(Chicago Sun Times) — A Cook County judge Thursday morning removed a contempt of court ruling against Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and gave the organization until later this month to provide financial records.
The move came after the group sent its top finance staffer — who’d been at the AKA national meeting wrapping up in St. Louis — to its Chicago headquarters Thursday morning to provide some records for the sorority’s past president, 94-year-old Julia Purnell.
Purnell had filed to have access to the group’s financial records after members unsuccessfully sued the sorority and its leadership, including President Barbara A. McKinzie, a former Chicago Housing Authority and Cook County Forest Reserve financial manager. The lawsuit alleged that over her four-year term, McKinzie directed the spending of millions of the sorority’s funds for personal use and pet projects, including a salary and retirement for the traditionally unpaid post and a wax statue in her likeness on display at a Baltimore museum.
