A local activist convicted of fraud is now behind bars.

The Rev. Raleigh Trammell, 74, lost his bids for a new trial and for an acquittal ruling last month.

The charges against Trammell, who rose to the top of national Southern Christian Leadership Conference, stem from a home-delivered meals service run from the headquarters of the SCLC Dayton chapter.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Michael L. Tucker said he wasn’t a flight risk or danger to the community, so Trammell has remained free until today.

During the trial, prosecutors contended that the county reimbursed $38,000 to the SCLC for 7,000 meals that were not delivered between 2005 and early 2010. Two of the people whom Trammell claimed to feed were dead, two had never heard of his program and three were in long-term care facilities and not receiving extra meals, according to prosecutors.

Trammell was a recently paroled ex-convict when he took over the Dayton branch of the SCLC three decades ago.

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