A new federal subpoena delivered recently to Dolton Village Hall seeks detailed records about trips made by village officials and expenses they were reimbursed for, as well as payments made to Mayor Tiffany Henyard and the village’s chief administrator, a source confirmed.
It’s the second time investigators have visited the village looking for documents in what they say is a probe that is in its early stages and has not resulted in any charges.
The most recent subpoena asks for more detailed information about expense reimbursements and other payments made by the village to Henyard and Keith Freeman, village administrator, according to trustees, who have separately hired former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to investigate Henyard and a village-financed trip made by her a year ago to Las Vegas.
Although it appears federal investigators are digging deeper into the village, trustees said Thursday it’s important to continue with Lightfoot, who will be paid $400 an hour to investigate Henyard and her administration.
The next Village Board meeting is Monday, and it’s possible Henyard could veto the hiring of Lightfoot, approved by four trustees opposed to her administration April 8 at a Dolton Park District facility.
“The feds have their own investigation and I’m pretty sure they are not going to provide us with the results right away,” Trustee Brittney Norwood said Thursday. “We don’t know how long it will take for the investigation since they are just getting started.”
Trustee Jason House said Lightfoot, as part of her investigation, “has resources that add value to the board’s ability to make decisions,” but that “we want to be mindful of what is being spent on this in light of the (federal) investigation.”
He said the detailed financial information requested in the new subpoena “should be a wakeup call for everybody (in Dolton government) that transparency is a requirement of the law.”
House and other trustees have said Henyard and her administration have kept them in the dark about the true state of village finances, and that during her tenure Dolton has accrued a multimillion-dollar deficit.
It’s the second delivery of subpoenas at Village Hall in recent weeks, with federal investigators delivering paperwork seeking documents April 19.
Those subpoenas, which two sources said do not name Henyard, came just days after Dolton chief administrator Keith Freeman, a close ally of Henyard, was charged with bankruptcy fraud in U.S. District Court as part of a related investigation.
He has since pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The new subpoena asks for payment disbursement information from the village, including expense reimbursements and credit card expenditures, to Henyard and Freeman as well as businesses operated or controlled by Freeman — Keith Freeman LLC and Government Staffing Advisors, according to sources.
Freeman, an Orland Park resident, is Dolton village administrator and is a manager with Thornton Township, where Henyard is supervisor.
Records related to trips taken by village elected officials and other personnel are also being requested, including expense reports and credit card receipts, sources confirmed.
Trips include visits in October 2022 to Springfield, in March 2023 to Washington, D.C., and in May 2023 to Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas visit, purportedly made for economic development reasons, resulted in a recent federal lawsuit filed by a former Dolton employee.
The lawsuit names Henyard, the village, Thornton Township and a village official as defendants, and the plaintiff, who previously worked for the village and was on the Las Vegas trip, accuses the village official of performing non-consensual sex with the employee after she had “blacked out.”
The village official is named in the case but has not been charged by any law enforcement agency. The employee said she was later fired by the village.
The subpoena also seeks records of “municipal resources” being used on behalf of any political entity, including Henyard’s campaign committee, Friends of Tiffany Henyard, and any charitable organizations, including the Tiffany Cares Foundation.
In February, the Illinois attorney general’s office sent a letter to the foundation demanding that it stop soliciting or accepting contributions, and that it must register with the state.
Dolton Trustee Kiana Belcher, speaking after the first round of subpoenas were dropped at Village Hall, said the investigation is “an embarrassment to the community,” but that “I’m glad we got the attention because we need it.”
Belcher said she had not been interviewed by any investigators, and that in recent visits to Village Hall “it’s like a ghost town,” with “maybe one or two people in the entire Village Hall.”
A media relations firm representing Henyard and the village did not respond to a request for comment.