South Cook News

Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard is facing criticism after putting a convicted sex offender on the city payroll to inspect homes and businesses across the area for code violations.

Several media outlets have reported Henyard recently hired 46-year-old Lavelle Redmond, who previously spent 24 years in prison after pleading guilty for his role in the brutal rape of a pair of teenagers 30 years ago.

In 1991, Redmond was accused of kidnapping and raping the girls along with three other suspects in Chicago’s Roseland area. Then just 17, Redmond was sentenced to 50 years in prison and was only paroled five years ago.

With news of Redmond’s hiring, town trustees are now demanding answers, with many expressing outrage while pointing out the city’s new hire is also registered on the Illinois State Police child sex offender’s list.

Henyard, the city’s first female and youngest person to occupy the mayoral seat, has continued to defend her actions.  

“I and the Village of Dolton take the safety of our residents very serious [sic], and we would never put our residents in jeopardy,” the Daily Mail reports she said in a statement. “In regard to the matter of the employee who is the subject of recent news stories, know that the incident referred to occurred nearly 30 years ago and they paid their debt to society. We believe that a person can be rehabilitated, and we believe in second chances.”

Redmond’s story has raised even more concerns given the recent murder of 19-year-old college student Miya Marcano, whose body was found near the Tymber Skan on the Lake Apartments in early October.

Authorities identified 27-year-old Armando Manuel Caballero, who was employed as a maintenance worker at the Arden Villas Luxury Apartments complex where Marcano resided, as a suspect before he died of an apparent suicide.

With city residents now expressing alarm, a spokesperson for Henyard recently refused to say if Redmond remained on the city payroll.