Tiffany Henyard, the mayor of Dolton, Illinois, was named in a sexual assault lawsuit, as investigations continue to mount around her.
A new civil lawsuit accused Henyard of retaliating against an employee who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Dolton Village Trustee Andrew Holmes on a work trip to Las Vegas, and the police officer who found out about the incident.
The lawsuit alleges Holmes called the officer, Byron Miles, after the incident, to tell stories of his sexual exploits during the trip. On the call, Holmes mentioned an experience with a Dolton employee who “may not have had the ability to consent and/or did not provide consent,” according to the complaint. The officer began to record the call, switched to FaceTime, and Holmes panned over to a partially undressed woman’s body while further describing his exploits.
After returning to Dolton, Miles told the employee, who said she had blacked out and was unaware of the alleged assault, what happened, according to the lawsuit. Afterward, the employee confided in Henyard and was placed on unpaid medical leave. The employee said in the complaint that in a conversation with Henyard, the mayor told her, “If the information got out, she would be ruined and all of the work she had done would be lost.” Henyard later fired the employee and removed Miles from her security detail.
A spokesperson for Henyard previously pointed news outlets to a past statement in which Miles denied the allegations, and the employee refused to give a statement.
Henyard first came to the national spotlight with corruption allegations that she “has used village coffers as her personal piggy bank” for lavish trips and other personal reasons, driving Dolton into considerable budget deficits.
Three other former employees are also currently suing Henyard for wrongful termination and allegedly making staff “withhold building permits and business licenses to people that didn’t donate to her campaign or just people she didn’t like in general.”
Henyard locked Dolton residents out of a village board meeting earlier this month, citing threats, despite there being room for them, and the meeting ended early due to trustees walking out in response.
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Henyard’s cancer charity, the Tiffany Henyard Cares Foundation, has also come under fire after not producing adequate documentation on how it uses funds.
Dolton’s Board of Trustees recently appointed former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot as an independent investigator to look into the numerous allegations against Henyard, but it is expected the mayor will veto the hiring as the board may not have had the authority to hire Lightfoot.