Catherine Brown, a 2019 candidate for Chicago mayor who also received a prior settlement from the city over alleged police brutality, now faces charges for allegedly defrauding the Chicago Housing Authority.
According to a statement from the Illinois Attorney General's Office, Brown, 48, allegedly cheated the CHA out of $136,000 over 10 years. The charges received little attention until The Cook County Record obtained an identifying arrest number showing that she is the same Catherine Brown who in 2018 pocketed $800,000 in a controversial legal settlement stemming from an altercation with a police officer on Chicago's South Side.
The police officer in the 2013 incident on South Kerfoot Ave, Michelle Morsi Murphy, required hospitalization for her injuries after being dragged under Brown’s car. The alleged crime was serious enough that Brown was initially charged with aggravated assault and attempted first-degree murder. Murphy, for her part, earned a commendation from the Department for her actions that day.
Initial news stories, including one by CBS Chicago, recounted the violence of Brown’s alleged actions – which allegedly included punching Murphy in the face -- and the gravity of the charges against her. Brown was eventually convicted of misdemeanor reckless conduct.
But a 2016 CBS Chicago story, which included select video of the incident, portrayed Brown, not Murphy, as the victim in the incident. Brown’s civil lawsuit against the city was filed soon after the story ran, and in 2018 the city settled. In a statement about the settlement, the city's Law Department told CBS that it “only settles cases when it’s in the best interest of the taxpayers.”
Multiple attempts to reach Brown for comment on the housing fraud charges were unsuccessful.
A person answering a cell phone identified as belonging to a Catherine Brown living on Kerfoot Ave., also known as Catherine Brown D’Tycoon (a name she used when running for mayor), said she didn’t know what the reporter was talking about when asked about the Attorney General's criminal charges.
A 2018 interview of Brown in the Chicago Reader as a mayoral candidate identified her as pastor of the Kingdom Life Center. No phone number or address of the church could be found.
The Reader article also said that Brown was affiliated with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (which hosts a “Stop Police Crimes Committee”). A receptionist answering a phone call from a reporter said that Brown was an official with the group and that she would return the call. She never did.
It's unclear if CBS did not consider the AG’s announcement of the alleged housing fraud newsworthy in light of the earlier settlement with the city, or the station was unaware of the charges. An assignment editor did not return a call for comment.
On the housing charges, Brown faces up to 30 years in prison for, among other things, collecting subsidized rent on a property she jointly owned. A spokesman for the Attorney General office said there were no developments in the case since the charges were filed in March.
In early 2019, Brown was disqualified in her race for mayor after she declined to challenge objections to her petitions.
“Hundreds of her petition pages were photocopied and she didn’t meet the required binding standards, among other paperwork errors,” the Reader story said.
Finally, Brown told the Reader that one of her goals as mayor was to expand affordable housing options in the city.