99-year-old supporter waits 5 hours for promised ride from Rep. Corrine Brown

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 99-year-old woman says U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown stood her up and left her waiting for a ride to a campaign fundraising breakfast for five hours.

According to Florida Politics blog, Virgie Coleman was promised a limo would pick her up at 9 a.m. to take her to the breakfast but no one arrived until 2 p.m. when the event was long over.

The Saturday-morning breakfast was a headlined by Martin Luther King III and was held to raise funds for the embattled congresswoman.

Brown apologized for the slight on her blog Sunday, saying she was sorry for letting down “a special supporter.”

“I promised Virgie Coleman – a wonderful volunteer at the Lake Wiley Senior Center – I would have a driver pick her up on Saturday to attend a special campaign breakfast in Jacksonville,” Brown wrote. “Sad to say that we had a miscommunication within the campaign and dropped the ball.”

As Brown works to fund her re-election campaign, she is also facing serious charges in federal court.

Brown, 69, and her chief of staff, Elias “Ronnie” Simmons, 50, of Laurel, Maryland, were charged in a 24-count indictment with participating in a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, multiple counts of mail and wire fraud, concealing material facts on required financial disclosure forms, theft of government property, obstruction of the due administration of the internal revenue laws, and filing false tax returns, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Brown has said she believes the indictments are racially and politically motivated.

Brown and Simmons have both pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Cox Media Group