St. Paul police chief alleges mayor made false claims to investigators
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St. Paul police Chief Axel Henry has filed an amended complaint in his lawsuit against Mayor Kaohly Her, directly accusing the mayor of retaliation and making false statements to investigators.
That brings the total number of counts in Henry’s lawsuit to seven. The suit, originally filed on Sept. 23, already included retaliation claims against the city, and sexual harassment and battery allegations against Her.
In the amended complaint filed last week, Henry alleges that the city would not provide him with unredacted documents from an outside investigation into the mayor’s conduct. That investigation was launched in response to concerns raised by Henry earlier this year.
The outside investigation, by St. Cloud-based Resolute Law, cleared Her of sexual harassment, but found she acted inappropriately.
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The amended complaint points to what Henry claims are “myriad” misstatements made by Her to the outside investigators, and included in the report, “none of which the City or Mayor have ever publicly corrected.”
Specifically, the complaint points to comments Her made to investigators about the police department allegedly acting autonomously, without consulting the mayor or the St. Paul City Council, on decisions that affected the city budget. That included a police department contract with Axon, a law enforcement technology company.
“As the Mayor and the City well know, the Axon contract on which the Mayor bases her claim that SPPD acted without her approval was a contract entered into by Mayor (Melvin) Carter before Mayor Her took office,” Henry’s amended lawsuit states.
The lawsuit claims that Her knew the statements were false when she made them to investigators and that city officials knew they were false before issuing the investigation findings.
The count added in the amended complaint claims that after Henry reported his concerns about the mayor’s behavior and actions, Her “intentionally retaliated against Chief Henry because of his opposition to and reporting of the unlawful conduct.”
The lawsuit accuses the mayor of “making misstatements to the City’s investigator that could damage Chief Henry’s professional reputation while knowing the statements to be false,” and “creating needless obstacles to Chief Henry’s performance of his duties.”
Her did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has pointed to the investigation’s findings as clearing her name.
The City Council recently approved hiring a law firm to represent Her, at a rate of up to $500 per hour.
The council also hired another law firm to make a determination on whether the city is required to pay the mayor’s ongoing legal fees stemming from the lawsuit.
