Pastor allegedly fraudulently transfers incarcerated brother-in-law’s property

A pastor is being accused of moving his own family into his incarcerated brother-in-law’s home despite instructions to care for the jailed brother’s wife and children.

Plaintiff Ernest Spiller filed the lawsuit against Rev. Ralph McGlown on Oct. 28 in the St. Clair County Circuit Court.

According to the complaint, Spiller was arrested on drug charges and incarcerated at the St. Clair County Jail in Belleville on July 2, 1999.

Two weeks later on July 15, 1999, Spiller contacted McGlown, who is his brother-in-law, to come to the jail and discuss real estate interests, including 946 Goelz Street in East St. Louis and 223 Elm Street in East St. Louis.

Spiller requested that the defendant oversee the properties and preserve them for the plaintiff’s family.

During Spiller’s incarceration, he asked McGlown to prepare a quitclaim deed and bring the document back to the plaintiff for review. Upon review of the materials, Spiller asked the defendant to apply a few stipulations and then signed the document, the suit states.

Then on May 31, Spiller contacted the St. Clair County Recorder of Deeds office to inquire the status of the properties. By July 14, he discovered that the properties had been fraudulently transferred to the defendant’s family, the suit states.

“The documents in which the plaintiff signed were in good faith knowing that the defendant, being a man of God, would oversee these properties and move the plaintiff’s wife and seven children back into the home,” the complaint states. “Although the defendant moved his very own daughter and her husband into the home rather than the agreement that the parties agreed and discussed.”

Spiller alleges he attempted to contact McGlown to resolve the issues without success.

“The defendant Rec. Ralph McGlown went on his own, without my knowledge and orchestrated fraudulent conveyances to transfer of the above properties,” the suit states.

Spiller claims he discovered two signatures of witnesses on the quitclaim deed that were not present on the documents when he signed them. The two signatures were made by the defendant’s employees, who weren’t present at the signing. Furthermore, the plaintiff’s name was misspelled,the suit states.

Spiller also alleges in his complaint that McGlown borrowed $35,000 on the property and then rented the home out. He claims that to his knowledge, the original renters have moved out of one of the homes, and the defendant attempted to move the plaintiff’s family into the home and charge them $900 per month.

Spiller seeks a judgment in the amount of $60,000 for the real estate’s value.

Spiller is acting pro se in this case.


St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 14-L-713