*Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. is forcefully denying an allegation that he inappropriately touched a female high school student, calling the accusations against him “baseless, unsourced, and completely false.”
Butts delivered his first extensive public response during a Monday press conference, days after community activists called for his resignation and an independent investigation.
“There is no documented complaint against me or anyone else in the city of anything,” Butts said. “There is no documented evidence of any complaint.”
The allegation remains unproven. EURweb has not independently established that Butts touched the student as alleged.
Butts Says Attorneys Are Taking Action
Butts specifically named community figures Yolanda Davidson, Najee Ali, Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Leonard Redway while rejecting the allegations.
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He also announced that his attorneys had served three people with cease-and-desist demands and said others would be served.
“Their slander and libelous defamation with no direct source or facts,” Butts said, before repeating: “No direct source or facts.”
But that characterization comes after EURweb reported that Akia Jackson provided the outlet with a signed statement describing what she said she personally witnessed during the VOTECHELLA youth voter-engagement event.
Jackson said Butts’ hand moved down the student’s back and stopped “immediately above or along the upper edge of her buttocks.” Her account does not prove misconduct, and EURweb has not spoken with the student or independently verified the alleged contact.
FOX 11 previously reported that Redway did not witness the alleged touching itself but said he observed a commotion and a visibly upset student afterward.
Butts Frames Fight Through Race and Politics
Butts went beyond simply denying the allegation. He argued that his opponents were invoking a historical racial stereotype of Black men as sexually uncontrolled.
He recalled his father moving the family from the South to California in hopes of protecting his children from “racialized and sexualized stereotypes of Black men.”
That argument adds a complicated dimension to the controversy because the community figures Butts named in his rebuttal include Black women and men. Butts did not establish in his remarks that those individuals were motivated by racial animus; instead, he argued that the stereotype itself was being deployed against him.
Butts also criticized FOX 11 for airing the activists’ press conference, accusing the station of allowing people to make what he called “baseless” allegations about him.
Mayor Connects Allegations to Wider Inglewood Battles
The mayor devoted part of his remarks to broader political and economic disputes in Inglewood, including development, billboard revenue and Proposition BB.
Butts portrayed the controversy as part of a larger fight over the city’s future and described some of his opponents as political opportunists. His press-conference remarks, however, did not establish that those political disputes caused the allegation against him.
“To the political opportunists who are pushing this disgusting smear campaign,” Butts said, “I will not be intimidated, nor will I be bullied.”
For now, Butts’ categorical denial adds his account to a record that already includes allegations from activists and a named witness statement obtained by EURweb. None, standing alone, resolves the central question of what occurred between the mayor and the student.
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