Walter Fauntroy has bench warrant issued

We certainly had a wealth of political issues with Walter Fauntroy over the years but we never expected, or wanted, it to end up like this - TPR

NY Daily News -  Longtime Washington, D.C., civil rights leader Walter Fauntroy is believed to have fled to Africa after a bench warrant was issued for his arrest in nearby Prince George's County, Md., and his friends and family are not sure where he is, according to a televised news report.

Fauntroy... is wanted in connection with a bad $50,000 check he allegedly wrote more than six years back for an inauguration party for President Obama, according to WUSA9.

The pastor and former aide to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hasn’t been seen in public in several months, sources said.

Friends and family became suspicious of Fauntroy's whereabouts when he missed former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry's funeral in December and events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Selma march in Alabama earlier this month, according to the report.

Fauntroy, who is 82, allegedly wrote the check to pay for an elaborate party in suburban Maryland sometime after Obama's election in 2008, WUSA9 reported. The party, which Fauntroy planned with others, never happened and the check bounced.

Soon after, Prince George’s County authorities filed a bench warrant against Fauntroy. These warrants are usually issued by a judge for people in contempt of court or who fail to appear at a hearing.