Woman Sues City of South Bend in Grant Fraud Case

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A South Bend woman is suing the city of South Bend over grant fraud discovered during a REAL News Michiana investigation. Sherrie Weekly is seeking unknown damages stemming from the fraudulent scheme in which the city unilaterally changed the name on a grant that was to be awarded to her, and instead gave the grant to a friend of the person running the grant initiative. The notice of tort can be seen below.

The lawsuit comes after REAL News Michiana obtained audio of a high ranking South Bend city official admitting to altering the name and information on a grant application, resulting in thousands of dollars being given to the friend of her boss. The city official also admitted to hiding information from the media.

The conversation is between South Bend’s Group Violence Intervention Manager, Romona Bethany, and Sherrie Weekly who applied for the city grant. Bethany tells the Weekly she changed the name on her grant at the direction of her boss, Maurice “Moe” Scott, to award Scott’s friend $7,000. Scott is the city’s Director of Community Initiatives.

RNM also obtained documentation of the grant alterations which are shown further down in this story. Portions of audio from the above mentioned conversation are posted throughout this story for supporting documentation. RNM is in possession of nearly 40 minutes of audio from that conversation.

RNM has been investigating associated fraud within the city grant initiative for nearly 8 months. In that time, RNM reporter Clifton French has been threatened with arrest and prevented from visiting government offices due to his diligent investigating. All evidence of the intimidation from government officials is cited in this story as well.

THE GRANT

RNM’s investigation is focused on the South Bend Alive Grant initiative.

According to the city’s website, the “Alive grant program is part of the City’s ongoing efforts to reduce incidents of gun violence in the community and provide constructive initiatives for South Bend’s young people.” The city gave 50 organizations these grants totaling $350,000. The Alive program is in its first year of operation and is run through the Department of Community Initiatives and its director Maurice Scott.

RNM obtained the applications, awards and other information about each of the grant awardees through a Freedom of Information Act request.

THE FRAUD

One application and award letter involving a program called CHOICES showed some glaring discrepancies. Both the application and award letter mention a woman named Sherrie Weekly and her organization, L&C Enterprises, which was putting together the CHOICES program.

The document describing the award starts with the following paragraph.

Dear Sherrie,

The Office of Community Initiatives has reviewed your South Bend Alive Grant application for L&C Enterprises. We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to receive partial funding.

“I never received anything like that.” Weekly told RNM when contacted about the paperwork. “I was told my grant request was denied.”

Later documents show a name change, with a woman named Aisha Avance being awarded $7,000. However, Avance is not listed on any of the application documents or the previously mentioned award letter. You can view all of the documents below.

Concerned about the discrepancies, Weekly reached out to the city regarding her grant and the award process. Weekly spoke with the city’s Group Violence Intervention Manager, Romona Bethany. Below is the audio and transcript of Bethany admitting to altering the name on the application and award.

Bethany: You know what, Sherrie? I really wish that you didn’t engage with him. I’m not sure if you know who he is and if you’ve ever had any interactions with him but Clifton French is notorious for just reporting negative news about largely the black community but his agenda is Right. He’s very Republican and very hell-bent on agendas and his form of reporting I have no respect for. My office has no respect for and we don’t entertain him or engage him at all and I really wish that you knew that beforehand. Anything that has to do with Alive is under me and I think in the future if anybody brings to you anything about Alive, especially reporters, you can direct them to me. And I wish that he, he, that’s, I don’t know. Like, I feel that most people who are activists or are community workers, they are very well aware of who he is and what he brings with him. With him comes mess, all the time. His track record precedes him and I guess my assumption is that you didn’t know that.

Weekly: Huh uh.

Bethany: You have a right to know who he is.

Weekly: You know I’m not from here.  I don’t know nobody, but he was, when I talked to him, he was very respectful. He was just asking me, he said I got this paperwork; I’m checking on the grantees, you know, and I came across yours and you know, I’m like, no, I don’t have, I didn’t receive a grant and he was like, ma’am, yes you did, it’s here and I have the paperwork in front of me and I was like no, I didn’t ever receive it, I was, you know, denied and he’s like, no ma’am and that’s when he sent me the papers and I was like, what the hell?

Bethany: Yeah. That is, he’s messy, Sherrie. He’s very messy so I would caution you with any further interactions with him.

RNM has been stonewalled by Bethany and the city regarding our investigation into alleged crimes involving the Alive grant. Clifton French approached Bethany at her office on August 10th to get information about the grants. Bethany said she would schedule a sit-down interview via email, however she has never responded. That entire interaction was also recorded and can be listened to below.

RNM has also sent multiple emails to Mayor James Mueller, his communications staff and Alive grant workers with no responses.

INTIMIDATION

One of the main subjects of RNM’s investigation is Aisha Avance, who is a Democrat Deputy of the St. Joseph County Voter Registration Office. In an attempt to prevent RNM from digging into her involvement in alleged crimes, Avance has attempted to get journalist Clifton French arrested and has filed an erroneous protective order.

In the entire 8 months of this investigation, RNM has contacted Avance 3 times. Once by calling her work phone at the County-City building in March. Several days later, RNM left a voicemail on her cell phone. And, on August 10th, RNM’s Clifton French attempted to speak with her while she was working in the taxpayer funded Voter Registration Office. RNM recorded that entire interaction. It can be viewed below.

Avance lied about those interactions in order to obtain a protective order against RNM’s journalist by claiming he refused to leave the Voter Registration Office after being asked to leave. As you can tell in the video provided, RNM left the office as soon it was requested. You can view the protective order below.

Several days later, Avance attempted to have a warrant issued for Clifton French’s arrest by filing a report, claiming he violated the protective order by continuing to report on our investigation. You can see those court filings below as well.

Weekly also believes she may be experiencing intimidation. The same day Clifton French was served with the erroneous protective order, her car was destroyed in a brazen act of vandalism in front of her house.

In the pictures below, you can see all of the ties were slashed, the leather interior was sliced up and all of the controls were ripped from her steering column.

It’s unclear who committed the acts of vandalism, however it was only days after RNM contacted her about our investigation into the Alive Grant. It was also only days after RNM published a story regarding potential EBT fraud of another Alive Grant awardee. That story can be read here.

Weekly sent an email about concerns regarding her safety to Mayor James Mueller, Mueller’s Communications Staff and the general Alive Grant email address. Even after requesting not to be contacted by folks directly involved with the Alive Grant, she received numerous phone calls from a grant administrator and awardees. Weekly tells RNM, nobody else from Mueller’s administration has reached out. You can read that email below.

My name is Sherrie Weekly. I was recently contacted by a journalist who had Alive Grant paperwork with my name and information on it. I was under the impression that my grant had been denied and it was instead given to Aisha Avance.
The reporter just contacted me again, letting me know he had reached out to these three email addresses.
I want to make it clear that I am in fear of retaliation from Ms. Avance and others working with the Alive Grant. I do not want the Alive Grant employees to contact me. I do not want other Alive grant awardees to contact me. I would prefer someone in the Mayor’s office reach out to me directly.
After I was contacted by this reporter and he had published a couple of stories, my car was vandalized. All of the tires were slashed. The inside was destroyed. I fear this is intimidation from some of these people with the Alive Grant, either employees or awardees, due to this reporter just contacting me and writing a story about what he discovered.

CONTINUING TREND

RNM is not sure how many grants could have been altered like Weekly’s. And, we are continuing to investigate all of the awardees.

So far, RNM’s investigations into the Alive grant and its awardees have lead to the discovery of several potential criminal acts.

RNM uncovered a disturbing scheme in which one awardee, Justice for Michiana and its founder Vernado Malone, were taking and sharing nude photographs of the recently deceased at a local funeral home. Avance was listed as the president of Justice for Michiana at the time. You can read that story here.

Another awardee, Wright Chosen Ministries and its founder Lori Wright, is accused of taking food stamps from homeless families and selling them to a woman in Louisiana. Sources tell RNM, Avance is related to Wright through marriage. You can read more about that story here.

RNM is also in communication with state and federal investigators regarding the uncovered fraud.

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