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Former congressional delegate Walter Fauntroy arrested

Free Press wire reports | 7/1/2016, 6:18 a.m.
Civil rights leader and former congressional delegate Walter Fauntroy was released from a Virginia jail Tuesday following his arrest Monday ...
Mr. Fauntroy

Civil rights leader and former congressional delegate Walter Fauntroy was released from a Virginia jail Tuesday following his arrest Monday at Dulles International Airport on a 5-year-old charge of writing a bad check in Maryland, authorities said.

Mr. Fauntroy, 83, had been living abroad for the past four years, and relatives and friends had expressed concerns about his health. He told The Washington Post in a telephone interview last week that he was coming home and that he believed the bad check issue was resolved.

Mr. Fauntroy was arrested Monday morning when he stepped off his Emirates Airline flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on charges of fraud and failure to appear in court, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

He was arraigned Tuesday and is scheduled for a hearing in Prince George’s County, Md., on charges of writing a $55,000 bad check for a 2009 ball he organized for President Obama’s first inauguration.

After being arraigned, he left the jail and greeted his wife, Dorothy, for the first time since he left the United States in 2012.

A retired Baptist minister, Mr. Fauntroy helped plan the 1963 March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a close friend. He served for 20 years as the District of Columbia’s first elected delegate to Congress. The city’s delegate can vote in committees but not on the House floor. He stepped down to run for mayor in 1990, but lost that election.

Attorney Arthur Reynolds, who is representing Mr. Fauntroy, has said previously that Mr. Fauntroy had paid back some, but not all, of the $55,000.

Mr. Fauntroy left for the UAE in early 2012, after a bench warrant was issued for him in Prince George’s County, to answer charges in the case.

Mr. Fauntroy told The Post in the interview last week, his first since moving abroad, that he had been homeless for brief stretches during his stay in the UAE and that he most recently had been living in an apartment occupied by a South Sudanese couple and their son.

He said he was working on green energy projects.

In addition to the bad check charge, a bank filed in 2014 to foreclose on his house, citing outstanding payments. The Post said Mr. Fauntroy and his wife sought bankruptcy protection in 2014, but the case was dismissed when he failed to get credit counseling.

The newspaper said Mr. Fauntroy said the criminal charge against him and his mounting debts were part of a conspiracy to undermine his reputation.

His longtime personal attorney, Johnny Barnes, told The Post that Mr. Fauntroy was “disappointed” by the arrest but that overall, he seemed “much improved and in good spirits.”