Chicago City Wire

Vaughn Buxton, a 58-year-old resident of Chicago’s 49th Ward, says that Ald. Maria Hadden is ignoring online harassment directed at him and other critics, alleging the alderwoman has allowed defamatory posts to remain on her social media pages despite repeated attempts to bring the issue to her attention.

“If she really cares about the 49th Ward, she should care about everyone, and that includes her critics,” Buxton told Chicago City Wire. "And when I say care, that means caring about the safety of all the people within this ward, not just your favorites, your supporters. You were elected to represent all people and all areas of the ward. She needs to start doing her job.” 

Buxton, who describes himself as one of Hadden’s “top three most vocal critics,” said he became the target of anonymous online trolls in 2023. He believes the attacks originated from within Hadden’s political orbit and may be linked to her staffers. 

The posts in question appear under public threads on Hadden’s page, where supporters — some using potentially fake profiles — have made extreme, defamatory comments including repeated unfounded claims calling Buxton a "pedophile."  

Among them, one Facebook user posting as Tom Johnson has been one of the fiercest defenders of Hadden and has directed severe vitriol at Buxton. 

“Shouldn't you [be] looking for a new pedophile friend? Now that the previous one was arrested for possession of child pornography,” Johnson posted. 

Buxton, who has lived in the 49th Ward since 2015, said this kind of language isn’t new — and that he has repeatedly flagged the harassment to Hadden and her staff without response.

“It's very ironic that as vice chair of the Ethics and Government Oversight Committee, Alderwoman Maria Hadden is blatantly allowing her supporters to lie and slander her critics,” Buxton wrote in a public reply on the alderwoman’s page.

Buxton, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, said the false accusations triggered severe PTSD. 

“I have gone through (sexual abuse) as a child myself, so you know to be accused of something I'm a victim of is was horrendous it was horrific actually because I'm just like you know that triggered a lot of PTSD in me,” Buxton said. 

The strategy of labeling opponents as pedophiles appears to be gaining traction in leftist circles. In the last election cycle in Kane County, a resident of Geneva faced similar accusations after accusing the city’s mayor of corruption.

Buxton believes the smear campaign is not only being tolerated by the alderwoman — it may be politically motivated. In one instance a Facebook poster using the name Teresa Chavez attacked Buxton for posting on Hadden’s page. 

“You are a mentally ill person that loves to complain to politicians on social media about things they have zero control over,” Chavez’s account posted. 

According to Buxton, the smear campaign was an attempt to silence him and other vocal constituents who have criticized Hadden’s performance while in office, including her handling of the illegal immigrant crisis and gang violence affecting Rogers Park.

“This originated from Maria's office in an attempt to shut me up,” he said. 

Buxton said he believes the campaign of harassment was not random, but deliberately enabled — or even initiated — by those closest to Hadden.

“Whether it came directly from her lip or from, say, (Chief of Staff) Leslie Perkins or Maria's wife, Maria knew what was happening,” Buxton said. “There's no way she could not have known what was happening. She had the ability to shut it down, but she let her supporters slander — innocent person of the accusation who just happened to be a critic — and that's why she let this happen.”

Despite bringing the issue to her attention, Buxton says Hadden took no action.

He described a coordinated campaign involving fake accounts and supporters who, he believes, received either direct or implied encouragement from Hadden or her staff.

“Do we have definitive proof that they’re her supporters? No,” Buxton said. “The only way we'd have the definitive proof is sending a subpoena to Facebook to get the email for the account setup.”

Buxton was especially critical of what he sees as Hadden’s selective responses to community concerns.

“She ignores the open air drug market that's run by the gang bangers up on Howard Street. She's never commented about any of the executions or shootings,” he said. “She couldn't be bothered with the crime in this ward, and we hold her accountable.”

Buxton also criticized Hadden for what he sees as a pattern of aligning with organizations and causes that he believes are out of step with the values of many in the ward.

“People have pointed out to her in the past, there's a restaurant called Smack Dab. They're a big supporter of Palestine, and Maria has promoted Smack Dab, and people have commented and held her accountable — that, you know, why are you supporting Palestine, who's obviously anti-Semitic, and things like that.”

Buxton alleges that his attempts to challenge her record online have been met not with dialogue, but with threats and harassment from supporters—many of whom use fake profiles.

“If you speak out against Maria, they come for you,” Buxton said. “And it's just something we have grown used to. I think my friend, who's one of the top three critics, was doxed. Another friend was threatened—he received a threat through his DMs. So people get threatened, I guess, by Maria’s supporters.” 

Buxton cited a memo published by the Chicago Board of Ethics outlining the expectations for public officials’ use of social media. He believes that, despite these guidelines, Hadden has allowed defamatory comments to remain against him on her official Facebook page.

“It says on their official page, followers cannot be blocked from official social media accounts unless their comments are obscene, profane, racist, libelous, or defamatory. So to me, it brings up the question: why hasn't Maria deleted any of these?” Buxton said. 

Buxton himself reached out to the Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight, of which Hadden is Vice Chair, to report the issues. 

“Alderman Hadden allows her supporters to threaten, dox, slander, defame, bully, harass etc her critics on her official FaceBook page,” Buxton wrote in an email addressed to Alderman Michael Martin, Chair of the Ethics Committee. “How is allowing her supporters this amount of freedom ethical? Alderman Hadden likes to post videos where, in referencing her critics, she calls for a less hostile atmosphere while completely ignoring the fact that the hostile environment she's talking about was first started by her own supporters with her approval.” 

“I would like to address the fact that slander and libel is illegal and is not protected speech under the first Amendment yet your vice-chair remains silent while her supporters engage in this illegal activity on her official government FaceBook page,” Buxton wrote to the committee. “Her silence and refusal to hold her supporters accountable for illegal activity on her official government FaceBook page shows that she is completely fine with this illegal behavior and does not care about the many ramifications this illegal activity has on the victim.”

This was not the first outreach undertaken to the Ethics Committee over Hadden's behavior. 

In 2023, Hadden faced an ethics complaint alleging she used her political influence to lift a moratorium on two liquor stores in her Rogers Park ward in exchange for campaign donations from the owners. 

The complaint accused Hadden and her associates of violating multiple ethics codes, including conflicts of interest and improper influence, while failing to disclose their negotiations with the liquor store owners. Critics claim the moratorium was reimposed after the stores opened to block competition, raising concerns about favoritism.

For Buxton, the answer is clear: Hadden, he claims, is not interested in protecting dissenters.

“I want her to be honest that this is what she's doing, which we know will never happen,” he said.