Dolton Trustee Andrew Holmes sued for alleged sexual assault, Mayor Tiffany Henyard accused of cover-up

Dolton Trustee Andrew Holmes and the south suburban village’s embattled Mayor Tiffany Henyard were sued this week for an alleged sexual assault of a village employee in Las Vegas last year.

The civil lawsuit was filed Monday in Cook County by the now-former village employee and a Dolton police officer. It accuses Holmes, also a well-known community activist for victims of gun violence, of sexually assaulting the village employee. Henyard is named for allegedly trying to cover up the incident to protect herself and retaliating against the employee when she tried to come forward about the assault.

The lawsuit comes the same week former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was hired by the village’s Board of Trustees to investigate Henyard, look into possible mayoral misspending and the allegations connected to the May 2023 Las Vegas trip.

Neither Holmes nor Henyard’s office responded to requests for comment Thursday.

Rumors about the rape in Las Vegas circulated on social media last month, as well as claims about Holmes’ arrest in connection to it. Holmes denied the allegations in a phone call with the Chicago Sun-Times at the time.

“It’s as false as I don’t know what. It’s a setup,” he told the Sun-Times on March 15.

Holmes suggested that people were lobbing allegations against him because of his support for Henyard.

“They’ve been going after her. They know I’m a voter on her board. I don’t voice my [opinion] against her,” he said at the time.

Holmes described the alleged ‘sexual activities’ to a police officer

According to the lawsuit, Holmes allegedly assaulted the woman on May 26 in his hotel room then he later called the police officer to tell him about it. The two were attending a conference in Las Vegas with Henyard and other officials from Dolton and Thornton Township, the lawsuit states.

The village employee joined the trip as one of Henyard’s assistants, according to the suit. The police officer was there as part of the mayor’s security detail.

On the night of the alleged assault, Holmes and the village employee went out together after a group dinner. The village employee said she knew Holmes well and considered him to be like an uncle, the suit reads.

At some point, after Holmes gave her a drink, the woman said she started to feel lightheaded, disoriented and as if the ground was moving — a feeling she said was different from the effects of alcohol, according to the lawsuit. She blacked out and doesn’t remember anything else until the next morning when she woke up in Holmes’ hotel room.

That night, the Dolton police officer got a call from Holmes, the lawsuit states.

Holmes, appearing to be intoxicated, started detailing his “exploits” from the trip to the officer, many of which were “sexual,” according to the suit. The officer said in the lawsuit the conversation was unusual and one he’d never had with Holmes.

Holmes described engaging in sexual activities with the Dolton employee, suggesting that she “may not have had the ability to consent and/or did not provide consent,” the lawsuit states. At that point, the officer started recording the conversation and asked Holmes to repeat himself, the lawsuit states.

Later in the call, Holmes switched to FaceTime. The officer saw a shirtless Holmes and then Holmes pointed the camera at the Dolton employee, partially undressed on the bed, according to the lawsuit. The officer said he could not tell whether she consented.

She allegedly woke up fully dressed the next morning and couldn’t remember what happened, according to the lawsuit.

After returning from Las Vegas, the officer talked again with Holmes, who admitted he had unprotected sex with the village employee on the trip, the lawsuit states.

The Las Vegas Police Department confirmed there’s an ongoing investigation into Holmes and the alleged incident.

The officer later told the village employee what he heard and witnessed and advised her to seek medical attention, the suit reads.

Distraught by what she learned, the employee requested a meeting with Henyard, according to the lawsuit. The mayor met with the woman and the officer, who both recounted what happened in Las Vegas. The employee told Henyard she would have never consented to sexual relations with Holmes as he is “substantially older than her,” the suit reads.

In response, Henyard questioned why Holmes would have revealed all this to the officer and told the employee if the information got out, the mayor would be ruined, the suit states. Henyard told the two she would “handle it” and said the employee should trust her.

After that meeting, the employee alleges she was forced to take unpaid leave and was eventually terminated, according to the lawsuit. The officer was demoted, removed from the mayor’s security detail and dealt with a hostile work environment.

Henyard is expected to veto Lightfoot’s appoint

After taking on the investigation Monday, Lightfoot told a crowd that the village wanted something different.

“The residents of Dolton deserve nothing less than a government that is fully accountable, responsive, transparent, and effective stewards of your precious tax dollars,” she said.

Lightfoot is tasked with looking into how Henyard used federal relief funds through the American Rescue Plan Act, hired contractors and made payments to vendors without approval and paid the village prosecutor over $900,000 in the past two years.

Henyard is expected to veto Lightfoot’s appointment, but trustees say they have the majority to override that veto.

Contributing: David Struett