Exactly what happened at the community event on the lawn outside City Hall remains unclear.<\/p>\n
The student and her family have not made any public statements on the alleged misconduct. A representative for the family told The Times they had been advised by legal counsel not to discuss the incident and to \u201clet the investigation run its course,\u201d but would not clarify who is investigating.<\/p>\n
In an eight-minute speech, Butts accused his rivals of mounting a libelous and racist smear campaign depicting him as a Black man unable to control his impulses. He noted that there is no evidence of a complaint being filed by the alleged victim or her family, and he headed back inside the building without taking questions from the crowd of reporters and residents.<\/p>\n
Accusations against Butts, who has served as the city\u2019s leader since 2010, came to public attention Thursday when a coalition of political activists<\/a> held a news conference in the same location. <\/p>\n None of the speakers witnessed the alleged inappropriate touching of a student. Three people who attended Votechella told The Times they saw the student appearing uncomfortable as the mayor pulled her close to him while a group photo was being taken. They declined to be identified, citing fears for their personal safety.<\/p>\n \u201cAny time a young minor says they\u2019ve been inappropriately touched, it\u2019s our job as adults not to question them,\u201d said local activist Najee Ali at Thursday\u2019s news conference. \u201cIt\u2019s our job to believe them. It\u2019s our job to protect them. It\u2019s our job to demand accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n Butts said Monday that he is serving Ali and the other activists circulating the accusations \u2014 Yolanda Davidson, Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Leonard Redway \u2014 with cease-and-desist letters and that they will be held to account for \u201ctheir slander and libelous defamation with no direct source or facts.\u201d <\/p>\n Davidson and Redway are running for Inglewood City Council District 1. <\/p>\n Butts also said his political opponents include<\/a> the backers of Measure BB. The local ballot measure<\/a>, supported by SoFi Stadium and the Kia Forum, would eliminate commercial advertising on kiosks and billboards in the public right of way in Inglewood. Butts said the measure would deprive the city of an $8-million annual revenue source. <\/p>\n The mayor did not immediately respond to The Times\u2019 request for comment Monday on what connection, if any, exists among the backers of Measure BB and the \u201cbillionaires\u201d referenced on the \u201cStop the lies\u201d poster boards and the activists drawing attention to the groping allegations.<\/p>\n Butts\u2019 profile has risen in recent years as Inglewood has become the home of the Rams, Chargers and Clippers, transforming the city into a sports and entertainment powerhouse.<\/p>\n At Monday\u2019s news conference, Butts said it has been the honor of his life serving as mayor for the last 16 years, helping turn a city \u201cfour months away from cash-flow insolvency with a 17.5% unemployment rate, triple B-minus bond rating … and a decaying infrastructure into one of the most successful cities in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n State Assemblymember Tina S. McKinnor (D-Hawthorne) spoke in support of Butts at Monday\u2019s news conference, noting that it is election season and, although candidates have a right to challenge each other publicly, serious allegations should be handled responsibly. <\/p>\n \u201cAn allegation is not a fact,\u201d she said. \u201cBased on the information publicly available, no police report from the family has been identified, we have not heard publicly from a student or her parents, we have not seen a public identified complaint from the student\u2019s school superintendent.\u201d<\/p>\n Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, with Inglewood Mayor James Butts Jr., speaks at Monday\u2019s news conference.<\/p>\n (Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n City Atty. Rick Olivarez said at the news conference that his office has not received a complaint or referral regarding the incident. Inglewood Unified School District County Administrator James Morris declined to comment on whether the district was investigating the incident, but said at the news conference that \u201cour responsibility as educators is to protect our students. I am confident that we have done so in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Ali dropped off a letter at the L.A. County district attorney\u2019s office that he and Hutchinson had signed asking for a criminal investigation to be opened into the mayor. <\/p>\n \u201cOn Tuesday evening, September 15th, 2026, outside of Inglewood City Hall at a community event attended by several high school students, Mayor James T. Butts allegedly has been accused of sexually assaulting a female Inglewood high school student by touching her inappropriately,\u201d Hutchinson and Ali wrote. \u201cThis alleged act was witnessed by multiple people, including mandated reporters.\u201d<\/p>\n Davidson told The Times she has long-standing concerns about Butts\u2019 conduct.<\/p>\n \u201cThis allegation, it\u2019s just the the top-tier new allegation of a long laundry list of things that Mayor Butts has done in the city and has been accused of doing in the city,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n In 2019, Butts\u2019 longtime aide Melanie McDade-Dickens filed a wrongful termination lawsuit accusing him of sexually harassing her<\/a> after she ended a romantic relationship with him. He denied the allegations and a court later dismissed all claims<\/a> against him and the city. <\/p>\n The following year, former Inglewood Treasurer Wanda Brown filed a lawsuit accusing Butts and four City Council members of slashing her salary in retaliation for her accusing the mayor and council of financial mismanagement. The state\u2019s Supreme Court ultimately <\/a>rejected her whistleblower lawsuit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inglewood has been roiled over the last week by allegations that the city\u2019s mayor acted inappropriately at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[139347,9574,106810,1409,790,1431,185552,185550,4194,48,52,51,47,50,49,153380,1024,7529,4574,1791,185551],"class_list":["post-471773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ali","tag-allegation","tag-butts","tag-city","tag-community-event","tag-family","tag-inglewood-city-hall","tag-inglewood-mayor","tag-job","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-measure-bb","tag-monday","tag-news-conference","tag-student","tag-times","tag-yolanda-davidson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790068353_840_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n