South Cook News

Prior to last night’s Dolton Village board meeting, Mayor Tiffany Henyard thought it was a good idea to violate the rights of a citizen attempting to attend the public meeting of the village of Dolton.

She had a police officer remove Stephanie Wiedeman prior to the meeting, without due process. 

This allegedly violated her right to attend a public meeting under the Open Meetings Act and her First Amendment right to speak at the meeting and to hear what others were speaking about.

Also, at the meeting Mayor Henyard had the police confiscate a sign brought in by another resident of the village. This is alleged to violate her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, her First Amendment right carry a sign, and her right to attend and speak at public meetings while carrying a sign.

We urge Dolton residents to continue attending these meetings, bring a sign with them if they want, speak at the meetings, and assist the resident who was removed to attend future meetings without being forcibly removed by the Dolton Police under an illegal order by the Mayor.

Mayor Henyard is overstepping the bounds of decency in these civil rights violations.

The only way to prohibit an individual from attending a public meeting is by obtaining a court order preventing their attendance at the public meeting. There was no court order. Mayor Henyard’s orders be damned, those police officers should have refused to violate the civil rights of Dolton residents.

We urge both women to obtain legal counsel specializing in civil rights violations.

*This story was originally published by Edgar County Watchdogs. Read the original here.