April Trial Date Set For Accused Serial Scammer Candace Clark After She Rejects Plea Deal
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After accused serial scammer Candace Clark rejected a plea deal that would have seen her sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, a Cook County judge scheduled a jury trial for April 18.
CBS 2 Investigator Dorothy Tucker has been following Clark's case for years. We uncovered the schemes that led to several felony charges against Clark. They include pretending to be a high-ranking state official, and renting luxury homes without paying her landlords.
Clark was arrested as a result of our reporting. She faces six felony charges: One for impersonating a state employee and five for theft by deception.
The most serious charges involve Clark using forged documents to rent luxury homes in Lincoln Park and never paying any rent - more than $80,000.
Cook County prosecutors had been offering a deal for Clark to plead guilty to all six counts and be sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, but when she asked for another 60 days to get her affairs in order, a judge said no, and Clark rejected the deal and asked for a jury trial.
CBS 2's Tucker caught up with Clark as she waited to enter the courthouse Wednesday. Clark did not answer Tucker's questions and instead talked about throwing up.
Tucker: "Have you been paying rent the last couple of years?"
Clark: "Would you please move?"
Tucker: "How have you been making a living the last couple of years?"
Clark: "Dorothy, would you please move? I don't feel well. Please, I'm literally about ready to throw up."
Tucker: "Your attorney talked to you about the plea deal, though. Is that making you want to throw up?"
Clark: "No, you make me want to throw up. Please leave me alone."
The judge in Clark's case scheduled trial for April 18, but Clark is due back in court on March 18 for pretrial motions.
The charges against Clark are related to complaints that took place in the last few years but the CBS 2 investigators uncovered victims and scams that started more than 20 years ago.
When she attended Percy Julian High, Clark told classmates she had been crowned Miss Teen Illinois in 1987. The CBS 2 investigators exposed that lie and revealed the truth. The real winner was Danielle Reese.
In the early 2000s, Clark posed as a community counselor, accused of ripping off young mothers. When Clark pretended to be a real estate agent, she gained the trust of retiree Darlene Simmons, and ended up conning her out of thousands.
"She's the devil," Simmons said.
Clark's most elaborate impersonation was when she posed as state employee. She produced six fake ceremonies, hired 50 actors, musicians, singers and racked up $20,000 in expenses and stiffed everybody.
Jamie Newell produced the elaborate events for Clark and hired the actors. Newell gave us the videos of the ceremonies after she said Clark swindled her and everyone else. One of the victims filed a police report.
Then there were the housing scams. Our investigation revealed Clark was a serial squatter. eventually cheating landlords out of more than $200,000 altogether.
We got a glimpse into how Clark wound up with the keys to several homes from something we found in a house she got evicted from years before. She left numerous documents behind, and even printed out a background report and glued her name to the email line.
Those weren't the only fake documents we discovered during our investigation. After Clark got evicted from the last luxury home, we found a printer she left behind. There were also phony Bank of America checks - each one of them with the same check number.
Two landlords who got taken for thousands complained to authorities about receiving fake checks. They showed us bounced checks dated years apart, but both had the same check number on them.
"I was a rookie she was a pro," said one landlord who asked to remain anonymous.
CBS 2's Tucker asked Clark's attorney, David Drwencke, if he was surprised that his client turned down the plea deal.
"No," Drwencke said. "Up to and including walking into the courtroom, based on the conversations we had, it's solely up to her."
Tucker also asked Clark herself again why she turned down the plea deal. Her reply was that she didn't do anything wrong, and she said, "I'll fight this to the end."
The most serious counts against Clark carry a minimum sentence of three years in prison and a maximum sentence of seven years.
The case hit a slight snag last week, after Clark didn't show up in court and instead called in from the hospital, telling the judge she had COVID symptoms and was told to quarantine while she waited for results. On Wednesday, her attorney confirmed she had tested positive for COVID-19 and is still recovering. But no one asked for proof in writing.