Former Okra Project executive director Dominique Morgan
In a brazen betrayal of her colleagues and the transgender clients they were supporting, Dominique Morgan, the former leader of the Brooklyn-based Black trans advocacy group The Okra Project, allegedly stole nearly $100,000 from a bail fund she created to help trans defendants facing jail time, the Brooklyn district attorney says.
Morgan has been charged with one count of second-degree grand larceny and 23 counts of first-degree falsifying business records for allegedly faking evidence of non-existent Black trans women receiving the group’s help.
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Morgan was already earning a salary of more than $200,000 a year as executive director of Okra Project, a news release from DA Eric Gonzalez’s office detailed.
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Morgan’s total compensation in 2022 was $328,000, according to an Okra Project tax filing. The same year, she was named one of the grand marshals of the New York City Pride Parade.
Earlier in her tenure, Morgan announced the addition of the bail initiative to the group’s core mission of helping the group’s predominantly Black trans female clients with food, housing, transportation, and mental health needs.
No such initiative was ever started, prosecutors say.
Instead, Morgan allegedly funneled $99,000 to her own bank account to pay for her Mercedes-Benz car payments, clothing, meals, and a $19,000 “closet renovation” from the upscale home renovation service California Closets.
She then “submitted purported bail receipts for 23 individuals” who she said were arrested in Georgia and Nebraska, according to the DA. An internal Okra audit revealed that no matching arrest records existed.
The Okra Project terminated Morgan’s employment shortly thereafter.
Morgan was arrested this week and released without bail. If convicted, she could receive five to 15 years in prison for the grand larceny charge, Gonzalez wrote. She was scheduled to appear in court again in December.
Morgan previously worked as the executive director of prison abolition nonprofit Black & Pink and has served as program director for Borealis Philanthropy’s Fund for Trans Generations since December 2022. Borealis Philanthropy hasn’t commented on the Brooklyn DA’s indictment.
Last year, the Nebraska native had a street in Omaha named after her, the first formerly incarcerated person in the state and the first Black trans woman in the U.S. to receive a similar honor. As a youth, Morgan was incarcerated for 10 years, including 18 months spent in solitary confinement.
“For every queer and trans person who walks down Dominique Morgan Street,” she told The Journal-Constitution at the time, “they will know that no matter where their story began, they will get to determine where their story ends.”
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