The State - News from May 9, 1985

Black Panther Huey Newton, charged with embezzlement a month ago, now is being investigated by the state for allegedly using $50,000 worth of bonds he controlled for a charity to secure his bail in an illegal-weapons case. The state charged Newton with eight felonies for allegedly embezzling money from a $250,000-a-year grant the state Department of Education paid out for programs for disadvantaged youths at the Panthers’ now defunct Community Learning Center in Oakland. Court records showed the state now is investigating Newton’s use of the bonds for his own needs, as well as using the funds of the Educational Opportunities Corp.--a charitable trust set up by the Panthers to run a private Oakland school--to pay for such personal expenses as his phone and garbage bills and repairs to an expensive automobile.