Former Gary Mayor Jerome Prince has acknowledged in court documents that he defrauded donors by using campaign funds for his personal expenses, including the purchase of a private residence. Court records filed Oct. 9 in U.S. District Court detail a scheme in which Prince misappropriated roughly $26,750 from his mayoral campaign between 2019 and 2020.
Prince, who served as mayor of Gary from 2020 to 2024, admitted to transferring campaign donations into his personal accounts and using the money to finance his home.
“I misled donors by falsely representing and causing to be falsely represented, directly and by omission, that donations made to the Committee to Elect Jerome Prince for Mayor campaign committee were being used for campaign purposes, when, in fact, I used a portion of the money provided by donors to the Committee to Elect Jerome Prince for Mayor campaign Committee for my own personal purposes, including using committee funds as part of the real estate transaction to finance the purchase of my personal residence,” Prince said in his plea agreement.
As part of a plea deal, Prince — a political stalwart in Lake County for decades who once oversaw real estate taxation for the county — has agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud. Prince’s sentencing date is unknown at this time. The plea agreement must first be accepted by a federal judge.
In October 2019, just months before being sworn in as mayor, Prince withdrew $7,000 from his campaign’s bank account, later using $5,000 of those funds to obtain a cashier’s check. This check was paid to a real estate brokerage as part of his initial payment for a personal residence. Prince did not report the $7,000 cash withdrawal on the required expenditure reports for his campaign.
Then, on Oct. 14, Prince wrote a $19,750 check from his campaign’s bank account to a company, which was used to finance the purchase of his personal residence.
“As a result of my previous experience as the Lake County, Indiana elected Assessor, I was very familiar with the rules and regulations regarding the use of campaign funds,” Prince said in the plea agreement. “Specifically, I knew Indiana campaign finance law restricted the use of money contributed to a campaign committee.”
Prince, who won the Democratic primary for mayor in May 2019 by defeating incumbent Karen Freeman-Wilson, went on to win the general election that same year. Before becoming mayor, Prince spent over two decades in public service, serving as the Lake County assessor, a Lake County councilman, and a Gary city councilman. Prince was defeated in his 2023 bid for reelection by current Mayor Eddie Melton in the Democratic primary.
Prince, a Gary native and graduate of Lew Wallace High School, began his political career after serving in the U.S. Marines. He became a precinct committeeman and was elected to the Gary Common Council in 2000. Known for taking independent stances, Prince often found himself at odds with other city officials, navigating his political career on his own terms.
In 2008, he stepped down from the Common Council to represent Gary on the Lake County Council. Six years later, in 2014, he successfully ran for Lake County assessor, overseeing real estate taxation across the county.