Tiffany Henyard gets Fed attention

Anyone recognize that name? Mason wrote of her in the SPOTW on April 2. Ms. Henyard is the mayor of  Dolton, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. You should remember her as the  youngest  mayor in their history, a self-described “Super Mayor” – who has also attracted more than her fair share of publicity of the negative sort. Corruption, fraud, extortion, sexual harassment (not her, but an official of her administration)… not the stuff of re-election brags.

It’s been nearly three years since Henyard was sworn in as the youngest and first woman mayor of Dolton.

“She has taken lavish trips with village staff, and has caused the village to be in a multi-million dollar deficit,” said Trustee Jason House.

They say Henyard has used the village coffers as a personal piggy bank while Dolton’s unpaid bills have piled up.

Dolton is now currently about $5 million in the red, and attributes it to her spending. For instance, the police department, which normally has only a few officers per shift, has also been tasked with providing 2-3 officers constantly for her ‘security’, even when she is traveling. Not an easy expense for a town of  20,000 to suck up. Fox32

Meanwhile, Henyard’s charity “Tiffany Henyard Cares” was ordered to stop seeking contributions, Fox 32 reported.

The charity did not register with the Attorney General’s Office or detail how much money they have raised, according to the station.

An investigation by Fox 32 uncovered Henyard using a $10,000 Thornton Township donation for the charity.

They also reported on her using taxpayer money and public employees to support the troubled charity.

Lawrence Gardner, 57, said he visited an FBI office after Henyard shuttered his trucking business because he refused to renew a $3,500 political contribution.

“The FBI came out and went to talk to me and I gave them all the paperwork that I had,”

The business owner said he made an initial donation to Henyard, but she demanded more.

“I made the payment,” he said. “Then every year, she started coming and required the same thing, and we had a problem about that.”

When he refused to give her campaign more money, officials claimed he was illegally selling alcohol out of his business and pulled his license, according to Gardner, who said the allegations against him were false.

Nice little trucking business…be a shame if something happened to it.

Federal agents on Friday delivered multiple grand jury subpoenas to Village Hall in Dolton seeking records pursuant to the ongoing corruption investigation involving embattled Mayor Tiffany Henyard, several sources confirmed to the Tribune.  Chicago Tribune

That’s not good.

Four trustees who are at odds with Henyard have hired former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to act as a special investigator to investigate Henyard, including alleged reckless spending by the mayor that trustees say is driving Dolton into a multimillion-dollar deficit.

They also want Lightfoot, who is being paid $400 an hour, to look into a village-financed trip to Las Vegas, purportedly made to bring commercial business to the village that included Henyard, as well as other village officials and employees. Chicago Tribune

Beetlejuice is getting paid up to $30,000 by the village. Meanwhile on the sexual harassment charge:

The suit states the employee was with the village official after dinner and began to feel “disoriented” and “blacked out” and didn’t remember the events of the night until waking up in the official’s bed. A second plaintiff in the suit, identified as a police officer and member of Henyard’s security detail, alleges in the suit the official in a video call that evening showed the employee “partially undressed” in the official’s hotel bed.

The security officer alleges the official later said the sex he had with the employee was “unprotected.” The officer shared that information with the employee, who later included that information while recounting the events of the night to Henyard, according to the lawsuit.

But, according to the lawsuit, the employee was fired shortly after bringing the accusation against the official to Henyard. And the security guard alleged “within days” of telling Henyard about his interactions with the trustee, he was removed from his role in the mayor’s security detail and “demoted to patrol duty.”  Chicago Tribune

Sorry about that last paragraph – but it does seem to indicate she traveled with at least 2-3 additional folks to Las Vegas. What actually happened? Ask the Tribune, they wrote that mess.

Now, who is the one person you DON’T stiff when you have legal issues?

The law firm that represents the Village of Dolton and its embattled mayor, Tiffany Henyard, is withdrawing from nearly two dozen cases after not being paid.

“We are, of course, not required to work for free and decline to do so,” stated attorney Michael Del Galdo in a letter to Henyard and the Dolton Village Board.

The letter says the Del Galdo Law Group is withdrawing from defending the village and its officials in cases ranging from officer-involved shootings to jail suicides and other matters. It goes on to warn the mayor and trustees that the Village may owe more than $20 million in excess of insurance policy limits in a case against them that the previous administration and board declined to settle. WGNTV

I pity the folks of Dolton, sounds like their leadership has been a train wreck for years.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime