The St. Paul, Minnesota, police chief has sued the city’s first female mayor, claiming she sexually harassed him and “embarked on a campaign” of retaliation after he alleged she had abused him.
Chief Axel Henry, who has led the St. Paul Police Department since 2022, said Mayor Kaohly Her grabbed “his upper thigh beneath a conference-room table — not once, but twice — during a [St. Paul Police Department] budget meeting.”
Henry said in the lawsuit filed Wednesday that Her made sexual innuendos about the size of his penis and described herself to him as a “MILF,” which is an acronym for “mother I’d like to f---.”
Her, according to the lawsuit, also confided in Henry that her own marriage was in trouble and warned him that they “needed to be ‘friends’ or ‘this is not going to work.’”
The 73-page lawsuit filed in Ramsey County District Court, which names Her and the city as defendants, also includes previously reported allegations that Her created “a hostile and demeaning environment” for his staff by sending a meme about “good weinering.”
“Wienering” is an internet slang term for sexual intercourse and is frequently misspelled as “weinering.”
Henry is seeking a jury trial to determine damages for “lost wages and benefits, emotional distress, humiliation, and harm to reputation.”
In response to Henry’s lawsuit, Her’s chief spokesperson, Matt Wagenius, denied his major allegations.
“An independent investigation did not substantiate claims of sexual harassment or retaliation against any city employee,” he said in a statement. “The Mayor will continue to lead Saint Paul and follow the recommendations of the report. Beyond that, the City of Saint Paul doesn’t comment on active litigation.”
When reporters approached and asked about the lawsuit’s claims while she was shopping in an Aldi store Thursday, Her said she cannot comment “because it’s pending litigation.”
That investigation concluded that Her “engaged in offensive and inappropriate behavior” with her employees. She has issued two apologies and said some of her “attempts at humor” fell flat.
Her, who took office in January, has been under fire since July, when The Minnesota Star-Tribune first reported that Henry had submitted a sexual harassment complaint against her.
Henry also claims in the lawsuit that Her hired a private public relations firm to discredit him after the investigation got underway. And he alleged that St. Paul city officials violated the Minnesota Whistleblower Act when they “engaged in a series of retaliatory acts” because of the sexual harassment complaint.
Henry also said that in December, he and Her met at a cigar lounge with Todd Hurley, president of the St. Paul Port Authority, to discuss potentially moving the police station downtown to attract more businesses.
Her, the lawsuit alleges, told Henry at the meeting that if she didn’t get her way she would just tell people that Hurley “grabbed her ass.”
“At the time, the comment struck Chief Henry as reflecting a crude sense of humor; he later came to believe that Mayor Her likely had not been joking,” the lawsuit says.
Henry also says in the lawsuit that Her would work out at the gym at police headquarters, where, it alleges, she would make “grunting and moaning noises that sounded like she was having an orgasm.”
Her, according to the lawsuit, also doctored photographs of Henry and other police officers and displayed the “sexualized” images in a gold frame in the chief’s office.
Just days before Henry filed the lawsuit, Her’s office requested that the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office take over providing security for her from the St. Paul Police Department, citing “the ongoing threat and increased incidents of political violence towards elected officials.”
Neither the police department nor the sheriff’s office cited Her’s strained relationship with Henry and the police department as a reason for the security switch. The sheriff’s office said it was contacted on Sept. 10 to provide security services. The police department said it will “continue monitoring for any threats” against the mayor’s office.
Her, 53, was born in Laos and spent part of her childhood in a refugee camp. She was 3 when she arrived in the U.S., and she grew up in Illinois and Wisconsin, according to her campaign biography.
