The head of an Illinois village police force and a close aide to “Dolton Dictator” Mayor Tiffany Henyard was indicted on federal charges Monday, but his lawyer argued the new criminal charges were merely filed in hopes of turning his client against the embattled mayor.
Dolton Police Deputy Chief Lewis Lacey was indicted on nine counts of bankruptcy fraud and other charges alleging he conspired to conceal assets and income to defraud creditors and avoid paying settlements related to past lawsuits. This was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois..
Prosecutors said Lacy, 61, has filed multiple personal bankruptcy filings around the state and in 2019 and 2020 blocked a court from enforcing a settlement agreement reached between Lacy and plaintiffs in a 2017 lawsuit in which Lacy had yet to pay $43,000 of a $55,000 payment.
Lacey is accused of making false claims verbally and on documents he submitted, including under-reporting his monthly income and concealing bank accounts.
Federal investigators also allege that the defendants falsely claimed they were separated from their spouses and did not contribute to the money they brought into the household each month, allowing them to understate their monthly income and avoid having to pay as much to creditors.
Lacey is a known supporter of Henyard, who took office in 2021 and has been the subject of constant controversy over the past year.
Hitting back at Henyard, the board placed Lacy on administrative leave last week, but Bart Odelson, an attorney representing the board, said: He told the Chicago Tribune He still continued to go to work.
As part of the federal investigation, subpoenas were issued earlier this year to the mayor, village and a nearby town where Henyard also oversees, requesting reams of documents and financial records.
Described by some locals as a dictator, Henyard has been accused of misusing tax money and using the police for his own purposes.
Lacey’s criminal case that broke Monday is unrelated to village business, but his lawyers have argued he was charged because of his close relationship with Henyard, the acting police chief who has been accused of going after critics of the mayor.
His lawyer, Gal Pisetsky, told The Washington Post that the U.S. attorney’s actions were part of a “larger government plan to indict Mayor Dalton” and that his client is innocent of the charges.
He argued that the federal government just wanted to use Lacey to set up a criminal case against Henyard.
“They are targeting certain people in the village to see who will go against the mayor,” Pisetsky alleged.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, Lacey was indicted as part of an ongoing federal investigation and, if convicted on all charges, could spend decades in prison.
“They are going after certain people in the village to see who will go against the mayor.”
Lawyer Gal Pisetsky
Lacey is also charged with acting as Henyard’s bodyguard at a February event and blocking a Washington Post photographer from taking photos of Dalton, as well as making false statements and declarations and perjury in the bankruptcy case.
Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was hired to review village spending, revealed last week that police costs have risen 21% since the village’s fiscal year 2022 and that police overtime costs have risen by hundreds of thousands of dollars during that period.
In revealing the high spending in Dolton to the surprise of residents, Lightfoot said Lacey has received more than $200,000 in overtime pay since the village’s fiscal year 2022, even though he hasn’t been part of the village’s collective bargaining agreement for some time.
Keith Freeman, a longtime aide to Henyard accused of similar crimes He pleaded not guilty earlier this year.
According to the Tribune, Henyard said at last week’s meeting that Freeman had been fired as village manager, but trustees said she did not have the authority to make that decision and did not support the firing.
Additional reporting by Steven Vargo
