Dolton residents call on mayor to resign after hiring of child sex offender
DOLTON, Ill. - Frustration is growing in south suburban Dolton after a FOX 32 investigation uncovered a registered child sex offender was recently put on the village's payroll.
Now, some Dolton residents are calling for Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s resignation.
About 20 Dolton residents and a couple trustees protested outside Village Hall on Tuesday, chanting "We want transparency!"
They’re furious after a FOX 32 investigation found a registered child sex offender on the public payroll.
"A sex offender! You don’t give them carte blanche to go into different people’s homes," said Dolton resident Alberta Jimerson.
Lavelle Redmond, 46, is close friends with Mayor Henyard, who in September hired Redmond as a code enforcement officer without the village board’s approval.
Redmond served 25 years in prison for the brutal gang rape and beating of two young teenage girls in the 1990s. Then last week, Redmond was arrested and charged after our first story aired for violating the reporting requirements of the sex offender registry.
But Mayor Henyard insists her friend deserves a second chance, infuriating a number of Dolton residents.
"They just need to get out of office as a whole," one resident said. "I’d like to see both of them leave. They need a recall on the mayor."
FOX 32 has also obtained cellphone video showing Redmond interacting with the mayor and little children at a back-to-school event in Dolton. A badge was visible on his waist.
"I think it’s deplorable that you’ve hired a person who has a history that he does, and you’re giving him a badge and a car to roam our village and come in and out of people's houses," said Dolton Reverend Deborah White.
The protesters were also calling for the departure of former Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, who was hired by Henyard as Dolton village administrator making $100,000 a year. Brown has been at the center of numerous scandals and there is an ongoing federal investigation into bribery under her County tenure.
"Dorothy Brown needs to go back to the city of Chicago," said Dolton resident Valeria Stubbs. "Dorothy Brown is bringing Dorothy Brown tactics out here in the village."
A spokesperson for Henyard says the mayor has no comment about the calls for her resignation, and no intention to dump the registered child sex offender from the village payroll.