Sept. 23--A Bentley-driving Cicero preacher who once made headlines for warning a federal judge about the "wrath of God" was convicted Wednesday of submitting false documents to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in state subsidies for day care centers.
After deliberating for about 11 hours over two days, a federal jury convicted Herman Jackson on all 13 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and lying to the FBI. His wife, Jannette Faria, was also convicted of all five fraud counts against her.
After the verdict, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ordered Jackson taken into immediate custody, citing his previous behavior while out on bond awaiting trial and noting he faces a potentially lengthy sentence.
In July 2013, Jackson, the leader of the Ark of Safety Apostolic Faith Temple, was quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times warning "the wrath of God almighty shall soon visit (Coleman's) home," saying she had mocked the sanctity of marriage by not allowing him to live with his family in Georgia while awaiting trial.
The statement prompted an investigation by federal authorities and heightened security at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse after Coleman ordered Jackson to appear and explain himself. After a bizarre hearing in which Jackson apologized and called Coleman a "Nubian queen," the judge allowed him to remain free.
On Wednesday, after the judge ordered his detention, Jackson said nothing as deputy U.S. marshals approached and told him to take off his belt. When the hearing ended moments later, he kissed his wife and was led away to the courtroom lockup.
Coleman set sentencing for Dec. 21.
Jackson, 39, was charged in 2012 with fraudulently obtaining state Child Care Assistance Program subsidy payments by submitting false documents for a succession of three Chicago-area child care centers that he operated through his church. Jackson used the money to fuel a lavish lifestyle that included a leased Bentley, trips and stays at fancy hotels, according to prosecutors.
One of Jackson's day care centers, ABC Cicero, had so many safety violations, including raw sewage, insect and rodent infestations, standing water and lack of heat, that it was shut down by Cicero in February 2011, prosecutors said at trial.
Even after it was closed, Jackson and his wife continued to collect subsidy checks for child care, in some cases forging the signatures of parents to make it appear they were still sending their kids to the facility, prosecutors said. When confronted about the payments by the FBI, Jackson initially claimed to have no ownership interest in the facility, then later blamed an underling.
In his closing argument Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Ridgway mocked Jackson as "the Bentley-driving lover of the poor."
"Over 10 years, he built nothing short of a fraud empire brick by brick," Ridgway said. "No lie was too outrageous."
Jackson, who represented himself at trial, claimed that the FBI agent who investigated the case as well as the parents and former day care administrators who testified against him were all liars.
"I am not a quitter, I am a believer," Jackson said at the end of his closing argument as he scrolled through notes on his iPhone. "I've always tried to do my best."
jmeisner@tribpub.com
