Daley's press secretary owns reputed drug house
W. SIDE | Tenant evicted, but press secretary could face charges
Mayor Daley’s most trusted aide — press secretary Jacquelyn Heard — and her husband own a West Side building that was targeted earlier this year by the Chicago Police as a drug and gang house, officials confirmed Thursday.
Narcotics officers had raided the house at 5319 W. Adams on May 7, making two arrests and seizing 10 plastic baggies containing marijuana and heroin, police records show.
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)
Police referred the property to the city’s Law Department for possible prosecution of Heard and her husband under the Drug and Gang House Enforcement program. The Law Department has not filed any action against the couple, but the case remains under review, Law Department spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle said.
The case revolves around a female tenant who started renting a first-floor apartment in the house after Heard and her husband renovated the building in January.
The acting secretary of the block club for the 5300 and 5400 blocks of West Adams said she had stopped Heard’s husband, Henry Bassett, in the street in June and told him of neighbors’ suspicions that the house had become a hub for drug dealing.
“Young men were flagging down people on the street, obviously selling them drugs,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.
The woman recalled Bassett saying, “I am aware of it and am trying to get her [the new tenant] out.”
In an interview outside the house, Bassett said the tenant finally moved out Thursday. He said he had provided her with several months’ notice. Then on Aug. 5, he obtained an eviction order that gave the woman until Aug. 31 to leave, but Bassett said he gave her a little more time.
“We haven’t done anything unethical,” Bassett said. “When people come to rent an apartment, they don’t have ‘drug dealer’ on their foreheads.”
Heard said Thursday that she and her husband bought the house in October and had a background check done on the tenant, who lived there with two sons.
The tenant “seemed to be an upstanding individual,” Heard said in a telephone interview from Russia where she was traveling with the mayor.
Two or three months after the tenant moved in, Bassett noticed that there was not a lot of furniture in the apartment, but concluded that the tenant was probably just going through hard times.
But after residents notified Heard’s husband several times that they suspected drug activity around the house, Heard and her husband launched eviction proceedings against the tenant, Heard said.
“My husband and I have owned rental property for about 15 years,” Heard said. “It’s one of the pitfalls of property ownership. Sometimes you get a tenant who is not who they say they are. I am heartened that we have a police department with a Drug and Gang House unit that is so aggressive.”
Daley learned of the situation while he was flipping through a stack of reports on properties deemed drug and gang houses. He noticed Heard was listed as the owner of one of them, Heard said.
She could not remember exactly when that happened, but noted that the mayor meets with police officials about once a month to find out which areas of the city are experiencing drug and gang problems.
Heard said her husband manages the property and she’s only been there twice.
“Of course, I’d rather not be in this position,” Heard said, given her high-profile job.