Ex-CPS investigator says smeared as ‘racist,’ fired over corruption probes

By Jonathan Bilyk | Legal Newsline
The Center Square

A Hispanic former deputy corruption investigator has accused the Chicago Public Schools of firing her because she refused to relent in investigating allegations of potential corrupt acts, allegedly committed by people connected to powerful Chicago and Cook County politicians, while also allowing her to be wrongly tarred as a racist for her work exposing corruption committed by politically connected CPS school principals and local school council members.

Plaintiff Kelly Tarrant filed suit on Oct. 21 in Cook County Circuit Court against CPS, leveling counts of illegal whistleblower retaliation and anti-Hispanic racial discrimination, among other counts.

In the 29-page complaint, Tarrant claims CPS illegally terminated her in July 2025 from her position as a team leader and manager of investigations in the Law Investigations Unit within the CPS Law Department.

According to the complaint, Tarrant began serving in that unit in 2018. She came to that role after serving as “the first Deputy Legislative Inspector General” for the Chicago City Council.

According to the complaint, in her previous role, Tarrant had handled “public corruption cases that led to prosecutions and earned a reputation for professionalism and integrity.”

In her role within CPS, Tarrant said she also was assigned “sensitive and high-profile investigations,” including “matters involving principals, staff, contractors, and vendors where the allegations were significant and often politically sensitive.”

According to the complaint, Tarrant served in that role without incident until 2023, when her work substantiated accusations of mismanagement against the principal of Lindbloom Math & Science Academy, who is Black.

The complaint does not identify the principal by name. However, other reports published in 2023 identified the principal as Abdul Muhammad.

According to Tarrant’s complaint, her investigation led to Muhammad’s dismissal.

However, following the action against Muhammad, Tarrant claims she became the target of a smear campaign launched by Troy LaRaviere, administrator of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, and furthered by prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump.

Crump gained notoriety for his work representing the family of George Floyd, the man whose death while in the custody of Minneapolis Police sparked nationwide protests, riots and racial unrest during the spring and summer of 2020. Floyd’s death also was seized upon by left-wing activists in Illinois and elsewhere to push through controversial criminal justice reforms in the name of social and racial “justice” – reforms that critics have asserted worsened a nationwide crime wave in U.S. cities that only has begun to ebb.

According to the complaint, LaRaviere, Crump and others falsely accused Tarrant of racism, claiming she was improperly targeting Black CPS principals for removal.

When Tarrant asked CPS to speak up for her, her superiorsrefused her entreaties, and blocked her from responding to the allegations, she says.

The complaint specifically asserts CPS General Counsel Richi Verma “allowed Plaintiff (Tarrant) to be vilified and barred her from responding because she was Hispanic and the allegations were being made by Black principals and LaRaviere, who is Black.”

According to the complaint, Tarrant filed a complaint with CPS’ Equal Opportunity Compliance Office, accusing her superiors of racial discrimination against her, as a Hispanic, to protect Black school personnel accused of mismanagement.

According to the complaint, this resulted in her staff being cut and poor performance reviews for her handling of the Lindbloom investigation.

Later investigations by Tarrant allegedly further uncovered acts of corruption and mismanagement allegedly committed by another Black principal, identified as Gerald Morrow, and his assistant, Marva Nichols, at Dunbar High School.

According to the complaint, Tarrant’s investigation alleged Morrow had essentially taken over the high school’s pool for his personal use, including the creation of a “personal ‘salon’ with sofas and other amenities” in an adjacent office, and the installation of a massage table next to the pool, “at which he received massages,” while using the pool during school hours.

According to the complaint, Tarrant’s investigation alleged Morrow was using the pool to throw parties, “after which school staff found liquor bottles and bikini swimsuits in the pool area.”

According to the complaint, Morrow continued to maintain the pool and keep it filled, at taxpayer expense, even though the school no longer had a student swimming program and no students used the pool.

The investigation also alleged that two employees at Dunbar were improperly “using a local church … as their listed residence and voting address” to allow them to serve on Dunbar’s Local School Council.

According to the complaint, Tarrant’s investigation revealed that at least 17 people were using the church as their official voting residence, even though Tarrant said her research revealed no one actually lived at the church.

However, Tarrant’s complaint said her investigation resulted in further accusations of “racism” from LaRavierre and the CPAA and improper intervention from Cook County Board President and president of the Cook County Democratic Party Toni Preckwinkle.

According to the complaint, Tarrant’s superiors then removed her from the investigation, took control, and “removed many evidentiary aspects of the report in an attempt to hide misconduct.”

However, according to the complaint, Tarrant was ultimately terminated in July 2025 when she refused to back off an investigation of alleged misconduct and corruption against an LSC member at Steinmetz High School.

Tarrant is represented in the case by attorney Anthony J. Peraica, of Chicago.

She is asking the court to order CPS to pay unspecified compensatory damages for lost wages, benefits, career opportunities and future earnings, as well as damage to her reputation, plus attorney fees.