3 former employees sue Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard for wrongful firing amid corruption accusations

DOLTON, Ill. (WLS) -- Three people are suing Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard after they said they were wrongfully fired.

All of them said they were terminated for refusing to do political work for Henyard.

"The way she treated me and other people was wrong," said Samysha Williams, former director of building permits and licenses.

Williams, former human resources manager for Thornton Township Sandra and former Dolton Public Works Department administrative assistant Karen Johnson have all filed lawsuits.

"These three cases are all based around the same premise: these are wrongful terminations at the hands of Mayor Henyard and her administrations," said attorney Matthew Custardo.

All three former employees said they were fired at some point near the end of 2022. Williams said the workplace environment worsened about a year before that, starting with the mayor asking her to do things she said were unethical.

"Withhold building permits and business licenses to people that didn't donate to her campaign or just people she didn't like in general," Williams said.

Williams said she continued to raise concerns about these requests with the mayor, but was later moved to the Water Department before eventually being fired.

"I was the only person at that time in the department who knew how to process business licenses but they moved me to the water department anyway," she said.

Another complaint in the lawsuit on behalf of Johnson claims that she was "intentionally treated differently from other similarly situated employees and there was no rational basis for the difference in treatment."

The lawsuit also states, "Henyard restricted certain village and/or township employees' access to village and/or township buildings."

"We did a mock trial to practice muting the trustees because she didn't want the trustees to have a voice," Williams said. "In her words she was at war with the trustees."

One of the former employees is hoping to get her job back from the lawsuit, while the other two are just hoping to move forward, as they say this has caused them emotional and financial damages.

"I didn't want to file at first but it didn't sit right with me to do nothing," said Williams.

A court date is still being decided for the lawsuits.

Henyard, who is also Thornton Township Supervisor, is embroiled in a corruption scandal and has been accused of using village money for personal reasons. She has denied those allegations.

ABC7 has reached out to the Village of Dolton, Henyard's office and the village trustees for comment and has not yet heard back yet.