St. Paul mayor investigated for sexual harassment allegations involving police chief

MINNEAPOLIS — The City of St. Paul, Minnesota, has hired an outside law firm to investigate sexual harassment allegations against Mayor Kaohly Her, including claims that she directed inappropriate sexual comments toward police Chief Axel Henry and other city employees.

The Minnesota Star Tribune obtained an April 1 letter sent by Henry’s attorney, Chris Madel, to St. Paul City Attorney Irene Kao notifying the city that Henry had filed a formal complaint.

“Chief Henry has reached the decision to step forward as a formal complainant against the Mayor after becoming aware that the Mayor’s conduct has extended beyond isolated incidents and has included sexual harassment of subordinate City employees, including members of the Saint Paul Police Department,” the letter states.

In choosing to name himself as the complainant, the letter read, “Chief Henry is not only seeking to address the wrongdoing but also create a measure of protection for his team, signaling that such conduct will not be tolerated.”

In a statement, Her’s spokesperson Matt Wagenius would not comment on the investigation.

“The mayor has deep respect for city employees and regrets any unintended impact her action may have had,” Wagenius said.

Included in the letter is a screenshot of a text message allegedly sent by Her to a city employee that reads, “Happy Weiner Wednesday!” and a note expressing regret that she can’t be with the employee to eat a hot dog that day.

Beneath the message is a partially redacted image showing an internet meme that was posted by a comedian earlier this year. The meme shows a swaddled baby with an adult’s head.

Above the photo, a caption reads, “When she wraps you up in a blanket after you gave her a good weinering,” with two laughing emojis. The term “wienering” is often used as sexual innuendo on the internet.

According to a person familiar with the inquiry who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, the redacted part of the image was altered to include the face of a St. Paul police officer assigned to Her’s security detail superimposed on the baby’s body.

According to people familiar with the St. Paul Police Department, a civilian employee typically brings in hot dogs for a small group of staff on Wednesdays, which has been informally dubbed, “Wiener Wednesdays” by some employees.

In the letter, Madel claims that the city “is on notice that Mayor Her has engaged in illegal conduct towards city employees.” While arguing that future litigation is “reasonably foreseeable.” Madel demanded that the city “immediately take all steps necessary to perform a full filesystem extraction of each of Mayor Her’s mobile phones.”

That extraction would copy data off Her’s phones including text messages across multiple applications, photos, videos, contacts and emails.

The person familiar with the investigation said it also includes sexualized communications and unwanted physical contact from Her directed at Henry.

Contacted by the Star Tribune, Madel declined to comment further or detail Her’s alleged conduct against Henry. He noted Henry was focused on police work.

“He’s got better things to do than deal with this,” he said.

St. Cloud-based Resolute Law was retained in early April to investigate the allegations, according to the person familiar with the inquiry. The law firm did not respond to requests for comments about the status of the investigation.

The St. Paul Police Department also declined to comment.

Witnesses in the ongoing investigation have been instructed not to speak about the matter.

The allegations arose less than six months after Her was elected mayor in 2025, upsetting former Mayor Melvin Carter and becoming the first woman and Hmong person to hold the office.

She had a career in finance before she was elected to the Legislature in 2018 and served in DFL leadership under the late Rep. Melissa Hortman. She won the 2025 mayoral election against Carter, a two-term incumbent, on a platform of making the city work better, as residents strain under high property taxes and downtown remains stubbornly stagnant after the pandemic.

While Carter worked to shelter police from cuts and defended excess overtime spending, Her has not shown the same deference as she forms the 2027 budget proposal. Tension has cut both ways between the police department and city leaders over spending, with the City Council increasingly frustrated with the department overspending its overtime budget.

Her is expected to propose tax increases and cuts to close a $26 million budget gap, the largest St. Paul has seen in recent years.

Henry, a St. Paul native, climbed the police department’s ranks for 24 years before becoming chief in 2022. He previously worked as the commander of St. Paul’s narcotics, financial intelligence and human trafficking division.

This is not the first time the mayor has dealt with allegations about her behavior. Last year, a petition for a restraining order was filed against Her in Ramsey County District Court by a former friend who claimed that Her had sent her “inappropriate or sexualized questions,” failed to respect her boundaries and got her removed from the National Kidney Foundation Board.

The restraining order was denied by Ramsey County District Court Referee Elizabeth Clysdale who wrote that the text messages filed showed the Her had not threatened her former friend, that Her’s husband had tried to help resolve the issue and it was not proven that Her had played a role in the woman’s removal from the National Kidney Foundation Board.