An unconfirmed allegation that Inglewood’s longtime mayor acted inappropriately with a teenage girl at a public photo op has upended this year’s political campaigns, sparking a barrage of personal attacks and retaliatory threats of litigation.
Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr., who has denied the allegation, has sent cease-and-desist letters to at least two City Council candidates for circulating it and said he plans to seek “phone records and texts” to uncover what he believes is a conspiracy, potentially involving the billionaire owners of the city’s sports and entertainment venues, to unseat him, he told the Southern California News Group.
“This is orchestrated, this has the earmarks of something coming from strategists in Sacramento,” Butts said. “This is going to be investigated. People can’t get away with things like this.”
Attacks have overshadowed recent City Council meetings, with public comments targeting either Butts, or Councilmember Gloria Gray, who is running against him in the Nov. 3 election, taking up the majority of the runtime at the Sept. 29 meeting. The city’s projected $30.8 million deficit received comparatively little focus, though the City Council approved the budget that same day.
At one point, the meeting came to a halt after Butts cut off a remote caller accusing him of an unspecific “sexual assault.” The audience exploded into an uproar over the muting, with one audience member hurling expletives at the mayor as she and others — including mayoral candidate Fre’Drisha Dixon, who called out to the city attorney that the mayor was violating California’s open government laws — were escorted from the room.
Butts eventually let the caller finish.
“This is why you’re going to lose reelection and why absolutely everyone hates you,” the caller shot back before hanging up.
Butts, the city’s mayor since 2011, described attacks against him at the council meeting as “pure evil” and unlike any he has experienced before.
Speakers targeting Gray at the same meeting accused her of holding incompatible offices, questioned cost overruns at a district event and insinuated, without evidence, that funds must have been misused. They were not cut off, a point that Gray highlighted later.
“I don’t agree that someone can pick and choose what they don’t like to hear and stop a meeting,” she said at the time.
In an interview, Gray, a longtime political figure, said this election has been more vicious than others.
“I’ve been here 40 years and it is a new experience for me, too,” Gray said in an interview. “If you look at how Inglewood has grown, there’s a lot at stake.”
The self-anointed City of Champions has transformed over the past 15 years, turning from a city teetering on insolvency to a national destination with three major sports teams and a constant lineup of massive events. At the same time, residents have struggled with gridlocked traffic, rising costs and uneven development as a result of those changes.
What’s been alleged
Recent attacks on Butts focused largely on the allegation involving the photo op at the city’s voter registration drive, VoteChella. No accuser has publicly come forward, but candidates for various offices in Inglewood have publicly alleged the mayor touched the student “inappropriately,” with one calling on Butts to resign at a press conference.
“There is no report, there was no misconduct, and the original inference was of a touching on the waist, that’s it,” Butts said at the Sept. 29 meeting. “People went so much further today.”
The family has retained an attorney, according to council candidate Leonard Redway, who first published the allegation in a since-deleted Instagram post. The attorney did not respond to multiple calls and an email.
In an interview, Redway, who serves as Gray’s appointee on the Construction Appeals Board, said that while he did not see the alleged incident, he did see a commotion and an upset girl and then later spoke with the father of the student.
He declined to talk about the specifics of what he was told that day and directed a reporter to the family’s attorney.
“My position is always going to be that I did what I did and reported it because it was inappropriate and it was not being handled properly,” he said.
Redway later deleted the posts because he felt his continued involvement had become a distraction, according to his Instagram.
He already has provided a statement about his involvement to the family’s legal team, he said.
Suspicious timing
Butts publicly denied the allegation at his own press conference last week and again in an interview. A group of local and state politicians, including James Morris, the county administrator of the Inglewood Unified School District, stood beside Butts at City Hall at the time. Signs flanking the podium read: “Stop the lies. Stop the billionaires.”
Butts does not have a “direct linkage” tying any billionaires to the allegation, he said, but he believes the timing is suspicious because of recent court victories upholding Inglewood’s decision to place billboards around the venues and voiding the development agreement foundational to the construction of SoFi Stadium.
“I find it extremely coincidental that this happens less than two weeks after we won overwhelming victory, after three trials,” he said.
The mayor, once cozy with the city’s biggest developers, has been fighting with the companies behind SoFi Stadium, the Kia Forum and the Intuit Dome for roughly a year over the city’s decision to partner with WOW Media on billboards near the venues that could cut into the stadium and arena’s own advertising.
Hollywood Park and WOW Media have spent millions this election season on opposing ballot measures that threaten each other’s bottom lines, according to The LA Local. One would severely restrict the types of advertising on the city’s billboards, while exempting the venues; the other would eliminate a cap on taxes from tickets, potentially unlocking tens of millions in additional revenue for the city.
Butts would not say directly if he will file a lawsuit, but when asked if he plans to take any additional actions, following the cease-and-desist letters, he responded: “You better believe I do.”
“This is not just election politics,” he said. “This is evil and this is an attempt to destroy.”
Cease and desist
His attorney sent cease-and-desist letters to Redway, who shared a copy with the Southern California News Group, and to City Council candidate Yolanda Davidson, who denied receiving it.
Both are running for the City Council seat in District 1, currently held by Gray, rather than against Butts.
The cease-and-desist letter from Butts’ attorney, Adam Braun, to Redway demanded that he remove the posts, stop repeating the accusation, “issue an unequivocal public retraction and correction,” and preserve evidence “including communications with the student or her family, Gloria Gray or her campaign, any other candidate or campaign representatives, city officials, (IUSD board member) Brandon Myers, and anyone who provided information concerning the incident.”
The letter included a picture — which Braun said “speaks for itself” — showing Butts with his right hand on the shoulder of a female student. The other hand, which is not visible in the picture, was “holding several items, rested behind the group,” Braun said.
“If you fail to immediately retract these accusations and cease their dissemination, Mayor Butts is prepared to pursue all available legal remedies,” he wrote.
Redway hasn’t issued a correction or apology and doesn’t regret his initial posts, he said.
“I 100% would do the same thing again, even though it may affect my campaign, or affect me personally and get me sued,” Redway said. “It doesn’t matter, it’s not about politics, it’s about being a human being and a dad.”
He denied making the post at the behest of anyone else, or to damage the mayor’s reputation, and said he had not “talked to anyone associated with billionaires.”
“He is more than welcome to investigate, or whatever he can try to do to me,” Redway said of Butts. “Eventually, when this ends wherever, we can release the phone records, we can release all of the video that they have.”
Asked about the disruption at Inglewood’s last council meeting, Redway said he isn’t surprised that residents are upset.
“I think it is boiling over,” Redway said of the last few weeks in Inglewood.
Councilmember denies involvement
Gray, who was mentioned in the letter, denied having any involvement in the matter. At Butts’ press conference, Morris, the IUSD administrator, referenced receiving a call from an unidentified political opponent of Butts the night of the event and said he assured her that he had fulfilled his duty as a mandated reporter.
Gray confirmed she called Morris, but denied she was attempting to influence him.
“The mayor can create whatever false narrative he wants,” Gray said. “Whatever happened was not because of anything that I did. I’m not involved in it.”
Morris did not respond to a request to comment.
Council candidate urges resignation
Davidson appeared at the earlier press conference and called for Butts’ resignation, but acknowledged that she did not see the alleged incident for herself either. She participated because she heard “something had happened at VoteChella” from people she trusts and believes Butts should resign for “all of the different things that have happened throughout his tenure.”
She accused the mayor of trying to hurt her campaign by implying she is a puppet and suggested she may take legal action as well.
“He lied and said we’re in cahoots with the billionaires against him,” Davidson said. “It’s just not true.”
Davidson previously ran in the 2022 election and described the candidates as running “pretty clean campaigns” at the time. “It was not like this,” she said. “I think the mayor is just not used to people publicly going against him.”
Police investigating
The Inglewood Police Department has opened an investigation into the original allegation, according to Butts. The department has interviewed multiple people so far, including him, he said.
Butts has faced other allegations in the past. His former assistant and ex-girlfriend Melanie McDade-Dickens sued him and the city for wrongful termination, alleging she was fired and faced sexual harassment, endured verbal abuse and lost lucrative assignments as a result of their breakup in 2018. The city has maintained that McDade-Dickens was fired for cause.
The case was thrown out in November 2025 after McDade-Dickens, who was representing herself, failed to file an opposition to a motion by the city’s attorneys.