Founder of nonprofit refugee center sentenced to three-year term in misappropriation case
African Community Resource Center
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The founder of a Los Angeles-based nonprofit agency for African refugees was sentenced Friday to three years already served in custody in connection with her no contest plea to misappropriation of public funds and three other felony counts.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Ito said he would rule later on the issue of restitution in the case of Nigisti "Nikki" Tesfai, 58, who founded the African Community Resource Center.
Tesfai pleaded no contest last October to one count each of misappropriation of public funds, attempting to file a false or forged instrument, conspiracy and filing a false tax return.
Tesfai's attorney Robert E. Haberer said after the hearing that his client pleaded no contest "because her accounting was sloppy."
"It could be perceived as an attempt at wrongdoing ... in theory,"the defense attorney said. "If she lost in trial, the penalties could be very severe."
Tesfai—a Beverly Hills resident at the time who had been profiled in Oprah Winfrey's magazine O in January 2002 for her work in helping to resettle refugees—was charged in 2007 in connection with allegations that she misappropriated public money that the center received from various government agencies.
Trayvon Martin’s family marked the anniversary of his death with a candlelight vigil in Manhattan.
Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, were joined by actor Jamie Foxx and a crowd of about 200 people on Tuesday evening in Manhattan’s Union Square Park. They lit candles and held a moment of silence at 7:17 p.m., the time Martin was fatally shot on Feb. 26, 2012.
Mayor
Wendy Greuel
City Attorney
Carmen Trutanich
Council District 9
Curren Price Jr.
Council District 15
Joe Buscaino
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—An attorney representing people in three Los Angeles council districts accused city officials today of illegally using race as the basis for redrawing council district lines.
Leo Terrell, who is Black, said the redrawn boundaries were created to strengthen the Black voting bloc in the 10th District represented by Council President Herb Wesson, while carving Koreatown into several different districts, effectively diluting the voting power of the predominantly Asian neighborhood.
A meeting of the First Community Development Council at First Church of God . . . Center of Hope in Inglewood with representatives from the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) illustrated just how wide the gulf is between the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Line the MTA wants to build and the line the community wants.
That gulf seemed almost as wide as the distance from where the train starts to where it ends—a distance of about 8.5 miles.
For 27 years Larry E. Grant was the engine that drove the annual Los Angeles Kingdom Day Parade, but in 2013, with the 86-year-old Texas native and former Carson resident gone (he died in August), it is Grant’s spirit and vision that are guiding those at the Congress of Racial Equality California (CORE-CA), which has assumed organization of the parade.
