Several high-level officials in south suburban Dolton are now facing a rush of lawsuits and investigations.
Federal prosecutors accused Keith Freeman, who currently serves as Dolton village administrator and municipality manager of Thornton Township, of making false statements in his bankruptcy petition.
According to the indictment, Freeman filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition Jan. 3 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. The petition included a document in which the debtor is required to identify, among other things, all of his assets and sources of income, as well as any claims against him.
The indictment alleges that Freeman made several materially false statements and omissions in the document, including knowingly under-reporting income he derived from his employment as both the village administrator for Dolton and municipality manager for Thornton Township, as well as fees he received from his private consulting business.
Freeman also allegedly concealed that the Village of Robbins had filed a claim against him related to approximately $90,396 that Freeman received in excess of his authorized salary while he was the village administrator for Robbins, a position he held from 2017 to 2021.
Freeman also furnished the Chapter 7 trustee with a purported copy of his 2022 individual income tax return, which represented that Freeman's total income from employment was $45,186.
The indictment states that Freeman knew he had not filed an income tax return for that year and that his actual income, which included a $100,000 salary for the Dolton position alone, substantially exceeded that amount.
It was further part of the alleged scheme that on Jan. 30, 2024, while testifying under oath at a meeting of creditors, Freeman falsely represented that he was not an employee of Dolton and that he did not receive payment from Dolton, the indictment states.
The following month, Freeman allegedly caused his pay from Dolton to be directly deposited into a recently opened bank account that he had not disclosed to the creditors or the Chapter 7 trustee.
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Freeman hasn't been arraigned. The village has declined to comment.
This latest legal issue comes days after a civil lawsuit was filed against Mayor Tiffany Henyard and trustee Andrew Holmes, who is a well-known community activist. It was filed by the mayor's former assistant and a Dolton police officer.
The lawsuit accuses Holmes of assault and battery and Henyard of retaliation.
The incidents allegedly occurred during and after an economic development trip to Las Vegas last May. An attorney for Holmes told us he has no comment on the lawsuit.
In a statement, the village told NBC Chicago that "this is nothing more than two disgruntled village employees who are trying to make off with the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars. The village looks forward to defending these allegations and pursuing all other available remedies to the village."
Days ago, four Dolton trustees appointed Lori Lightfoot, Chicago’s former mayor and a former federal prosecutor, as a special investigator to look into the Vegas trip and allegations of misappropriation and misspending by the mayor.
But the village attorney in a letter writes, "trustees completely lack the authority to appoint Lightfoot as additional legislative counsel." It goes on to say, "the mayor will not be approving any payments to Lightfoot because her appointment violates the law."
