Former County Clerk Delaney faces foreclosure again

 

 

Former St. Clair County Clerk Bob Delaney, who staved off foreclosure of his home in 2010 and last year, faces foreclosure again.

JP Morgan Chase Bank sued him and wife Janet on Aug. 29, alleging they didn’t make their April 1 payment or any since.

Bank lawyer Scott Zale of Chicago wrote that they owed $215,856 on their home at 48 Woodford Way in Collinsville, plus interest accruing at $27.35 per day.

A predecessor of the bank, Washington Mutual Bank, loaned the Delaneys $202,000 in 2002.

The bank failed in 2008, and JP Morgan Chase acquired the Delaney loan and others through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

In 2010, JP Morgan Chase and the Delaneys agreed to modify the loan at $201,870.64, for 22 and-a-half years at 6 percent.

Delaney wrote, “I have provided confirmation of my financial hardship, and as a result, am either in default under the loan documents or a default is imminent.”

The bank filed a foreclosure action last year, alleging the Delaneys had missed payments for almost a year. The bank and the Delaneys modified the loan at $218,034.93, for 40 years, at 4.625 percent in May 2012.

The bank dismissed the foreclosure shortly thereafter, but the agreement apparently broke down within a year.

The case file does not show assignment to a judge.

In addition to the foreclosure, the Delaneys face a collection action from Commerce Bank on a debt of around $90,000.

JP Morgan Chase’s foreclosure action names Commerce Bank as a defendant with interest in the property.

Delaney had served as county clerk – overseer of all elections in the county – since 1999. He resigned in June following a report based on an investigation by an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission officer, who stated that Delaney drank on the job, made racial slurs and instilled fear in his employees.

The investigation was prompted by the firing of deputy clerk Laura Romero on May 15. She sued the following day.

Delaney has said the allegations made by the clerk in the lawsuit are “bogus” and that there was nothing in the investigator’s report that would substantiate the fired worker’s claims.