Particle.news
Download on the App Store

St. Paul Police Chief Files Sexual Harassment Complaint Against Mayor Kaohly Her

An April 1 letter asks the city to extract the mayor’s phone files for an independent investigation, warning litigation is reasonably foreseeable.

Overview

  • The complaint, dated April 1 and submitted by Chief Axel Henry’s attorney, alleges Mayor Kaohly Her made inappropriate sexual comments to him and other city employees.
  • The lawyer included a screenshot of suggestive text messages and says the mayor used one or more mobile phones to send the messages.
  • The letter asks the city to preserve evidence by performing a full filesystem extraction of the mayor’s phones and demands a thorough, independent inquiry.
  • Reports say Henry has been interviewed by investigators on multiple occasions and that local outlets initially received no response from the mayor’s office while one outlet reported the city hired an outside law firm and issued a limited confidentiality statement.
  • Her, who took office in January as St. Paul’s first woman and first Hmong American mayor, previously faced a denied harassment restraining order in January and now faces possible litigation and political fallout that could affect city operations and employee trust.