Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts has been accused of groping a high school student at a City Hall event earlier this week, leading to calls for his resignation before November’s election.
Tuesday, Sep. 15, City Hall hosted a voter engagement event, VoteChella, at which Mayor Butts allegedly inappropriately touched a female high school student during a group photo.
The incident came to light when Inglewood Commissioner Leonard Redway took to social media after claiming he had a phone call with the student’s father.
Videos posted to Redway’s social media accounts showed what appeared to be Mayor Butts and City Clerk Aisha Thompson at the alleged victim’s home around 10:30 p.m., speaking to an unidentified individual before driving off in a black SUV. The videos have since been removed.
Yolanda Davidson, a candidate for Inglewood City Council District 1, joined community activists at a press conference on Thursday, Sep. 17, where they called for an independent investigation into the incident and demanded a response from the Mayor.
“We have an allegation that has been brought forth against our Mayor James T. Butts, that he touched a student of Inglewood United, and I am here calling for his resignation,” said Davidson. “We are tired of this. We are tired of the allegations, we are tired of the rumors, we are tired of the corruption, the alleged corruption. You need to go today.”
The Mayor’s office released a statement Friday, Sep. 18, denying the allegations. “There was no sexual touching, groping, assault, or other inappropriate conduct of any kind,” according to the statement, “that accusation is categorically false.”
In an interview, Davidson confirmed that the City Clerk was seen at the voting event and in the video captured later that night, wearing the same clothes.
“It was her [Thompson], no question,” Davidson said. The information has not yet been officially verified.
The activists claimed that although a witness confirmed the inappropriate actions, the student’s family has not filed a police report as they try to maintain anonymity for privacy reasons.
Local community activist Najee Ali also spoke during the press conference. “Obviously he knows he did something wrong,” Ali claimed. “No one goes to someone’s house in the middle of the night trying to explain what they’ve done or been accused of doing.”
Community member Earl Ofari Hutchinson supported Davidson’s resignation demands and spoke about the incident during the press conference.
“This is not new. Butts has a long history of allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination and even payoffs that can’t be swept under the rug. This is not an isolated incident; this is not an isolated act; there is a pattern there,” he said.
As Hutchinson alluded to, Butts has faced allegations in the past. In 1993, the Los Angeles Times reported Butts’ then-wife accused him of sexually abusing their young daughter. Butts denied the allegation, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to file molestation charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence.
In 2024, EurWeb reported that the Los Angeles Superior Court threw out a wrongful termination suit filed by Butts’ former executive assistant, Melanie McDade-Dickens, which accused him of harassment and discrimination.
“We don’t need to wait until November; you can leave today,” Davidson said. “And I am demanding your resignation today, for all of your misdeeds that we know about and the ones that we don’t know about.”
The City Clerk’s office has not responded to requests for comment.
Butts has not responded to the resignation demands, and it remains unclear whether an independent investigation will move forward before the November election.
