St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her denied several sexual harassment allegations and gave alternate versions of events in interviews with investigators, according to a report released by the city Thursday.
The 76-page report, compiled by outside law firm Resolute Law LLC and redacted by city officials, laid out the findings of an investigation into a workplace complaint filed by St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry.
The report concludes that Her violated city policies, but did not commit sexual harassment.
It included 18 pages of notes from several interviews with Her, who denied many of the allegations, and described being blindsided by the response to some of her behavior that she believed was helping build relationships with police officials.
“Mayor Her feels that [redacted] has been setting her up,” the report reads. “She is concerned that the cop culture is to ‘not tell the truth.’”
The report identifies Her by name, but does not disclose Henry’s name or any other names. But Henry’s attorney, Chris Madel, has publicly confirmed that Henry filed the complaint that prompted the investigation. Henry also filed a 73-page lawsuit against the mayor last week that publicly makes many of the same allegations investigated in the report.
The report included more than two dozen pages of interviews with city employees who detailed interactions with Her. Their names are redacted, but most appear to be police officers given the context and locations of the interactions.
The identity of the first interviewee in the report was redacted, but matches Henry.
The interview describes a meeting between the mayor and police chief at Sweeney’s Saloon where Her allegedly told Henry, “I don’t think you understand we need to build a close relationship and you keep trying to resist that.”
The interviewee told investigators Her made several comments about her marriage being in trouble, that she was going weeks without seeing her husband and that she was often home alone.
Mayor Her pushes back
Her’s interviews with investigators show that in several instances, her accounts of her interactions with Henry differed from Henry’s perceptions of the same events. She appeared to frame much of her conduct as misunderstandings and efforts to ingratiate herself with her new subordinates.
News of Henry’s workplace complaint and the investigation first went public in July. Her’s first interview with investigators occurred on June 8 before the public disclosure.
Her said she initially had positive interactions with St. Paul police officials, and that the department was one of the first city departments to reach out after she was elected. But the relationship quickly soured just months into her tenure as mayor, she said.
“According to Mayor Her, the Police Department is very hierarchical, so she could not identify one specific person responsible for the resistance,” the report reads. “She stated that the resistance seemed to shift over time. Initially, she did not question why things were changing, but a few months before the interview she began pushing back.”
Mayor Her told investigators the purpose of the meeting at Sweeney’s was “to reset” following an argument during Operation Metro Surge regarding the role local police play in response to public protests of federal immigration activity. Her said the argument was the first time she disagreed with Henry, and that he stopped talking to her afterwards.
Her told investigators she gave the chief three options: they remain friends and continue working together, they don’t like each other but have a productive working relationship or Henry no longer serves as the police chief.
Regarding the comments about her marriage, Her said “she tells everyone she is alone a lot” due to her purchasing a hobby farm in Stillwater. Her told investigators that her husband stays in Stillwater to maintain the farm, but that they talk once a week and are “secure enough in their relationship that they do not have to be together all the time.”
“Mayor Her stated that she was not trying to invite anyone to her house. She stated that she is faithful in her marriage, has never invited men over, and talks openly about how difficult politics can be on marriages,” the report reads. “Mayor Her adamantly denied making statements to [redacted] that would indicate she was interested in a sexual relationship with [redacted]. Mayor Her stated that the job is lonely.”
Her told investigators she felt she needed to match the police department’s culture in order to fit in, describing officers giving each other the middle finger and commenting on each other’s bodies every day. She said she was still getting to know people in her first few months as mayor, and tried to build relationships with police officials by joking around with them.
According to the report, Her said she asked several police officials early on if they had a sense of humor, and that they said her jokes were funny and encouraged her to continue joking with them.
Her said she asked multiple police officials about her plans to create photoshop images of police officials’ faces superimposed on UFC fighters, and they told her it would be “hilarious.” She also said some of them made requests, and asked her to create an image of Henry and two others as a boy band.
“Mayor Her stated that no one ever told her the pictures were not funny. She stated that if someone had told her that, she would have apologized and not done it again,” the report reads. “Mayor Her stated that if someone said they were afraid of her and could not tell her, she would understand why they might think that, but she believed they were friends.”
The mayor described a similar motive behind the “Weiner Wednesday” incident. She told investigators police officers told her it was a funny joke, and that no one raised objections to it until after she and the chief’s relationship had deteriorated.
Weiner Wednesday was a weekly tradition where city staff gathered at the police department to eat hotdogs.
Her also discussed allegations Henry made that she joked about the bars on police uniforms in a way that made him believe she was referencing his penis size. He also alleged that Her had referred to herself as a “MILF.”
Her denied both allegations, and told investigators she was genuinely asking why some bars on police uniforms are bigger than others. She also denied the allegation that she “would get away with something by accusing someone of grabbing her.”
The report found that Her had touched Henry’s thigh on two occasions. The mayor said she may have touched Henry’s leg during a meeting, but denied rubbing his leg, and described the contact as non-sexual.
Her was upset with news coverage
Her spoke with investigators two times after Henry’s complaints were publicized in news reports — July 31 and Aug. 24. The interviews are described as “per Mayor Her’s request.”
In the July interview, Her told investigators she was upset by the news coverage, and denied she had exposed her breasts to a female officer as reported in news accounts. She also rejected claims Madel made on talk radio that she wanted to have sex with Henry.
She also denied touching Henry’s leg, which contradicted statements she made in the June interview.
“Mayor Her believes the complaint by [redacted] is only because [redacted] is not happy she is digging into the budget and because she was upset about the arrests of protesters that occurred under an expired ordinance,” the report reads. “[redacted] did not like that she asked questions and was making [redacted] accountable.”
Her also said she felt she was being set up by the chief, and expressed concerns that “cop culture” would prevent the truth from coming out about certain interactions.
She asked investigators for an additional in-person interview, adding that she would have been more emphatic in denying certain allegations had she known that details of the investigation were going to end up in the media.
The August interview, which Her requested, appears to take a different tone. The mayor said the “Weiner Wednesday” texts were sent on personal devices and outside of work hours, and that she never attended the event at the police department.
Her again denied that she did not expose her breasts, tell the chief that her marriage was ruined or intend for the Sweeney’s meeting with Henry to look like a “date.” She denied “again denied ever grabbing [redacted] leg in a sexual manner … and stated that she did not recall touching [redacted] leg or otherwise touching during the budget meeting.”
She also detailed multiple disagreements between herself and police officials about their response to public protests of immigration raids, and her struggles obtaining information from the department while reviewing city department budgets.
