Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento who has been mired in allegations of sexual assault and ethical misconduct, announced on Tuesday night that he will not be seeking reelection.
Johnson, the first African American mayor of Sacramento, has been in office since 2008 and was reelected handily in 2012. He has been referred to as a rising star in the Democratic party, and has touted his close relationship with President Barack Obama over the years. Prior to his political career, Johnson played for 12 years in the NBA as an All-Star point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns.
But thanks primarily to exhaustive reporting by Deadspin’s David McKenna, Johnson’s history of sexual abuse accusations has been brought back to the forefront over the past couple of months. These allegations date back to 1995, when he was accused of molesting a 16-year-old girl in Phoenix.
McKenna conducted the first public interview with Johnson’s alleged victim, Mandi Koba, and detailed reports of the incident, “which involved Johnson fondling the teenager, showering with her, rubbing his genitals against her bare thigh, suggesting they pray together and ask for forgiveness, and making the only child from a single-parent home give a ‘pinky promise’ that she wouldn’t tell her friends or mother what he’d done.”
Earlier this month, ESPN shelved a 30 for 30 documentary about Sacramento’s fight to save its NBA franchise, “Down in the Valley,” which reportedly portrayed Johnson as an “outright messianic figure” and ignored the allegations against him.
“I think the most important thing here is to make sure it’s clear that we are not tone deaf and we’re aware of a renewed focus on certain issues,” an ESPN executive told Sports Illustrated. Despite the fact that ESPN had postponed the airing indefinitely, Johnson showed up to the premiere and refused to answer any questions regarding the sexual abuse allegations.
“After much thought and soul-searching I have decided not to run for a third term as mayor,” Johnson wrote in a letter he posted on Twitter Tuesday night announcing his decision not to seek reelection. “It was an incredibly difficult decision, but one I feel confident about.”
Statement on decision not to seek reelection. pic.twitter.com/eQrxNc0y7T
— Kevin Johnson (@KJ_MayorJohnson) October 21, 2015
McKenna wrote that since paying Koba $230,000 to stay quiet, Johnson has “faced sexual-abuse accusations every so often,” though “he’s always stayed clean, with the same lawyers by his side.” These include similar accusations in 2007 that Johnson molested a teenage student at St. HOPE, a charter school that he founded in Sacramento, and recent sexual harassment allegations by a former aide in the in the city manager’s office.
No charges were filed in the 1995 case because of a lack of physical evidence. “It’s very unfortunate,” Johnson told reporters in Sacramento about the resurfaced allegations. “Something happened 20 years ago and it’s not true. You just got to move on, that’s just part of the territory.”
Charges were never filed against Johnson in 2007 either. Police didn’t interview Johnson about the allegations at St. HOPE, and as reported by McKenna and the Sacramento Bee, Johnson’s campaign released a statement at the time saying that St. HOPE had put together “[a]n impartial three-person panel” to investigate the accusations, and “found that the allegation was unfounded.”
In May, when former aide Estrella Ilee Muller filed a claim alleging that she was sexually harassed by Johnson, the claim was dismissed by the City Council. Johnson said at the time that the “incident described in the complaint simply never happened. Ever.”
Johnson has also been involved in other scandals during his political career. He has been accused of improper use of government funds at his charter schools and destroying a black mayors group. He has been called a slumlord due to the numerous code violations in buildings he owned and has been fined for ethics violations.
His second term as mayor was also marked by his controversial deal to spend $250 million in taxpayer dollars to get a new arena and keep the Sacramento Kings in town, despite a large gap in education funding.
In 2008, after a federal probe into the finances at St. HOPE when Johnson was serving as the CEO, the school was forced to pay back $423,836.50 to settle the allegations that it misappropriated AmeriCorps grants. Johnson was ordered to pay back over $73,000 personally.
In 2012, he was fined $37,500 by the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) for failing to report over $3.5 million in campaign donations from charities, an amount considered “one of the largest ethics fines ever handed out by the FPPC.” Johnson cooperated with the probe, and said the failure “was unintentional, resulting from an administrative lapse and inadequate staff training.”
Johnson did not give a specific reason for his decision in his letter, nor does he reference the resurfaced allegations.
“As I’m sure there will be much speculation on this, let me proactively say that I am not leaving for a specific job or position,” Johnson wrote. “While there are many intriguing opportunities out there (and I’m excited to explore them), I honestly don’t know what’s next for me.”