Eleven current and former Ford Heights officials are facing 79 felony charges after investigators raided the Village Hall on Thursday to execute a search warrant.
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office alleged in the charges that the officials illegally used village funds to pay for flights, hotel stays and “exorbitant spending excursions.”
Village Clerk Nyree D. Ford, 53, board members Johnny A. Griffin, 67, James E. Morgan, 48, and former Mayor Annie R. Coulter, 74, were among those who will be arraigned at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago on Wednesday. Former board members Scottie L. Hatten, 38, LaDell L. Jones, 61 and Antoina T. McMichales, 56, were also charged, along with Antone Adams, 59, Allis Franklin, 78, Mary Matthews Graziano, 65, and Dedra D. Lee, 65.
The attorney general’s office said the officials used public funds to pay for personal vacations to casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada and Michigan City, Indiana.
“Elected officials and civil servants are rightfully held to a higher standard, making it especially egregious when someone in power intentionally steals from the taxpayers they are supposed to be serving,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in his office’s news release.
Mayor Freddie Wilson denied knowing anything about the investigation Friday.
“I don’t know what they were looking for,” Wilson said. “I have no clue.”
He said he hoped Village Hall would reopen to the public on Monday, after unexpectedly closing Thursday due to the raid.
Wilson was installed as interim mayor two years ago, after former Mayor Charles Griffin was convicted of embezzling between $10,000 and $100,000 of public funds to benefit himself and others close to him.
Griffin was ultimately sentenced to four years in prison and fined $50,000. His indictment came after former Mayor Coulter, now charged, found secret bank accounts tied to Griffin holding $147,000 in public funds. Prosecutors said Griffin used those accounts to pay for goods and services that benefited himself and those close to him, spending thousands at such places as Walmart, Home Depot, Menards, L.A. Fitness and various restaurants.
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Griffin was mayor of the village of 1,750 residents from 2009 to 2017, and despite being under federal indictment was elected again to the post in 2021.
In the 1980s, a study deemed Ford Heights “America’s poorest suburb” for its financial crises, a trend that has continued in years since, including one in 2018. The village remains without its own police department or library.
After his appointment, community members questioned Wilson’s ties to Griffin and whether he would act similarly to his predecessor. Wilson, in turn, blamed Coulter, who served between Griffin’s two terms, for millions of dollars of debt accrued by the village. Coulter, Hatten, Jones and McMichales all brought unsuccessful challenges against Wilson during last April’s municipal election.
“Ms. Coulter didn’t pay no bills,” Wilson said at an October 2024 Village Board meeting. “I don’t know if I should say it or not, but it’s the truth.”
Chicago Heights, a neighboring suburb, has been trying to collect debt totaling about $2 million from Ford Heights for more than a decade, including suing the village.