This story was republished from the Illinois Answers Project, a nonpartisan investigations and solutions journalism news organization.

CHICAGO — The City of Chicago has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $10 million from a north suburban woman and her real estate company in connection with a vacant-lot-turned-dumping-ground on the South Side, claiming that she is a “scourge on the city and its residents” and “the city’s worst landowner.”

The lawsuit, filed last week, targets Northbrook resident Suzie B. Wilson and her company, Regal LLC, which owes the city more than a quarter million dollars in fines and owns a West Englewood lot that for years has been a dumpsite for hundreds of decomposing rubber tires that “piled multiple feet in the air.”

The city contends Wilson’s actions are part of a broader pattern of her failure to maintain hundreds of vacant lots across the city “that plague some of the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods” on the South and West sides.

“She does not care that she is endangering the lives of countless city residents and causing significant environmental harm. She instead seeks shelter behind her sham corporations and limited liability companies,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Wilson’s reign of terror over numerous city neighborhoods must end. Enough is enough.”

In a joint investigative series last year, the Illinois Answers Project and Block Club Chicago revealed Wilson as the manager of more than two dozen companies that owe more than $15 million in unpaid rat-related tickets the city has issued to hundreds of vacant lots her companies control.

According to the latest lawsuit, Wilson has more judgments against her businesses than anyone else that owns property in Chicago “by a magnitude of 10 or more.”

Following the series, the city began going after Wilson in separate lawsuits.

Wilson and her attorneys did not respond to messages, and Genevieve Mary Daniels, an attorney for Regal, declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

The tires on the West Englewood lot at 6722 S. Ashland Ave. were removed from the 2,650-square-foot property earlier this month, only after the city had issued several violations, sent prelitigation letters and drafted the complaint, the city alleges in the lawsuit.  Before the tires were removed, they were a breeding ground for mosquitoes, a harbor for rats and posed an environmental and fire hazard for nearby businesses and residents.

The lawsuit notes that tire fires can “burn uncontrollably and at high temperatures” due to the air trapped in tire piles, while melted rubber generates oil, meaning these fires cannot be doused with water. Tire piles also create an environmental hazard because they release methane gas when they sit in the sun.

This lawsuit marks the city’s latest effort to try to collect from the deadbeat companies that the city maintains are owned by Wilson. Last year, the city went to court and consolidated the outstanding fines owed by Wilson and the companies into 27 lawsuits, each targeting Wilson’s different companies, according to city officials.

The city’s latest legal filing alleges that Wilson has tried to defraud the city by cycling her properties through different limited liability companies with the “apparent (but incorrect) belief that this relieves her of her duty to maintain these properties, and thus ultimately relieves her of any liability for the environmentally hazardous and life-threatening conditions she creates.” 

For the West Englewood lot, Wilson acquired the property in 1995 through a tax deed sale, deeded the property to one of the businesses she manages, Random LLC, and in 2008 transferred the property to Regal, according to the lawsuit.

Days after Illinois Answers identified Wilson’s role as the managers of these companies, Regal transferred management to newly created limited liability companies based in South Dakota — a state with records laws that do not require companies to list which individuals manage the companies. 

The city’s lawsuit states that she created these companies “to better shield herself from liability,” noting that one of her South Dakota companies is called “FCOC, LLC.”

“On information or belief, the acronym ‘COC’ in ‘FCOC’ refers to the ‘City of Chicago,’ the lawsuit states.

City officials declined to speculate what the “F” stands for.

This article first appeared on Illinois Answers Project and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.