Dolton Trustee Andrew Holmes fired as crisis responder after sex assault allegations
Andrew Holmes was fired as a crisis responder for the group Chicago Survivors.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file
Dolton village trustee and prominent community activist Andrew Holmes has been fired from his job as a crisis responder for a nonprofit following sexual assault allegations.
Holmes was terminated from Chicago Survivors in April when the group said it learned of the allegations detailed in a lawsuit filed that month.
Holmes is accused of sexually assaulting an unconscious village employee in a Las Vegas hotel room on May 26, 2023, and allegedly confessing to a Dolton police officer in a video call. He has denied wrongdoing.
Holmes could not be reached for comment Thursday.
In 2015, Holmes joined Chicago Survivors, a group funded in part with taxpayer money that works closely with the Chicago Police Department to counsel families of murder victims.
The group's executive director, JaShawn Hill, said Holmes was fired to maintain "strong mutual trust and an assumed high level of safety for the adults and children we serve."
"Our mission is to provide crime victim services to family members of homicide victims, so our relationships with those families and our community is paramount," he said in a statement.
Holmes' firing is the latest fallout from the lawsuit, which also accuses Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard of covering up the allegations.
The lawsuit was filed the same week former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was hired by the village’s Board of Trustees to investigate possible mayoral misspending and the allegations connected to the Las Vegas trip.
Holmes is well known as a victim advocate in Chicago and was a frequent speaker on local TV newscasts until the lawsuit. He often publicized rewards in homicides and, more recently, warned about the dangers of unlocked guns.