Chicago Alderman's Maywood "Investment Property" Has A History Of Drug Offenses
By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 29, 2012 5:20PM
Ald. Jason C. Ervin (28th)
Ervin, who used to be the village manager for Maywood, bought the three-flat in 2001 and stopped paying the mortgage on it after the housing market collapse in 2008. From 2001 through 2011 Maywood police were called to the property almost 150 times. Thirty of those calls were for drug-related offenses. The rest were for a litany of offenses including shots fired, fights in progress, criminal trespass, criminal sexual abuse and domestic battery. Former Maywood Police Sgt. Dwayne Wheeler said the property was on his department’s “hot list”—a list of places police would check each day for criminal activity.
Ervin told Fox News Chicago and the BGA the property was already in an area known to be troublesome when he purchased it, and that he let his tenants know he would sign any arrest warrant presented to him related to criminal activity on the property.
What we’re concerned with is how an alderman (with a steady income) simply walked away from a mortgage. Ervin said he “informally” stopped owning the Maywood property in 2009 and Wells Fargo took over ownership in 2010. County records obtained by BGA and Fox News Chicago via FOIA indicated the legal transfer of the property wasn’t completed until earlier this year. Ervin also failed to show up in court for multiple code violations, was fined more than $1,000 and had a lien placed on the property by the village.