St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry is suing Mayor Kaohly Her for sexual harassment and retaliation after she allegedly called herself a “MILF” and made unwanted advances.
Fox News Digital reported that St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Kaohly Her faces a harassment complaint and lawsuit from her own police chief, Axel Henry, who accuses her of explicit sexual comments, unwanted physical contact, and a campaign to punish him after he spoke up.
Henry’s 73-page complaint lays out a series of alleged incidents at budget meetings, the police gym, an awards ceremony, a cigar lounge, and even a golf simulator. Her office says an independent investigation did not back the claims and that she will keep leading the city while the litigation continues.
The clash puts St. Paul’s top elected official against the city’s top cop and raises hard questions about workplace standards, accountability, and how city hall handles complaints against its own leadership.
Henry has served as St. Paul’s police chief since 2022. Her took office as the city’s first Hmong and first female mayor after she was sworn in Jan. 2, 2026, at St. Catherine University’s O’Shaughnessy Auditorium, with Rev. Daniel Johnson presiding and her husband Kong and daughter Ayden present.
The suit alleges Her made multiple inappropriate comments, including referring to herself as a “MILF” and making sexually suggestive remarks about Henry’s genitalia. It also claims she told him her marriage was in trouble, that they “needed to be friends” or “this was not going to work,” and that they needed a “close relationship.”
At a budget meeting, the complaint says, she placed her hand on his upper thigh beneath a conference table. At an awards ceremony, Henry wore a Mobile Field Force ribbon abbreviated “MFF.” Her allegedly asked what the letters stood for, then replied, “Oh, I thought it said MILF so maybe I could get one.”
The filing further claims she made frequent visits to the police department gym when Henry was there, referred to him and other employees as “beefy,” and “simulated an orgasm” while exerting herself near them during workouts.
Workplace misconduct fights between mayors and police leaders are not limited to Minnesota, as seen in a Seattle mayor-police chief standoff that ended with a costly severance deal and weeks of silence.
In December, Henry met Her and St. Paul Port Authority President Todd Hurley at a cigar lounge to discuss moving the downtown police station. According to the suit, Her threatened that if she did not get her way she would tell people the chief “grabbed her a**.”
In February, Henry and a colleague used personal vacation time at a golf simulator in Woodbury, Minnesota. The complaint says Her showed up uninvited, said she “had to come like this because you guys wouldn’t invite me,” and stayed about 20 minutes.
Those scenes, if proven, would show a mayor crossing professional lines with the officer charged with running the city’s police force, and then using leverage when she did not get what she wanted.
Similar patterns of official pressure and ethics fallout have forced other Democrats from leadership posts, including Rep. Jimmy Gomez stepping down amid an ethics probe.
After Henry filed an internal complaint, the lawsuit alleges Her and her administration “embarked on a campaign to retaliate against and discredit Chief Henry.” That campaign, the suit says, included excluding him from decisions, withholding requested records, and releasing a “sanitized” two-page summary of an independent investigation.
Earlier this month, Her also transferred her personal security detail and driver services from the St. Paul Police Department to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. The move pulled day-to-day protective work away from the department Henry leads.
Her office has pushed back hard on the core accusations. Citing local reporting from Fox Minneapolis, the office stated that the independent review cleared her of the central charges.
"An independent investigation did not substantiate claims of sexual harassment or retaliation against any city employee,"
the office said. It added:
"The mayor will continue to lead Saint Paul and follow the recommendations of the report. Beyond that, the City of Saint Paul doesn’t comment on active litigation."
Lead reporting also noted that Her said her attempts at humor fell short and that she cooperated with the independent investigation. Exact longer remarks beyond that summary were not provided in the coverage.
The city’s refusal to discuss active litigation leaves the public with a sharp split: a detailed 73-page filing from the police chief on one side, and a two-page summary plus a denial of substantiation on the other.
Related coverage has already tracked how Mayor Kaohly Her faced a sexual harassment probe over vulgar messages to city staffers, underscoring repeated questions about conduct inside St. Paul city hall.
The verified public record so far is limited but concrete. Henry filed a harassment complaint and a lengthy lawsuit. The complaint describes specific locations: a conference table, the police gym, an awards ceremony, a cigar lounge, and a Woodbury golf simulator. It names Todd Hurley as present for the station-move discussion. It puts numbers on the paper trail, a 73-page complaint and a two-page investigation summary the suit calls sanitized.
Missing pieces remain. The court, case number, and exact filing date are not laid out in the available reporting. Calendar years for the December and February incidents are not pinned down. The full independent investigation, who ran it, its complete findings, and its full recommendations, has not been released beyond the city’s short statement and the disputed summary.
Still, the core conflict is plain. The city’s police chief says the mayor sexualized their working relationship, touched him without consent, threatened him with a false allegation, inserted herself into his off-duty time, and then punished him for complaining. The mayor’s office says an independent review did not substantiate sexual harassment or retaliation against any city employee and that she will keep governing while lawyers handle the rest.
That same lawsuit fight has already drawn follow-up attention in reporting on the St. Paul chief’s suit after the ‘MILF’ remark and city probe, keeping the pressure on both the allegations and the city’s response.
St. Paul residents did not ask for a war between the mayor’s office and the police command staff. They asked for clean government, professional boundaries, and a police department free to do its job without political games.
When a mayor is accused of treating the police chief as a personal target, through comments, contact, threats, and alleged retaliation, the damage is not just personal. It hits recruiting, morale, chain of command, and public confidence that rules apply evenly at the top.
Her remains in office and says she will follow the report’s recommendations. Henry remains chief and has taken the dispute into court. The independent investigation’s short public version and the city’s no-comment stance on litigation leave voters to watch the filings, the discovery, and any further official action.
Workplace blowups that turn on crude language and power imbalances are familiar far beyond city hall, including cases like a Detroit anchor fired after a profane newsroom confrontation. The difference here is that the people involved run a major city’s government and its police force.
If the chief’s account holds, St. Paul has a serious leadership and accountability failure. If the city’s probe is right and the claims lack support, the lawsuit still exposes a broken working relationship at the highest levels of local government. Either way, the public deserves full records, not a two-page gloss and a shrug toward “active litigation.”
Power without boundaries breeds distrust, and taxpayers should not have to guess whether their mayor and police chief can work under the same professional rules everyone else is expected to follow.
