The Rev. Raleigh Trammell of Dayton, who rose to the top of Southern Christian Leadership Conference founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. only to fall after accusations of financial mismanagement, goes on trial Thursday for charges he stole taxpayer money intended for a local program for the poor.

Trammell, 74, faces 51 felony counts stemming from the alleged theft of $50,000 from 2005 to 2010 from a home-delivered meals program for the elderly that Trammell’s social service agency administered.

The trial is expected to last more than two weeks in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Trammell on the charges after a Dayton Daily News investigation found that Trammell’s program claimed to be providing meals to people who weren’t being served, including a trustee of his church who was living at the Dayton Veterans Affairs nursing home and the trustee’s hospitalized wife.

The newspaper also found that Trammell accepted federal funding for a food pantry and a battered women’s shelter that didn’t exist.

The county subsequently cut off $419,000 in public funding in 2010 to two Trammell-controlled groups, the Dayton chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.

For Trammell, the stakes could hardly be higher. His charges are mid-range to low level felonies, but the sheer number of them, and the fact that he has been convicted of similar felonies in the past, weighs against him, said University of Dayton School of Law professor Tom Hagel.

“There’s no question, if he were convicted of that many, or even half that many,” Hagel said. “I don’t know how a judge could not impose some prison time.”

Trammell, a former top county welfare official convicted of grand theft and larceny in a welfare scam in the 1970s, took over the local SCLC and eventually became the national chairman of King’s civil rights organization.

His most recent troubles began in 2010 when the FBI raided his Dayton home amid accusations he mismanaged national SCLC money.

Trammell still has supporters, including Bishop Richard Cox, now the leader of the local SCLC. Cox said he would be at the trial, but declined further comment because prosecutors told him he could be called as a witness.

“I’ll be there,” said Keith Lander, a local activist who has criticized Trammell in the past. “I want to see justice run its course.”

Trammell, pastor of Central Missionary Baptist Church since 1966, has a long history of activism, but has long been a polarizing figure as well.

Critics have long claimed that he is politically intimidating and plays hardball.

In 2003, Trammell threatened to withdraw support for the human services levy unless the county agreed to continue funding West Dayton service providers, including the SCLC.

Born in Grantsville, Ga., Trammell told a black history website The History Makers that he met SCLC founder the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and joined SCLC in 1960. He said he participated in the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.

Trammell moved to Dayton, where court records show he bused tables until landing a low-level job with the Montgomery County Welfare Department. He worked his way up to deputy director.

But in September 1977, he was arrested in a predawn raid on his home at 1505 Olmstead Place, one of 26 welfare workers or clients named in an indictment alleging theft, fraud and forgery totaling more than $1.2 million.

A jury convicted Trammell of opening fraudulent welfare accounts in 1973 and 1974. He used a man who had consulted him about marital problems to cash welfare checks and redeem food stamps for him.

Sentenced to 4-10 years in prison for larceny and grand theft, Tramell served just over a year before receiving parole in 1980.

He rebuilt his life, resuming his pastoral duties and activism. He was elected to head the Dayton SCLC chapter in 1983, and held on to that post for more than three decades.

Under Trammell, the chapter helped found the local MLK Day commemoration, organized clothing drives and gun buybacks and led the effort to designate Third Street as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

He continued to rise in the national leadership of the SCLC as well, becoming vice chairman in 1996 and national chairman in 2004.

Trammell was ousted from the local and national SCLC in 2010 after a faction of the national SCLC board accused Trammell and the SCLC treasurer of misappropriating more than $569,000.

In November, the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney determined there was no proof the expenditures weren’t approved.

After a lengthy court fight in Georgia, the anti-Trammell faction was able to oust Trammell and his supporters from the board. But Trammell is seeking reinstatement by the Georgia Supreme Court.

Longtime Trammell critic Art Rocker, who heads the SCLC’s Florida chapter, said Trammell’s refusal to step aside showed that he wasn’t acting in the best interests of the organization.

“Trammell had an opportunity to step down from SCLC in order to deal with these issues,” Rocker said “If it was about the organization, then he would have stepped down.”

Rocker also said he would pray for Trammell’s family and the Dayton community during the trial.

Local activist Keith Lander, who resigned from the Dayton SCLC in March after accusing Cox of making inflammatory public statements without gathering all the facts, said Trammell had done good things for the community, but added that his legacy would depend on the trial’s outcome.

“You’re only as good as people remember you,” Lander said. “If he’s acquitted, then he can walk around this town with his head held high. If he is found guilty, then it is a tarnished image.”