Dallas police sergeant collected millions for fallen officers. A fraction went to the families

After five police officers were gunned down in Dallas on July 7, 2016, tens of thousands from around the world reached out to help the widows and children of the slain men. Money flooded into City Hall.

Millions ended up at two charities run by a charismatic but largely unknown police sergeant named Demetrick Pennie. Most of that money never made it to fallen officers’ families, a Dallas Morning News investigation has found. Officers’ families received only 22 percent of the total $3.2 million donated ... Last year, for every $100 donated to Pennie’s Texas Fallen Officer Foundation, just $5 went to families ...

“That is a violation of the charitable ethos,” said Doug White, a philanthropy adviser and former head of Columbia University’s fundraising management program.

Pennie’s otherwise unremarkable police career is highlighted, though, by a recent foray into political activism. In 2016, he filed a high-profile lawsuit against former President Barack Obama and the social movement Black Lives Matter, claiming they incited violence against police officers.

That raised Pennie’s profile, particularly in conservative political circles. He has been interviewed by commentator Tomi Lahren, NRA TV, Fox News and Breitbart. He told a Republican Party gathering in Plano in June that the public assistance his grandmother relied on actually served “to keep us in the hole we were in.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2018/08/17/dpd-sergeant-collected-millions-fallen-officers-fraction-went-families