Elijah Nouvelage
Residents and trustees living in the village of Dolton, a small community located just south of Chicago, are outraged by the Mayor’s most recent hire.
Village records obtained by FOX 32 show that Dolton’s Mayor, Tiffany Henyard, hired a formerly convicted sex offender to inspect homes and businesses within the area for code violations. The employee has been identified as 46-year-old Lavelle Redmond. The Illinois native previously spent 24 years in prison after pleading guilty for his connection to a vicious rape incident involving two underage girls. In 1991, Redmond was accused of kidnapping and raping the teens with the help of three other suspects in Chicago’s Roseland area. The girls were just 13 and 14-year-old during the time of the incident. A then 17-year-old Redmond was sentenced to 50 years in prison, however, he was later paroled in 2016.
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The town’s trustees are now demanding answers and many are appalled by the Mayor’s major oversight considering Redmond’s name is registered on the Illinois State Police child sex offender’s list. Despite the slew of backlash, Henyard, who became the first woman and the youngest person to occupy Dolton’s mayorial seat back in May, stood by her decision to hire Redmond.
“I and the Village of Dolton take the safety of our residents very serious [sic], and we would never put our residents in jeopardy,” Henyard said in a statement according to the Daily Mail.
“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 yeas ago and they paid their debt to society. We believe that a person can be rehabilitated, and we believe in second chances.”
A female resident said she would be “terrified to know now if he had come to my house to do a code inspection. I’ll be terrified,” while another asked, “Oh my god. Don’t they supposed to do background checks before they allow these people to in these kind of positions?”
Redmond’s story raised red flags for community members of Dolton, in particular, because of the recent murder of 19-year-old Miya Marcano. The former Valencia College student’s body was found near the Tymber Skan on the Lake Apartments on Oct. 2. Orange County department Sheriff John Mina revealed that the suspect, 27-year-old Armando Manuel Caballero, was responsible for Marcano’s death, however, he died of an apparent suicide on Sept. 27.
Authorities believe Caballero, who was a maintenance worker at the Arden Villas Luxury Apartments, used his master key to enter Marcano’s apartment. Cell phone records also indicate that Caballero was “in or near” the apartment complex the day that Marcano was reported missing, the sheriff added. Marcano lived and worked at the apartment complex.
Earlier this month, Mina offered a horrifying update about the case revealing that Marcano had been “bound with black duct tape on her feet and hands” when investigators found her at the crime scene, ABC News reported. Her “mouth was also covered with black duct tape.” Marcano’s family has since filed a wrongful death suit demanding for the Arden Villas Luxury complex to take responsibility for their negligence in connection to the slain teen’s death. According to CNN, the family is also seeking $30,000 in damages.
