The former president of an NAACP chapter, Rachel Dolezal — also known as Nkechi Diallo — now faces a March trial on welfare fraud charges following several legal maneuvers that have irritated a Spokane County judge in Washington state, KAYU-TV reported.
Who is she?
Diallo, 41, is the woman who made headlines in 2015 after her parents made the bombshell revelation that her claim of being African-American was false.
Judge Michelle Szambelan told Diallo's attorney Bevan Maxey at a hearing Friday that enough time was given to prepare for the trial, KAYU reported. Diallo was arrested in May 2018 on charges of first degree theft by welfare fraud, second degree perjury and false verification for public assistance. Her case has been repeatedly rescheduled since it appeared on the docket in June, the report states.
Diallo reportedly has a strained relationship with her parents. After they exposed that Diallo is white, she allegedly began falsifying her income to obtain public assistance. Diallo got on welfare by allegedly claiming she was living on just a few hundred dollars a month that friends were giving to her as gifts.
From August 2015 through November 2017, Diallo collected about $9,000 in state financial assistance.
But in March 2017, a state investigator found that she had deposited more than $80,000 during that same period. She was reportedly making money from an autobiography she wrote titled "In Full Color," along with "speaking engagements, soap making, doll making and the sale of her art," Fox News reported.
What was the fallout?
After the June 2015 disclosure by her parents, Diallo "resigned as Spokane NAACP president, was kicked off a police oversight commission, lost a position as a freelance columnist for a weekly newspaper in Spokane and was fired from her job teaching African studies at nearby Eastern Washington University," according to Fox News.
Since her arrest, Diallo's case has languished on the court docket and was rescheduled numbers times since her arraignment in June.
Judge Szambelan told attorneys Friday that all of the delays are getting old. A new trial date is set for March 4.
This story has been updated.
