A Dolton village employee has named Mayor Tiffany Henyard, the village, Thornton Township and a village official in a lawsuit filed Monday that accuses the village official of performing non-consensual sex with the employee after she had “blacked out” during a May trip to Las Vegas led by the mayor.
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 that the official in a video call that evening showed the employee “partially undressed” in the official’s hotel bed.
The official “then moved the camera to various private areas of (the employee’s) body displaying them on screen,” according to the lawsuit, “and at times moving or removing articles of clothing as he transmitted the images.”
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 was “demoted to patrol duty.”
Other forms of alleged retaliation alleged in the lawsuit include being forced to avoid the official and Henyard at events and being “subjected to criticism unlike his peers for various behaviors.”
Henyard, who is also the supervisor for Thornton Township, did not respond to requests for comment. The village official, who is named in the case but has not been charged by any law enforcement agency, also did not respond to requests for comment. Thornton Township official could not be reached. The assistant and the security guard are also named and could not be reached.
The lawsuit seeks to prove the defendants broke a variety of laws and seeks “civil remedies” if the village official violated the Nonconsensual Dissemination of Private Sexual Images Act. It also accuses the official of assault and battery.
The plaintiffs also are accusing Henyard, the village of Dolton and Thornton Township of violating the Human Rights Act. They argue that the village, township and Henyard violated the act by retaliating against them when they reported the official’s actions while on Las Vegas trip.
News of this lawsuit came after community members and some trustees called for an investigation into the Las Vegas trip. The trustees Monday approved hiring former Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot investigate Henyard’s spending.
hsanders@chicagotribune.com
