Calumet City Clerk Nyota Figgs is suing Mayor Thaddeus Jones and attorneys representing the city, alleging that Jones used his office and court proceedings to retaliate after she ended a romantic relationship with him and rejected an effort to resume it. The complaint asserts claims for civil conspiracy, malicious prosecution and abuse of process.
As reported by the Chicago Tribune, the lawsuit alleges that Figgs and Jones began a romantic relationship in 2005 and that she ended it in 2013. The complaint says Jones continued making advances until late 2021 and proposed that they resume the relationship that year, an offer Figgs rejected. It further alleges that Jones soon removed many of Figgs's duties as clerk and hired another person to perform much of her work.
A Pattern the Clerk Says Started Years Earlier
The new complaint adds another legal front to the dispute. Figgs alleges that Jones and attorneys representing the city used litigation to publicly discredit her and pressure her to abandon an earlier sexual-harassment lawsuit, according to the Tribune's report.
Figgs's attorney, Edward Moor, said the period was traumatic for his client and that she endured harassment and retaliation while doing her job for Calumet City, according to the Tribune's account. Moor, who also represents Calumet City 2nd Ward Alderman Monet Wilson, said Jones took actions that allegedly cut Figgs out of office and that city aldermen protested the reassignment of her duties at the time, per the lawsuit. Moor added that he hopes the lawsuit's result compensates Figgs for what she went through, arguing she is entitled to damages for her suffering.
The Clerk's Role in City Government
According to Calumet City's official clerk-office page, the clerk serves as clerk to the City Council, chief elections officer and custodian of the corporate seal. The office also collects, dockets and securely stores city records; maintains the city code of ordinances; and provides public access to legislation, laws, records and reports. The city's description identifies those responsibilities but does not, by itself, specify how the City Council sets the structure of the clerk's office. A separate Illinois dispute illustrates that allegations involving a mayor, a municipal employee and political retaliation can proceed under a different legal posture. Courthouse News Service reported that, in a Country Club Hills case involving events from 2008 to 2011, a city employee who said she was the mayor's girlfriend was allowed to pursue retaliation-related claims after alleging that the City Council fired her for political reasons. That ruling allowed the claims to proceed at the pleading stage and was not a final resolution on the merits.
Dismissed Case Clears the Path for Damages Claim
The new suit relies in part on the outcome of a document-destruction lawsuit filed against Figgs in October 2021. That case, which accused her of illegally destroying city documents, was dismissed in July 2025. According to the Chicago Tribune, Judge Joel Chupack also found that the city had not provided evidence supporting claims that Figgs interfered with a city audit or improperly cut a security-camera cable, and he terminated a preliminary injunction restricting her handling of records. Figgs's new malicious-prosecution claim cites that dismissal; the complaint also says the city reimbursed her attorney fees from the earlier case.
In her new complaint, Figgs alleges Jones conspired with attorneys from Ancel Glink and with Michael Kasper toward legal action against her. Kasper, an attorney at the Kasper, Holmes and Dring law firm, previously represented Jones as legal counsel before the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled in March 2021 that Jones could remain on the mayoral ballot despite a Calumet City referendum aimed at banning state legislators from holding the mayor's office, according to court records on file with Justia Law. Figgs is seeking damages exceeding $50,000, and an injunction she sought to prevent further removal of her duties remains pending.
Jones's attorney, Sean Howard, told the Tribune that the allegations are false, baseless and without merit. Jones declined to comment further, according to the report. The dispute between the two officials has also played out publicly in court and in elections.
A Rivalry That Has Spilled Into Elections and Beyond
The Figgs-Jones conflict has repeatedly crossed from City Hall into the ballot box. On November 4, 2024, Figgs filed a formal electoral objection attempting to disqualify Jones from running for re-election as mayor based on his dual role as both mayor and state representative, an arrangement the Illinois Supreme Court had upheld in 2021; the municipal electoral board dismissed her challenge, according to Capitol Fax. Jones has served as the Illinois State Representative for the 29th District since January 2011 and became Calumet City's first Black mayor after winning election in April 2021, according to background compiled on Wikipedia.
The article also discusses other matters involving Jones.
Institutional friction between Jones and other city officials has continued this year as well. The Calumet City Council took unanimous action related to city spending records, according to a statement from Alderwoman Monet S. Wilson. The vote followed Council Slashes Jones' Credit Limit amid continuing disputes over city spending.
