A former Cook County Clerk’s Office part-time employee has filed a lawsuit accusing Clerk Karen Yarbrough of misusing her office by pressuring him into buying derelict commercial properties she didn’t own in order to boost her real estate business and then retaliating when he complained.
George Ferro and his business, Private Holdings, filed a complaint July 24 in Cook County Circuit Court against Yarbrough and her husband, Henderson Yarbrough, who was Maywood village president from 2005-2013 and a trustee through 2019. The village also is a named defendant, as is Chicago Title Land Trust Company, named as the successor trustee to Austin Bank of Chicago.
Ferro, who works for the Clerk of the Circuit Court, said he was a part-time county clerk’s office worker in 2019, working during election season. It was then he met the Yarbroughs’ daughter, whom he said told him about Karen Yarbrough’s commercial property business Donora Realty.
“At the first meeting” between Karen Yarbrough and Ferro, he alleged, she solicited him to buy a two-story building with commercial storefronts at 1001-1009 S. 17th Ave. in Maywood, held in the Austin Bank of Chicago Trust. One tenant was the Proviso Township Democratic Party, which Yarbrough said paid $750 in monthly rent.
Ferro said he negotiated with Yarbrough, her brother Donald Williams Jr., and a sister, and on Dec. 19 gave her a $5,000 earnest payment. The parties closed Dec. 24, at which Ferro paid $106,000. He said he “discovered in the following months that” the political party wasn’t and wouldn’t pay rent, that Yarbrough’s relatives rented the upstairs apartments and that the roof leaked extensively.
He further alleged that in 2020, after Williams died, Yarbrough contacted Ferro again to buy property at 1023 S. 17th Ave. in Maywood. Upstairs tenants again included Yarbrough relatives, while commercial tenants included a clothing store the family owned, as well as Donora Realty. Ferro said he paid $100,000 for that property in June 2020, and claims he since spent more than $300,000 improving both properties with new roofs, water heating and electrical systems along with other “structural renovations and repairs.”
“Within weeks” of taking possession of the 1023 property, Ferro alleged, all but one of Yarbrough’s relatives stopped making rent payment and stopped paying the village’s water bills, while the business tenants in Yarbrough’s control also stopped paying rent for their commercial space. He alleged village building inspectors told tenants not to pay rent, attempted to pass the unpaid water bills to Ferro, interfered in his attempts to get new tenants and sent “inspectors for repeated inspection to assess unfounded violations.”
Ferro further alleged third parties, working with Yarbrough, purchased past unpaid property taxes on the buildings, while Chicago Title Land Trust Company has asserted Yarbrough “never possessed the legal authority to enter into contracts” for either property. He said Yarbrough has refused to provide a deed for either property and alleged Yarbrough insisted “the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County has commenced proceedings to terminate” his employment.
Yarbrough has a well-documented history of credible corruption accusations. When she was Cook County Recorder she faced a lawsuit from employees who alleged their failure to support her political ambitions cost them professional advancement opportunities, and in 2020 a federal judge said her office violated decades-old court orders prohibiting politically motivated employment decisions.
Formal allegations in Ferro’s complaint include counts of fraud and civil conspiracy against Karen Yarbrough, aider and abettor liability against Henderson Yarbrough and the village, and specific performance and unjust enrichment against the trust. He wants a court to order the trust to tender the deeds and seeks punitive damages and legal fees.
Ferro is represented by Anthony J. Peraica & Associates, of Chicago.