Thornton Township fires Tiffany Henyard's boyfriend and another employee after meeting brawl
SOUTH HOLLAND, Ill. (CBS) -- The Thornton Township Board on Thursday fired two township employees after a brawl that broke out at the last township board meeting last week.
One of the workers the trustees fired was Kamal Woods, the boyfriend of Thornton Township Supervisor Tiffany Henyard. Woods ran the youth township program.
Also fired was William Moore, also a Henyard ally.
Woods and Moore were both suspended for work performance before the township brawl. The night of the brawl, the newest trustee, Stephanie Wiedeman, made a motion to put both Woods and Moore on administrative leave, which was approved.
The brawl started after the public comments portion of the township board meeting a week ago Tuesday night. 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.
Several men joined the tussle, where people threw punches and started kicking. Security then tried separating the men.
Meanwhile, 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 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.
Trustees said Thursday night that Woods' involvement in the fight made it easier to let them go.
"As a township employee, as any government employee who is paid with taxpayers' funds, I think that we are expected to be held to a different standard," said Thornton Township Trustee Stephanie Wiedeman. "That comes with different levels of respect."
Meanwhile, an investigation continues to determine what exactly, if anything, the two men did after Henyard brought them on board.
"Just because this action was taken doesn't mean that the investigation stops," Gonzalez said. "It's definitely something that will go forward."
Many in the community and on the board have questioned whether Woods and Moore were just collecting paychecks.
Supervisor Henyard has always argued the actions against Woods are a personal attack. but the trustees say that is far from the case.
"That's why there are rules, generally and you know, even laws against, you know, whatever you want to call it—is it nepotism or whatever," Gonzalez said. "That's why they're there, for reasons like this, because then somebody does deem it as personal where you shouldn't even be in that situation."
Henyard, who also serves as mayor of Dolton, did not attend the special Thornton Township Board meeting Thursday. She also did not attend a Dolton Village Board meeting earlier this week.
The Thornton Township Board meeting Thursday night was subdued, and was held mostly over Zoom. A virtual overflow room was set up for the public to avoid direct contact with the board after everything that happened last week.
"With obviously what happened last week, it's just something we felt that was kind of the best, at least, temporary solution," said Thornton Township Trustee Chris Gonzalez.
The board meets for its regular meeting next week.
