The Standard reported last week on the official response from Dover City Attorney Olivia Wann to the lawsuit brought by former Dover Police Chief, Dennis Honholt, against the Town of Dover, City Manager Charles Parks, Sr., Mayor Lesa Fitzhugh and Wann. Attorney’s for Honholt are Music City Law, out of Nashville. The same law firm who filed a $1.25 million lawsuit in Torres vs Stewart Co. School System in 2021. It was closed and the appeal dismissed two years later. We reported last month on some of the claims in the Honholt lawsuit, including claiming he provided substantial documentation to outside state agencies of wrongdoing by Dover. There was no evidence we could find that actually happened with the agencies denying or not having any cases open.
Each defendant has to answer individually. Wann was the first to respond. Parks and Fitzhugh responded Fri, June 12. Part of Parks response, states, “Defendants deny any insinuation that the Town Defendants deprived Plaintiff of his federal rights. To the extent the “criminal conduct, ethical violations, and corruption” allegations in paragraph 17 involve the Town Defendants, those allegations are denied. They basically denied all the allegations in the lawsuit and stated, the Town Defendants demand a jury trial. One part states, “The Town Defendants admit that in February 2025, Plaintiff informed City Manager Parks that he needed to address family health matters in Michigan. Plaintiff averred to Parks that, while in Michigan, he would be helping out the local police department with some internal and/ or administrative work. At no point did Plaintiff inform Parks that he had received a ‘“job offer”’ from a Michigan law enforcement agency.” Honholt claimed in his lawsuit he told Parks he took a job in Michigan. The response continues, “The allegations in paragraph 33 are characterizations of text messages exchanged between Plaintiff and Parks; as such, the Town Defendants deny the allegations contained in paragraph 33 and aver that the text messages speak for themselves.
On the allegations of termination, the response states in part, the Defendants admit Parks and City Attorney Wann held meeting[s] with Plaintiff between April 30 and May 9, 2025. The remaining allegations in paragraph 36 are denied. The Defendants admit media inquiries regarding Plaintiff’s position in Michigan were discussed (Stories in the Standard). They denied the remaining allegations in the paragraph on the basis that Plaintiff’s characterization of his conversation with Parks about his leave is inaccurate. The Defendants said Plaintiff told them he had information proving Michigan was lying, but he never provided such information…