Daughter of former Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright indicted
By Joseph RyanTribune reporter
April 11, 2013
chicagotribune.com
The daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — the controversial former pastor to President Barack Obama — was indicted today in an expanding federal probe of a state grant tied to a former suburban police chief.
Jeri Wright of Hazel Crest is accused of helping former Country Club Hills Police Chief Regina Evans convert fake paychecks from Evans’ nonprofit to Evans’ personal use, allegedly hiding money that was supposed to be used to train minority and female workers in the building trades.
Federal prosecutors in the Illinois’ central district say Jeri Wright received about $28,000 in grant-tied paychecks in 2009, but $20,000 of that was deposited back into accounts controlled by Evans. Prosecutors also say Wright then lied to officers and a grand jury.
The charges emerge about a year after Evans was charged with fraud in relation to a $1.25 million job training grant awarded to her nonprofit, We Are Our Brothers Keeper.
Evans and her husband are accused of siphoning money from the grant to pay friends and relatives and cover the mortgage on their landmark New Regal Theater on Chicago’s South Side — a venue they said they were trying to restore to its former glory as a cultural hub for the struggling area.
Evans, also a former Chicago police lieutenant, resigned as Country Club Hills police chief in 2011. Evans, through an attorney, has said she didn’t do anything wrong.
Jeri Wright, 47, faces two counts of money laundering, two counts of making false statements to officers and seven counts of giving false grand jury testimony. She couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
An attorney for Evans confirmed Jeri Wright is the daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor emeritus of the south side Trinity United Church of Christ, which Obama attended. |
