Former employees and Dolton residents have complained about Mayor Tiffany Henyard (D) since she was elected Mayor of Dolton in 2021.
Henyard, tagged “America’s worst mayor,” faces 22 lawsuits, which include financial mismanagement, corruption, fraud and wrongful termination of employees.
Henyard is mentioned in a civil lawsuit filed on April 9 alongside a village trustee, Andrew Holmes, that includes allegations of assault.
The civil lawsuit is one of Henyard’s most shocking cases, where a former village employee claimed Holmes assaulted her during a work trip to Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, the employee and a police officer alleged that they were fired after informing Henyard of the allegations.
The same day the lawsuit was filed, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) was hired to investigate the claims against Henyard, and the case gained the attention of the FBI.
However, in a letter, Del Galdo Law Group, the law firm representing Henyard, is asking to withdraw, with reports that Henyard is not paying them.
“The Board recently voted to stop paying our legal bills. We are not required to work for free and decline to do so,” the letter reads.
According to the law firm, the village might pay millions in judgments from previous cases. The village could also be responsible for millions more in the current lawsuits.
In addition, the law firm announced that it would no longer represent or defend new cases, and it would also be withdrawing from an additional nineteen cases starting on May 8.
‘America’s Worst Mayor’ Tiffany Henyard abandoned by law firm representing her https://t.co/aSDqr2kc1O
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 29, 2024
According to the firm, the village is gradually approaching the point of being uninsurable.
“No one wants to represent the village,” a spokesperson for the law firm said. “The village already has a $33.5 million judgment against it that the previous administration and the board ignored pleas to settle within policy limits, where the village’s best hope is that the jury verdict will be reversed on appeal. If that is unsuccessful, the village will owe more than $20M in excess insurance policy limits on that case alone.”