By Illinois Review
Last Friday, FBI agents made a surprise visit to Dolton Village Hall – a small suburb south of Chicago, and issued subpoenas – as Democrat Mayor Tiffany Henyard – dubbed the “worst mayor in America” faces numerous allegations of political corruption, silencing a sexual assault victim and misusing public funds.
On April 16th, Henyard’s top aide Keith Freeman, was charged with bankruptcy fraud and making false statements to hide financial information, including his sources of income in a bankruptcy petition. Freeman is a senior administrator in Dolton and Thornton Township. Henyard is both mayor of Dolton and the Thornton Township supervisor.
Henyard remains in the headlines amid allegations of misusing public funds to fund an extravagant lifestyle. While Dolton – a small village in Cook County with a population of 21,000, has a medium household income of $54,000 – Henyard makes nearly $300,000 per year as village mayor and township supervisor. The mayor-supervisor also flies first class and stays at luxury hotels while on “official” business trips. Henyard is also surrounded by police officers that make up her own personal security detail even when she is out of state – and back home, she is driven around in a presidential-style motorcade that has cost local taxpayers more than $1 million. Henyard even uses a gold encrusted microphone while speaking at village hall. And while the mayor-supervisor spends taxpayer dollars to fund her lavish lifestyle, local vendors are not being paid and the village and residents continue to struggle financially.
On February 14, 2024, the general counsel for the Kansas State Bank sent a letter to village hall stating that the village was $76,130 behind in making payments for city vehicles, including six police vehicles – and that Henyard was ignoring previous communications from the bank. The letter stated that the vehicles would be repossessed.
Henyard’s cancer charity is also under scrutiny – the Tiffany Henyard Cares Foundation, and the Illinois Attorney General’s office is hot on the organization’s trail. In March of 2024, WGN Investigates reported that the charity was almost entirely funded by taxpayer dollars. WGN also revealed that city employees were being paid stipends to do some work for the charity.
The mayor-supervisor is also accused of using her local political influence to silence a female sexual assault accuser who was making an accusation against her friend and Dolton Village trustee Andrew Holmes. The victim – a former assistant, claims that she was sexually assaulted by Holmes in a hotel room during a Las Vegas business trip last year, and she has since filed a civil lawsuit naming both Henyard and Holmes as defendants. The victim alleges several things in the lawsuit, including that Henyard tried to cover up the assault in order to protect herself rather than the alleged victim.
During the June 2022 Primary election, Dolton residents voted overwhelmingly to recall Henyard and kick her out of office, but she remained – taking her battle to court. In October 2022, an appellate court ruling dismissed the June recall vote – allowing Henyard to continue as mayor despite a majority of residents voting to remove her from office. At the village board meeting after the court decision, Henyard celebrated by mocking residents who tried to kick her out by singing a 1970s disco song “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead.
On November 1, 2022 – just days before the general election, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker made a visit to Dolton where he posed for a picture as Mayor Henyard and Andrew Holmes stood smiling next to him. In a post on her Instagram page that included the photo, Henyard wrote,
“Today was a good day JB Pritzker our Governor was in Dolton…I support and you should too. Please get out and Vote.”
While Dolton residents remain vocal and want Henyard kicked out of office, top Democratic officials, including Pritzker remain silent as the scandals continue to dominate national headlines – putting the small town of Dolton on America’s radar.
In August, Gov. Pritzker and Illinois Democrats will host the Democratic National Convention.
