A Chicago suburb’s former Democratic “tremendous mayor” is dealing with one more authorized hurdle after failing to provide public data from her time in workplace after being held in contempt of court docket earlier this month.
In a listening to on Friday, Tiffany Henyard’s legal professional Beau Bridley pleaded the Fifth on his shopper’s behalf after she was ordered handy over public data from her time in workplace.
“The smear marketing campaign in opposition to Tiffany Henyard, which started whereas she was in workplace, continues even now that she is out of workplace,” Bridley mentioned in a press release to Fox Information Digital.
Bridley conceded that the previous mayor doesn’t have the requested doc, with an Illinois choose permitting Henyard’s authorized staff to submit an affidavit as a substitute.
“The mayor has no doc that the plaintiff seeks,” Bridley mentioned. “This matter goes to be resolved with a easy affidavit. The entire listening to was a lot ado about nothing.”
The listening to stems from a lawsuit filed by the Edgar County Watchdogs Inc., after the group sued Henyard and the Village of Dolton for failing to provide monetary data after the paperwork have been requested beneath the Freedom of Info Act.
“We had little doubt Ms. Henyard would use shedding the election as an excuse to not produce the paperwork,” Edward “Coach” Weinhaus, legal professional for Edgar County Watchdogs, mentioned in a press release to Fox Information Digital.
“Invoking the Fifth Modification for a prison investigation was an added wrinkle. The Watchdogs will hold on the lookout for the paperwork even when the voters might need inadvertently thrown out the paperwork with the mayor.”
The embattled former mayor was unseated after shedding her re-election bid to Jason Home, who was sworn in final month.
Henyard was additionally defeated by Illinois state Sen. Napoleon Harris in her try to hold her seat as Thornton Township supervisor.
Henyard was thrust into the nationwide highlight in April 2024 after officers at Dolton Village Corridor have been served subpoenas from the FBI following a corruption investigation, FOX 32 Chicago reported.
Henyard, nevertheless, was not charged with a criminal offense.
In response to the FBI wanting into Henyard’s administration, village trustees voted to rent former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to research the previous mayor’s spending. On the preliminary vote, supporters of Henyard clashed along with her opponents because the assembly spiraled right into a screaming match between teams.
Lightfoot’s investigation reportedly revealed the village’s fund fell from its preliminary $5.6 million steadiness to a $3.6 million deficit, with the native authorities’s bank card payments accumulating a whopping $779,000 steadiness in 2023.
On the day Henyard misplaced the mayoral main, the Village of Dolton was reportedly slapped with a federal subpoena as officers demanded data tied to a land growth allegedly tied to Henyard’s boyfriend.
Henyard is required to return for a listening to on June 11, with a choose set to resolve if she is to stay in contempt of court docket whereas being fined $1,000 per day.
