Catching Candace Clark: A CBS News Chicago Special Report

people who are trying to find time and time again the cbs 2 investigators received tips from viewers who claim to have been scammed or ripped off with fraud being difficult for law enforcement to pursue victims are left empty-handed and confused about what exactly happened to them one particular tip that jumped out at me was about a woman who turned chicago into her own playground the cbs 2 investigators take you along in catching candace clark your impression when you first meet her candace yeah um kind uh timid shy um soft-spoken your impression now a liar a fake a psychopath sociopath a thief a betrayer there is clearly something special about candice clark good afternoon she often stands before a room full of admirers i appreciate people wanting the same things that i'm wanting and looking for justice the same way that i'm looking for justice her resume boasts an undergrad degree in criminology from uic an mba from depaul prestigious positions and community service director clark has created a new program called the robbins reconstruction act all of this is impressive none of it is true the uic degree never happened mba from depaul nope all these jobs no record community service no history raise your right hand so why is clark standing before a judge taking an oath i can't not just once but often february may and november and the laws of the state of illinois candace clarke is the first african-american woman to hold the director of special investigations position in the state of illinois but this is all fake there is no such position in the state of illinois so who are these people and why are they attending a phony ceremony why because candace clarke hired them [Music] rich daniels city lights orchestra [Music] singer suzanne palmer in the audience extras sent by a local casting company and repeat after me remember the judge and raise your right hand independent film actress jamie newell you burned a building down with a lame stunt just another minute newell actually helped produce some of the ceremonies designed the flyers and introduced clark to other performers a decision she now regrets it really broke my heart newell says she fell for the elaborate tale clark weaved about judges and state officials not being available for clark's swearing swearing-in ceremonies so she was given permission to hire actors in order for her to begin her job with the state she needed to be sworn in and that the swearing-in needed to be videotaped there was just something about her that made you like her yeah yeah you have to be scratching your head by now and wondering why did clark do this what was she after that was that was simply my question and every other actor's question why why why the only explanation that i've heard that seems to make sense is that she was trying to create enough proof of who she was and the selfless acts that she was doing for the state um that they were going to then get wonderful um donations from large corporations that's what she told you um that's what yes yes yes um and you think that she would be able to get donations based on proving to a corporation that she is who she is so you think she she was ultimately going to try and scam corporations absolutely and also did you know the great lakes naval you know the great lakes naval academy brought in um a group to do um to be the color guards for when for which event was this uic for the for the one that you produced yes how many actors again would you say and how much were the actors supposed to be paid and were they paid no nobody has been paid nobody nobody has been paid and there are people like my uh i had a translator who had to give up she gave up a workshop you know somebody who signed the program um i had a woman who teaches for special needs she was the singer at the program she gave up that day of teaching so they not only didn't get paid they lost money of the things they were supposed to do on those days that they you know so um how much were they supposed to get paid well each person is different you know the singer got paid different roughly between 350 to 800 dollars you know for an event so in no one got paid no money passed through anyone's hands i felt proud that she was the first african-american in this position and to know that it was all a fake a hoax add up with clark o's newell the singers musicians cast and company sign language interpreter and extras it's nearly 21 thousand dollars in late october newell finally learned from a friend clark never worked for the government and everyone had been duped i was blown away i was mortified i was shocked i don't understand people that do stuff like this i went undercover at one of the ceremonies looking for answers my iphone video is a little shaky because i'm nervous as clark is walking toward me i think i've been made i'm sorry but this is from the invitation she couldn't figure out how she knew me but she knew she didn't hire me she politely asked me to leave and we don't even know who invited you i was kicked out left but soon returned to confront clark there's a silver suit against you people who are trying to find and that's my face no i'd like i'd like you to answer some questions the main question why produce this elaborate hoax we're not the only ones asking i just want to understand like what's the purpose the question comes from members of the morse science temple of america i believe justice is justice they believed clark was a prominent state official because they had attended her ceremonies we were believing that this woman would be of assistance to us at the time they had no idea most of these people were actors director clark has created a new program reading from a script clark had written then one of them came across this facebook post calling clark a scammer they now wonder if they were her next target very displeased just very displeased she got me good darlene simmons posted that facebook message she got me good simmons met clark in 2014. at the time clark was pretending to be a real estate agent showing her several places so simmons had poor credit so clark offered to use simmons money but put the house in her name the following year she'll have it turned over in my neighborhood as you might imagine simmons never got a new home and she ended up losing 73 thousand dollars to clark she's a devil that 401k i worked 40 years at the tribunal for 40 years to have it taken from me how could you do that i wasn't prepared this woman who has lied about her resume pretended to be a state employee and a real estate agent is a graduate of percy julian high school and a two-time felon for fraud and impersonating a police officer kansas didn't start with me and she's not going to end with me to get a better understanding of clark's past we have to take a trip down memory lane back to high school right here that's her back then she was candace dixon student percy julian high school member of big brothers and sisters the modeling club math team i remember her walking class going to class and everything but i really didn't socialize with a former classmate who chose not to be identified says early on there were signs candace might be headed down a different path well she was team usa that's what was told to us you know by her she had the crown the sash a picture to prove it miss teen illinois 1987 only there's one little problem the 1987 miss teen usa pageant we found the video with all the state winners including miss illinois surprise surprise it was not candace but candace clarke is not in high school anymore some would argue that clark is best known for wreaking havoc on chicagoland homeowners let's take you back to january 2020 the thunder is not just of cook county sheriff's officers an intimidating sound to most sweet music to fiore hedera's ears now i am happy it happened today i am just i can you see this is her house the sheriff's officers are here to help her take it back so to finally be here yeah this is a nice feeling but it was hell for four months i don't know we have bad feeling hedera and her husband advertise their urban northside mansion for several thousand dollars a month clark had her eyes on the prize she'd signed a lease to pay nine thousand dollars a month but never paid a penny you gave the realtor the keys the real training and you had gone over and spent five thousand dollars to clean the place and to paint it and then uh there was a tent broken you had to mix them right here and doors changed the locks clark then gave hedera the check she was waiting for she gave you an 18 000. it's a fraud check yeah fake when did you find it the number doesn't match even normal person when he see when you see the check cutting passing you know she did it by herself there is not normal check like that so at that moment when you realize she's given you a fake check we called her candace why uh they checked his fraud and she said oh i lost my check all my checks i lost it clark looked good on paper she had a state job an annual income of two hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars and a credit score of seven thirty four the problem it was all alive one thing is for certain clark will never live here again but the five bedroom five bath 2.5 million dollar mini mansion is not the house hedera left [Music] i can't believe it liquor bottles littered the floor whoa it reeks of cigarette smoke spoiled food see the meat damage everything didn't clean the back door they broke it and they left behind many of their belongings including something you won't believe hedera found this printer and then there were these phony bank of america checks each one of them with the same check number what was clark up to you design here's what we do know at least two of clark's victims showed us bounce checks with the same check number as the fake ones found in the house we lost almost 50 thousand hedera is not the only homeowner clark is accused of swindling since 2016 the cbs 2 investigators confirmed clark has been evicted from eight locations modest condos to luxury mansions cheating landlords out of nearly a quarter of a million dollars but it's not just homeowners clark also targeted those looking for somewhere to live too she's evil she's a monster stenita ware was one of the few willing to go on camera and her story dates back two decades i had to share my story because it didn't start just now this happened 20 years ago where was a college student with a two-year-old son when she says she was conned by clark back then clark was pretending to work for a non-profit that helped young mothers buy homes she was awesome she seemed like she really cared about my life where ended up giving clark more than 3 thousand dollars what person can sleep at night knowing that i'm taking money from this woman's child we're not only had a compelling story is that you that's me she had video i want to thank you for coming out that's candace i don't know what to say clark was at a ceremony being honored for her work because i didn't know that people thought of me that way that's all fake honor to be here but at the time a young weir praised her friend with the poem a good friend and a mentor so those titles best describes you i was really excited for my friend and to know that it was all fake that hurts i try to do what i can for young women over the years a lot of people claim to have been hurt by clark one viewer sent us this 2007 police report from hazelcrest the complaint candice clark was posing as a law enforcement officer in selling goods police had confiscated from drug dealers the accuser says she gave clark six thousand dollars and got nothing in return altogether we identified 86 people in companies that have lost money to clark added up the total comes to a whopping 469 thousand dollars between 2008 and 2010 clark was arrested six times in chicago in three other suburbs she's faced charges of theft writing bad checks and impersonating a police officer it's her high she she's not going to stop it's in her blood the most clark ever got was probation this time clock's accusers are hoping the outcome is different so including the latest one stephanie bennett who now lives in texas she cost me my home i lost my home bennett is not exaggerating she was just 27 years old in 2010 when she bought this 225 thousand dollar house in suburban midlothian like look what i accomplished five years later bennett was moving out of town so she rented her home to clark for two thousand dollars a month it was awful it was an awful experience for eight months clark lived rent free when she left the place was a mess and bennett was 16 000 in the hole i couldn't keep up with the payment of someone trashing my home and then the repairs that would need to be done i had to go into foreclosure bennett now echoes what others have said when asked about clark's future and the next place she should call home behind bars for a while a long while chicago police arrested candice clark on january 17 20 20. i had been tracking her trail and talking to her victims for weeks leading to her arrest listening to their emotional and painful stories of losing thousands of dollars to clark my supervisor called me and i can hear her darlene they got her they got her police got clark nailed her at a gold coast starbucks before i knew it i just i couldn't hold back the tears i'm between a rock and a hard place but right now i don't mind being there because it got her clark got caught just after 10 a.m police called herself she answered while inside the starbucks they say she was wearing a hat t-shirt and carrying fake ids they got her and no i can't do this the timing of her arrest shortly after my previous stories appeared on tv and in social media is no surprise to cbs 2 legal analyst irv miller i think the fact that you're doing this and letting the public know about it will light a fire under the police department this is called a heater case now that channel 2 is interested in this particular topic clark ended up spending two weeks behind bars at the county jail following her arrest her bill was set at 15 000 on january 31st clark's sister belt her out on february 13th clark appeared at the circuit court of cook county a real opportunity to actually see and talk to clark in person i got there bright and early to catch up with her what do you say to those people candice clark was probably surprised to see our camera outside the courthouse because she was early it was only 10 o'clock and she didn't have to be here until 11 30. courthouse rules restrict reporters and cameras to a roped off area against the wall candace so i had to shout my questions and hope clark would stop candice don't you want to say something to all of those people who are accusing you of ripping them off you're wrong instead of explaining further clark kept walking we caught her peeking outside the courtroom where judge was expected to formally read the charges against her only the assistant states attorney asked for a continuance ford was over in less than a minute my turn now for follow-up questions what's wrong with my story why do you say what do you say they're wrong that was our dorothy tucker reporting for the past year clark appeared in court multiple times via zoom or at least said she tried to however clark claimed she couldn't get multiple phone cameras to work in january 2022 a judge said this has gone on long enough after clark's new attorney asked for more time to meet with his client now her next court date will be later this month when a trial date could finally be set

Channel: CBS Chicago

Views: 416,382

Keywords: CBS Chicago, Local News, CBS News, Chicago News, CBS 2 News Chicago, WBBM-TV, CBS 2, Candace Clark, accused serial scammer, candace clark chicago, candace clark ceremony, candace clark scam

Id: LpJQGH76MNE

Length: 19min 6sec (1146 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 07 2022