Woman Gets Prison For Stealing $10,000 From Women’s March
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Rebekah Brewis was sentenced Thursday nearly two years in prison after stealing over $10,000 in donations that should have gone toward supporting the Portland Women’s March.
Brewis was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated theft in the first degree, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Brewis was an organizer of the original Portland Women’s March, which drew between 70,000 and 100,000 people to downtown Portland to protest the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January 2017.
As an organizer, Brewis solicited donations to support the march which were deposited into an online account controlled by Brewis.
In February 2017, the march’s lead organizer, Margaret Jacobsen, said in a Facebook post that Brewis had her organization, PDX Trans Pride, act as “fiscal sponsor” of the event, so that the Women’s March could collect tax-deductible donations. According to Jacobsen, there was no written contract regarding the fiscal sponsorship.
An investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive showed that PDX Trans Pride was not at the time a 501c3 non-profit with the ability to take tax deductible donations.
Jacobsen said later on Facebook that PDX Trans Pride refused to account for missing funds following the event.