CHICAGO (CBS) – Following a series of CBS 2 investigations, serial fraudster Candace Clark was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday.
Prosecutors recommended a five-year sentence, telling the court Clark had “a steadfast commitment to deceiving the community to get what she wanted.”
Prosecutors reviewed each of Clark’s previous convictions from 2007 to which she received a suspended sentence when she told the judge she hadn’t learned her lesson and asked the judge not to let her govern. fix this time.
Before the verdict was delivered, Clark was given the opportunity to speak. She apologized for her actions and added that she wasn’t really aware of the damage she had caused.
She and her attorney both asked the judge for an extra five days to settle their cases.
The judge said no to that. He added that probation is “inappropriate in this regard. Not by a long shot.” He then sentenced her to 5 years in state prison. With 30 days already sentenced and with good behavior in prison, she will most likely only be behind bars for 2 years and 5 months.
After sentencing, Jamie Newell, a victim of Clark’s, said: “I mean, two and a half years go by in the blink of an eye, and then she’ll be right back on the street to do it again.”
The first woman to tell us about Clark, Darlene Simmons, who is not on this felony conviction because her case is so old, also attended the sentencing. “She’s going to go to jail. Oh man, but I feel like that won’t be long enough,” she said. “I don’t think she thought or felt that she did anything wrong. The attitude in court just now was ‘Well, me, me, me’. What about the people you fooled? what about the rest of us? through what the hell are we going through right now?”
Simmons accused Clark of defrauding her from $73,000 of her 401k. She filed a civil lawsuit against Clark and received a $225,000 judgment.
In this criminal case, just days before Clark’s trial is scheduled to begin earlier this month, Clark has agreed to a plea agreement on the six counts she faces.
Jury selection was set to begin in Clark’s trial before a plea agreement was reached. That trial was originally scheduled to begin in April but has been adjourned after both the judge and prosecutor in this case brought up COVID-19.
Over two years ago, you first heard the name, Candace Clark. In January 2020, the CBS 2 Investigators brought you the puzzling story of her deception from decades ago.
First, we told you about her elaborate product during which she was sworn in as the Director of Special Investigations for the State of Illinois. In one of them, she was sworn in as a United Nations attaché. CBS 2 confirmed she never held either position. The state location does not exist. The ceremonies are pseudo. The speakers and most of the audience were hired actors – Many of them told CBS 2 that they never got paid.
Our second investigation revealed Clark’s decades-long pattern of live without rent throughout Chicago and its suburbs. Some are even Lincoln Park multi-million dollar luxury homes. Several landlords have told us stories of how Clark would find her way into their homes by providing a prepaid check that would return a few days later and then she would never pay the rent. . The landlords had to kick her out to get her out. That process can take months or even years. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) deported Clark from Lincoln Park to Fiori Hadera’s home the day before Clark was arrested.
From 2008 to early 2020, the CBS 2 Investigator compiled 24 cases in which landlords accused Clark of dumping rent, owed them approximately $300,000 in lost rent and damages for repairs. leave.
Chicago police arrested Clark shortly after our report was aired.
The most egregious charges involve Clark using forged documents to rent those luxury homes in Lincoln Park and never paying any rent – more than $80,000.
