“We think it could be Candas Clark”: accused serial fraudster evicted from another house pending trial

CHICAGO (CBS) – What has Candice Clark been doing for the last two years?

Since January 2020, she has been awaiting trial on charges of theft and forged identity cards. Since then, the trial has dragged on due to the pandemic, several lawyer changes, illness and, one day, the inability to work with his new smartphone. CBS 2 investigators recently found out what she has been doing for the past two years. This is similar to what she was doing before she was arrested.

ARREST AND EXPULSION 2020

Law enforcement arrested Candice Clark on January 17, 2020 at the Gold Coast Starbucks. After that there was an arrest CBS 2 investigation detailing Clark’s alleged disadvantages.

First we talked about her complex productions during which she was sworn in as director of the Illinois Special Investigations. In one, she was sworn in as a United Nations attache. CBS 2 confirmed that she had never held any of these positions. There was no public office. The ceremonies were fake. Actors and most of the spectators were hired actors. Many who participated in the productions told CBS 2 that they were never paid.

Our second investigation revealed Clark’s long-standing scheme living in houses without rent across Chicago and the suburbs. Some were even multimillion-dollar homes in Lincoln Park. Several landlords told us stories of how Clark spoke to their homes, providing advance checks that occurred a few days later, and then she never paid the rent. To take her out, the owners had to evict her. This process can take months or even years. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) evicted Clark from a home in Lincoln Park Fiori Hadera the day before Clark’s arrest.

Between 2008 and early 2020, CBS 2 investigators collected 24 cases in which landlords accused Clark of missing a lease, owing them about $ 300,000 in lost rent and repairing damage.

Two of these cases, including the Hadera case, relate to six crimes against Clark.

CLARK’S NEW HOUSE

Less than two months after Hadera’s eviction, Candice Clark found a new place to live.

Here’s the twist. Clark was not the woman who filled out and signed a new application to rent a small bungalow in Columet City.

The woman who applied “showed me that she could pay the rent,” the hostess told us. He wanted us to keep his name and face. He said the potential tenant’s salary showed that she was earning about $ 75,000 a year.

“She gave me a certificate,” said the owner. “And I called and confirmed that she is a good worker and a reliable worker. So I thought she would be a good tenant. “

The woman gave him a money transfer for rent for the first month plus a deposit – a total of $ 3,200. Money transfer is essentially the same as cash.

So the landlord rented the house to Velvet Dixon. She signed a lease agreement on March 13, 2020. After she allegedly moved, he said he no longer saw her in the property.

“Several times I went to the house to demand rent, and Velvet never met,” – said the owner.

March 13, 2020 also became a landmark day for Candice Clark. It was the day when she was formally charged with five counts of theft plus one of counterfeiting. There are six crimes in total.

NEIGHBORS: “This lady is a fraud”

Several times the landlord stopped at his property to try to collect the rent, he said he saw another woman there. He did not recognize her. But he said she gave him different reasons why she always opened the door instead of Velvet Dixon.

“She just came to spend a few days,” the host said. “Sometimes she came just to watch the house or to help Velvet clean the house.”

But who exactly was “she?”

CBS 2 investigators showed a neighbor across the street a photo of Candice Clark.

Michelle Martin recognized her.

“I saw her on special you are, ‘said Martin. – She was left alone. She was a mystery. She was impregnable. “

Martin said her husband along with their neighbor Ronald Sostand recognized the woman Candas Clark, whom CBS 2 investigators have been looking for for more than two years.

“From your reports we found out who she really is. This woman is a fraud. She has been deceiving people for years, ”Sostand said.

And then the neighbors let the owner know.

“I sent him the same link to your report so he could see who she was,” Sostand said.

COMMUNICATIONS

About six months after Velvet Dixon signed the lease, the landlord finally found out who lived in his house.

“When my neighbor showed me your documentary, I knew it was Candice Clark,” he said. “When I ran into her, she said she just came to visit. When I asked her about the dog, she just said she was walking the dog. ”

According to the lease agreement signed by Velvet Dixon, there will be no pets on the property.

“If Velvet hadn’t applied, Candice wouldn’t have lived on my property,” the landlord said.

So what is the connection between Velvet Dixon and Candice Clark? Clark’s court records show the relationship. Candace Clark spent two weeks in jail after her arrest in 2020. On January 31, Velvet Dixon wrote on a bail form that Clark was her sister, and paid $ 1,500 bail for Clark’s release.

Velvet Dixon is about seven years older. They both grew up in the Washington Heights community on the South Side and attended Percy Julian High School when Candas Clark was known as Candas Dixon.

The landlord said he believes that when Velvet Dixon rented his property, she was helping her sister again.

“The fact is that she did not rent a house,” – said the landlord. “She rented it out to hand it over to Candas Clark, knowing full well that Candas Clark would not pay.”

EVIDENCE OF 2022

In October 2020, the landlord filed for eviction of Velvet Dixon and unknown residents. A few months later, in January 2021, the process server took a photo of Candas Clark, the woman who opened the door. The process server sent a photo to the landlord.

But it was only after the worst pandemic ended and the state moratorium on evictions ended that Cook County Judge finally signed the eviction order in September 2021.

“It was very difficult to evict the tenant … It took a long time,” said the landlord.

The CCSO finally carried out the eviction on January 14, 2022. When the staff arrived, it was a cold morning at 8:15. As they approached the house, they saw a large dog peering out the window.

“Oh, here’s a big pit bull,” said one.

There was a knock on the door, the woman opened it. They entered the house with their guns drawn but aimed at the ground. “What room is this dog in?” One of them asked.

Moving the dog to another room, the woman, who was in slippers and a long house dress, went into the living room. It wasn’t Velvet Dixon.

CCSO staff spent a few minutes in the house talking to her. She told them they were trying to leave but the new place was not ready yet.

“As you can see, the material was ready to be sent. The material was in the truck,” she said.

Another officer explained to her, “The walk you have now is not good, okay? As for now, this eviction will continue today.”

She tried to convince them that Velvet Dixon had announced an emergency petition the day before, which postponed the eviction for a few more days. Clark gave the CCSO her maiden name Candas Dixon.

That’s when some of the officers recognized her:

• Worn Camera Officer (BWC): “She looks like this …”
• Another officer: “I think so.”
• BWC officer: “We evicted her last time, to the North Side.”
• Another officer: “Right.”
• BWC employee: “We think it could be that Candas Clark. She gave us another name.”

The CCSO allowed her to get dressed. Officers returned her two phones, documents and gave her a few minutes to collect the medicine and jewelry she had told them. She left the house with the dog. They both got into a moving Penske truck parked on the porch.

The eviction ended about 45 minutes after it began with the departure of a moving truck.

AFTER

The eviction was not the end of the story. The landlord removed Candas Clark and returned the keys, but what he saw when he entered the house provoked the following reaction: “I was very disappointed.”

“They left the property in a ruined state, my property was destroyed. The basement was littered with dog poop, ”the owner said.

The owner and his neighbor were photographed.

He said he lost $ 36,000 in rent and spent another $ 25,000 on cleaning and repairing his property.

“It hurts a lot,” said the owner. “It was big money.”

As for Candace Clark, the landlord said: “I would like Candace Clark to be sent away, to sit in jail, to sit in jail for at least some time to make people feel relieved. It destroys families. It destroys people’s lives. It needs to be removed. “

CBS 2 investigators were trying to find Velvet Dixon. We knocked on the door of the house, which she indicated as her current address in the 2020 lease. An unidentified woman inside shouted, “No, she doesn’t live here.”

Dorothy Tucker

Dorothy Tucker is a native of Chicago, raised in the communities of Londale and Austin in Chicago. She has been a CBS2 Chicago reporter since 1984. She is a reporter for the Channel 2 investigative team and is also the president of the National Association of Black Journalists.