Mayor to respond to reports of sexual relationship with teen
by Anna Griffin, The Oregonian
Portland Mayor Sam Adams is expected to make his first public statement today in response to news reports that he had a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old in summer 2005 and, on the eve of his campaign for the city's highest office, lied about it and urged the young man to lie as well.
Wade Nkrumah, the mayor's spokesman, said Adams plans to issue a public apology at 1:30 p.m. today in the Rose Room at Portland City Hall.
Adams said Monday that he made a mistake in not admitting the relationship when reporters first asked about it in September 2007. He did not describe the relationship itself as a mistake.
"I should have been honest about what happened, but I was not," he told The Oregonian from Washington, D.C., where he is attending a national mayors conference and the presidential inauguration. "I apologize."
Adams met Beau Breedlove in April 2005. Breedlove, then 17, was an intern at the Oregon Legislature for then-Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer. Adams, 42 and a city of Portland commissioner, was in Salem on a lobbying trip. They struck up a conversation, and Breedlove called Adams soon after, hoping for both professional and personal advice on coming out of the closet in the political world.
Breedlove had lunch with Adams and visited his City Hall office, and the pair went out for dinner alone at the Lotus Cardroom & Cafe in Portland. In a joking, locker-room manner, aides warned Adams that Breedlove was interested in him romantically. (Even after Breedlove had faded into memory, aides still told Adams to make sure his dates were "older than Beau.")
Adams took a date to Breedlove's 18th birthday party in June 2005 at his parents' home in Salem. Breedlove invited Adams to the family party, both men have said, because he wanted to show his family that it's possible to be gay, successful and happy.
Not long after, Breedlove moved to Hawaii and then Michigan, though he has since returned to Portland.
In fall 2007, as Adams made plans to run for mayor, rumors surfaced that he and Breedlove had a sexual relationship -- and that their liaison began when Breedlove was 17. That's a crime -- misdemeanor sexual abuse, contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor or sexual misconduct, depending on certain details -- under Oregon law.
Public denial
Back in 2007, Adams and Breedlove both described their relationship as a casual, mentor-and-protege type friendship. Adams and City Commissioner Randy Leonard, a close ally, blamed what they termed a "nasty smear" by Pearl District real-estate developer Robert Ball, another gay man considering a run for mayor.
Adams sent a letter to constituents denying the charges. He held a news conference to refute them and suggested such gossip would scare other gay men from coming out of the closet. Several longtime friends came forward to support Adams' story by detailing how he had supported and mentored them as they struggled to come out.
Leonard says Adams never lied to him
Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard was Sam Adams' staunchest supporter when rumors of Adams' sexual relationship with a former legislative intern surfaced 18 months ago.
Despite Adams' admission Monday, Leonard says Adams never lied to him.
That's because Leonard never asked Adams the question that would force him to lie.
Leonard approached Adams in the summer of 2007 because he'd heard a rumor from real-estate developer Robert Ball that Adams had a sexual relationship with Beau Breedlove. Ball, like Adams a prominent gay man, had told Leonard because, he has said, he was worried about Adams. Leonard took the gossip as a warning that Adams would be in political hot water if he ran for mayor.
He confronted Adams, asking his colleague if he'd ever slept with anyone younger than 18. Adams said no, and Leonard soon publicly trashed Ball for spreading what he said was potentially damaging gossip.
On Monday, Leonard said he never bothered to ask Adams whether he and Breedlove had ever had a sexual relationship once Breedlove was a consenting adult.
"I don't think that's anyone's business."
-- Anna Griffin
"I didn't get into public life to allow my instinct to help others to be snuffed out by fear of sleazy misrepresentations or political manipulation," Adams wrote in his letter to Portlanders. "I understand the need for good judgment, and I work very hard to keep within the bounds of propriety -- as I did in this case."
Adams now says that he and Breedlove dated briefly a few weeks after Breedlove turned 18. He said that he knows the law: "I wouldn't get involved with someone under 17. That's illegal. That's just wrong."
Breedlove, via text message, declined an interview request, but Willamette Week reported that in a text message he told that publication: "I can't say anything. I'm sorry. I'm scared. If the story goes to print with me saying anything, I'm worried I will look like a scumbag. If I do say anything, then Sam's fate is in my hands."
No investigation planned
The Portland Police Bureau will not investigate based on Adams' statements that Breedlove was 18 at the time of the sexual relationship, and thus the mayor was not admitting a crime, said Officer Cathe Kent, a police spokeswoman.
However, if a complaint was made to the bureau, "we would be willing to look at any evidence that is brought to our attention," Kent said.
When the rumors first surfaced in 2007, Breedlove urged Adams to tell the truth, Adams said. But the new mayor said he did not think Portlanders would believe his version of events, that he and Breedlove were not involved until after his 18th birthday.
So he persuaded Breedlove to lie and steered the young man to his political consultant, Mark Wiener. Wiener has acknowledged talking with Breedlove to help polish his responses to the media but said that Breedlove and Adams both denied they were more than friends.
Adams, pushed into his admission this week by new reporting by Willamette Week, said he did not know whether news that he had slept with a man 25 years his junior would have affected the 2008 mayor's race. He won in a landslide, becoming the first openly gay mayor of a top-40 U.S. city.
He said he would not resign.
"I made a mistake," he said. "I apologize to Portlanders for lying to them. And I apologize to Beau for asking him to lie. ... People should and can expect better of me."
He needs to resign.
