has pleaded innocent to the charges filed in Spokane County Superior Court.
The charges of welfare fraud are related to income she received from a book and other sources while also receiving some $8,800 in welfare benefits, prosecutors have said.
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Judge Michelle Szambelan on Friday noted that the case had dragged since Diallo was arrested last May, and set the new trial date.
Diallo resigned as head of Spokane's NAACP chapter after it was revealed she was born to white parents in rural Montana.