Source: Willamette Week, Oregonian, Portland Business Journal, KATU TV
Portland's newly-elected Mayor Sam Adams said Sunday that he will be back to work Monday morning despite a scandal swirling in the city after he admitted last week that he had lied about a relationship he had with a young man in 2005.
Last week, Adams apologized for lying about a brief sexual relationship he had with Beau Breedlove who was 17 when Adams met him. But both Breedlove and Adams have said that they did not have sex until Breedlove was 18.
Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has agreed to launch a criminal investigation into the matter, reports KATU TV.
In a statement issued to the press Sunday afternoon, Adams said, "I know I have let you down and made mistakes. I ask your forgiveness. I believe I have a lot to offer the city I love during this time of important challenges."
Portland Mayor Sam Adams says he'll be back to work despite swirling sex scandal [contd.]
On Sunday, Adams posted a statement along with a video message saying he'll be back at work Monday "doing the work that the last 20 years of public service have prepared me for." He took several days off last week to consider options.
"I believe I still have a very positive contribution to make," Adams said in the statement. "And as I do this, I pledge to you: I will work harder than I have ever worked before to make sure Portland meets our challenges."
Meanwhile, Breedlove gave his first extensive interview over the weekend to Portland newspaper, the Oregonian.
Breedlove, now 21, told the Oregonian on Saturday that Adams kissed him on the lips on two occasions before he turned 18 -- once in Adams' car and the other in the second-floor men's room in City Hall after a party that Adams, then a city commissioner, had in his office.
Some have called for the mayor to resign. A website urging a recall vote has been launched, although although even the website's founder told the Oregonian that he thinks a recall is a long-shot.
Breedlove told the Oregonian that the experience of the past week -- including the media attention and the loss of his privacy -- has been wrenching. But he still feels a friendship with Adams, whom he admires.
"I was not pulled into this situation by Sam. I was not unfairly influenced by Sam. I think Sam is a wonderful man," he told the paper.
Adams admitted last Monday to Portland weekly newspaper Willamette Week that he had lied during his mayoral campaign about the relationship. Adams called the newspaper after its reporters had given him details about a story they were working on for last week's issue.
"I want to publicly acknowledge I made a mistake and apologize for it," Willamette Week quotes Adams as telling its reporter, Nigel Jaqiss. "In the past, I've characterized my relationship with Beau Breedlove as purely nonsexual, and that is not true."
Adams said the sexual relationship lasted for a couple of months, WW reports.
Adams, who was in Washington, DC last week to attend inauguration events, issued a statement from there hours later to all Oregon media.
Questions about the relationship between Adams, then a city commissioner, and Breedlove, then a legislative intern, first surfaced sixteen months ago when another man who was considering a mayoral run raised questions about whether the relationship between Adams and Breedlove was sexual, Willamette Week reports.
It became a public matter and caused a brief flurry of news coverage after Portland real-estate developer Bob Ball, spoke in August 2007 about his concerns to his then-close friend, City Commissioner Randy Leonard.
Ball, who is also gay, was considering a mayoral run at the time. His questions about the nature of Adams's relationship with Breedlove were amplified by a WW cover story. It caused a flurry of press coverage in 2007, but both Adams and Breedlove insisted at the time that their relationship was platonic.
At the time, Adams said he was mentoring Breedlove. He claimed Ball was engaged in a dirty tricks campaign.
"I have been the target of a nasty smear by a would-be political opponent," Adams wrote in a Sept. 18, 2007, letter released to the public. "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 acknowledged then that his encounters with Breedlove had distressed his city-hall staff, because they looked inappropriate.
"We made it clear that Sam should be careful," Adams' chief of staff, Tom Miller, told WW in 2007.
Because Breedlove was 17 years old and a minor when he first met Adams, then 42, the question was not just if a sexual relationship had happened, but when.
The flurry of media coverage of the matter lasted for about 10 days, but Leonard and others at city hall sided publicly with Adams. It became a story about an effort to destroy Adams' reputation, and Ball's political hopes evaporated.
Adams enjoyed an easy ascension to the mayor's office after a late challenge from businessman Sho Dozono.
Willamette Week reports that its reporters began looking again at the matter after its reporters heard that Breedlove had become uncomfortable with the statements he had made in 2007.
The weekly paper reported last week that it had interviewed acquaintances of Breedlove and Adams, as well as a former newspaper reporter who worked on the original WW story. The renewed reporting suggested that the relationship between Adams and Breedlove was sexual, Willamette Week reported before Adams issued his apology.
Willamette Week quoted a former boyfriend of Breedlove saying, "Beau lied."
Mark Merkle, 39, was Breedlove's boyfriend for two years ending in August 2008. He told WW, "People got this story wrong,"
He said, "Sam, not Ball, was the bad guy."
After the story broke open again, Adams admitted at a Tuesday press conference that he had lied -- and asked Breedlove to lie in 2007 -- to protect his chances of winning the mayor's race. He said he didn't think anyone would believe he didn't have sex with an underage Breedlove, the Oregonian reports.
Breedlove on Saturday told the Oregonian that the two met at the state Capitol while he was an intern at the Legislature. Adams, then a city commissioner, was in Salem to meet with lawmakers. Breedlove told the paper that they exchanged numbers and Adams eventually invited him to lunch in Portland.
They ate at a downtown Portland cafe in May 2005. Breedlove says Adams asked him how old he was, and Breedlove told him 17.
Adams has said that once he learned Breedlove's age, he told Breedlove that he wouldn't get romantically involved, the Oregonian reports.
Breedlove, however, says that after the lunch, Adams offered to drive him to Union Station so he could catch a train back to Salem. He says that while stopped at a red light, Adams leaned over and kissed him, according to the daily.
He told the paper they had kissed again in a City Hall restroom during a later visit by Breedlove to Portland.
Breedlove told the Oregonian in the Saturday interview that his relationship with Adams had "crossed the line" toward romance earlier than Adams has acknowledged.
"I saw it as a friendship that had crossed the line a couple of times, but I saw it as a friendship," Breedlove said, according to the Oregonian. "When I say cross the line, I don't mean as an unwarranted or unwanted affection. I just didn't see it as something with any potential. ... I saw it as that was the line that we had crossed a couple of times, was 'friends' to 'friends with benefits.' "
Breedlove's account added new details about the relationship that Adams did not mention in a Tuesday press conference after the scandal broke, in which the mayor said he was trying to come clean, KATU and the Oregonian report.
Press coverage in Portland appears to be taking on its own debate about "what the meaning of `is' is" with questions about what "the line" is and when it is crossed.
Adams and a spokesman insisted earlier this weekend that the relationship was not sexual until after Breedlove had turned 18. Robert Weaver, an attorney for Adams, told the Oregonian that even if Adams kissed a 17-year-old Breedlove, Adams broke no laws.
"There is nothing that (Breedlove) has said that is inconsistent with what the mayor has said," Weaver said. "The mayor has said there was no sexual activity. Kissing is not sexual activity."
Source: Why Adams Confessed | Willamette Week
Beau Breedlove tells of his romance as a 17-year-old with Sam Adams | Oregonian
Adams: 'Tomorrow I go back' to work | Portland Business Journal
Adams: "I'll strive to regain your trust" | KATU TV