A 2023 candidate for Dolton trustee says in a recently filed lawsuit she was defamed by Mayor Tiffany Henyard in campaign filings that alleged she had defrauded the village as an employee.
Samysha Williams sued Henyard along with her campaign committee, Friends of Tiffany Henyard. Also named as a defendant is Jerry Genova, who the complaint said assisted Henyard in the 2023 Dolton municipal elections.
Friends of Tiffany Henyard is chaired by the mayor, who also serves as the committee’s treasurer, according to the state election board.
Filed in Cook County Circuit Court Feb. 20, the complaint also alleges slander and libel and seeks damages in excess of $50,000.
From July 10, 2019, until Aug. 3, 2022, Williams worked in various jobs in Dolton, including code enforcement officer and later as director of the village’s building department, according to the complaint.
Williams said that, in June 2022, she took a family leave from her job under the Family and Medical Leave Act, then seven weeks into her 12-week leave was wrongly terminated.
In early October 2022 she began a campaign to run as a village trustee in the Feb. 28, 2023, primary, according to the lawsuit.
Williams was a candidate in the primary where nine people competed for three trustee seats.
Henyard supported incumbent Trustees Andrew Holmes and Stan Brown, who were both reelected, along with write-in candidate Joslyn King.
Incumbent Trustee Tammie Brown was also a candidate and won reelection, and also running was incumbent Edward Steave, who lost, and Valeria Stubbs, a former Dolton trustee, who also failed to regain a seat on the Village Board.
The two mailings targeted Tammie Brown, Steave and Stubbs as well as Williams, portraying them as “failed leadership” and being poor choices for elected office.
One mailing, indicating it was paid for by Residents for a Better Dolton, accused Williams of committing theft of services from the village by forging medical documents related to a paid time-off fraud under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, according to the lawsuit.
Another mailing alleged Williams had been fired by the village for alleged forgery and fraud as well as theft of services, according to the lawsuit.
The statements in the mailings “attacked Williams’ integrity and reputation,” and she denies in the lawsuit she ever committed fraud or theft.
The mailings “harmed Williams’ reputation by lowering Williams’ reputation in the community and deterring others from associating with Williams,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint alleges that the “false statements were made with malicious intent to destroy Williams’ reputation in an effort to gain political advantage.”
Although certified election results from the Cook County clerk’s office showed King had failed to get enough votes to be elected, Henyard insisted at an early March Village Board meeting, after the election, that King had secured enough votes to win.
Henyard did not respond Wednesday to a message seeking comment about the lawsuit, and court filings did not show attorneys filing appearances in representing her or her election committee. The next court date in the case is scheduled for April 24.
