Man sues Thornton Township, Illinois Supervisor Tiffany Henyard and others over brawl at board meeting
A critic of Dolton Mayor and Thornton Township Supervisor Tiffany Henyard filed a lawsuit Tuesday, accusing several people — including Henyard herself — of attacking him during a brawl that erupted at a township board meeting late last month.
Jedidah Brown filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Henyard; her boyfriend, Kamal Woods; and Dolton village employee Demarcus Criggley. Also named as defendants were the South Holland Police Department, Thornton Township, and Allpoint Security & Detective Inc. — along with two people identified as employees of the security company, one of them named Sergeant Storm.
The lawsuit accused all the named defendants of aggression toward Brown in some fashion.
Jedidiah Brown Lawsuit by Adam Harrington on Scribd
The brawl erupted on the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 29, after the public comments portion of a Thornton Township Board meeting at the township hall in South Holland.
The last to offer public comments was Jedidiah Brown, who made a lengthy harangue directed at Henyard that ended with his calling Henyard a "b****."
Before Brown could get back to his seat, Henyard's allies — including her boyfriend, Kamal Woods — confronted Brown. At that point, punches went flying.
As seen on video, several men joined the tussle, where people threw punches and started kicking. Security then tried separating the men.
In the lawsuit, Brown claimed that as he was concluding his comments, Woods approached him from behind in a "menacing manner," called him a "b****," and threatened to hurt him. Criggley also called another man, Lavell Redmond, a "b****" and also threatened to hurt him, the lawsuit alleged.
Woods and Criggley also said there was a "green light" on either to physically attack Brown and/or Redmond, the lawsuit alleged.
Redmond intervened to try to stop a possible fight, but Woods pushed him and swung at him, and Redmond in turn defended himself and punched Woods, the lawsuit alleged. Woods then dragged Brown to the floor, and a melee broke out, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit claimed that during the brawl, Henyard first physically attacked Redmond by hitting him with her microphone, then physically attacked Brown by hitting him in his back and head with her microphone when he was on the floor.
The lawsuit went on to claim that Criggley kicked Brown in the face when he was down on the floor and being held back or choked by Henyard and Woods.
On the night the brawl took place, witnesses said Henyard — who was seated at a table at the front of the room with the board of trustees at the meeting last week — ran toward the tussle. It was unclear at the time whether Henyard was trying to break up the fight or to get involved herself, but she did lose a shoe and was thrown to the floor.
The lawsuit said after Criggley kicked him in the face, Brown was able to get back up to his feet — at which point he was confronted by Storm, who was wearing all black with a vest reading "officer." Storm and another security guard only identified as John Doe could have deescalated the brawl, but failed to do so, the lawsuit alleged.
Instead, the lawsuit said, Storm picked Brown up and carried him to a second room, where Storm and the other security guard grabbed Brown and began wrestling him to the floor, the lawsuit said.
While Brown was back on the floor in this room, Storm physically restrained him against the wall and hit him several times — banging Brown's head and elbows against the wall and floor, the lawsuit alleged.
Brown finally broke free and ran out of the room after a fight that lasted about a minute and a half, the lawsuit said. After leaving the side room, another Thornton Township employee whose name is not known hit Brown hard in the neck, the lawsuit alleged.
Brown was then pushed in the back by a woman believed to be Criggley's companion, the lawsuit alleged. After this, it is believed Woods kicked Brown in the lower abdomen, the lawsuit said.
Finally, Brown exited Thornton Township Hall and went outside, where some local residents invited him to sit in their car to avoid further confrontations, the lawsuit said.
After the brawl, Brown found that he was missing three lower dental veneers, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit went on to note that the majority of the brawl was caught on video — both by TV news cameras and by people recording with their cellphones. The video shows one of the assailants—whom the lawsuit said was believed to be an associate of Woods', had a knife, the suit alleged.
Video also showed Criggley handing a bag to the woman with him, which was believed to contain a handgun, the lawsuit said.
After a few minutes waiting in the residents' car, Brown went to South Holland police to report what had happened and to file a police report against Henyard, Woods, Criggley, and everyone else he alleges attacked him, the lawsuit said. But Brown said certain South Holand police officers treated him like an aggressor.
The day after the brawl, Brown was granted an emergency restraining order against Henyard and Woods in Cook County Circuit Court, and went to the emergency room for injuries to his face, abdomen, elbows, and neck, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit claimed Henyard had a "personal and political interest" in silencing Brown, and called the alleged attack that led to the brawl an effort to suppress dissent. Brown also claimed Allpoints, South Holland police, and Thornton Township all contributed to a violation of his First Amendment rights by not intervening in the brawl.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Matthew R. Custardo of Custrado Law LLC, asked for unspecified compensatory and punitive damage — as well as a requirement for security protocols to prevent future incidents at Thornton Township meetings.
Henyard has not publicly addressed the brawl. However, the Thornton Township Board fired Woods — who ran the township youth program — a week later.
Woods had been suspended for work performance before the brawl, and many in the community had questioned whether he had just been collecting paychecks. But trustees said Woods' involvement in the fight made it easier to let them go.
Henyard did not attend the township board meeting where trustees voted to fire Woods.
There was no immediate comment late Tuesday from Henyard or anyone else named in the filing.
