Sex, Lies And Audiotape

[January 28th, 2009]

On Sunday, Jan. 25, Mayor Sam Adams announced he would not resign.

“I know I have made big mistakes,” he said in a statement released Sunday to the public. “I know I have let you down. I ask for your forgiveness.”

One person who will have a hard time forgiving Portland’s new mayor is John Vezina.

Vezina is one of the men who said Adams had a sexual relationship with Beau Breedlove in 2005 when Breedlove was 18, something Adams denied until calling WW on Jan. 19, to say he had lied for the previous 16 months.

Vezina is a player in both Democratic politics and gay rights. He has worked for former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles and for the Corporation for National Service. He also worked for Equal Rights Washington and the Human Rights Campaign—the country’s leading gay-rights organization. For a little more than a year, he worked in Portland on gay issues. And for a brief period, he dated Adams.

In an interview with Adams on Jan. 15, WW told Adams that Vezina was one of the men accusing him of having sex with Breedlove. Throughout the 40-minute interview, Adams continued to deny any such relationship.

During the Jan. 15 interview, WW asked Adams why Vezina would say something that Adams—at the time—was contending was a lie. Adams suggested it was because Vezina had an ulterior motive. Adams said it was because “I accused him of trying to rape Beau.”

(To hear excerpts of the WW interview in which Adams talks about Vezina, check below.)

Adams says he called Vezina after fielding a hysterical phone call from Breedlove, accusing Vezina of attempted rape. Adams said Vezina was mad at him because of the angry voicemail Adams left.

“I left a message with Vezina saying, ‘What the fuck?’ Basically I never heard back from him. And I then sent him an email after not hearing back from him for a while that says basically, ‘What gives?’ And then he sent me an email back saying, ‘I don’t want to have any communication with you,’” Adams said on Jan. 15.

Adams added that neither he nor Breedlove ever reported the alleged assault to police.

There is no evidence that Adams’ claim has any factual basis. WW waited to publish this story until it could get responses from Vezina and Breedlove. But Breedlove did not return more than 15 messages asking about the alleged rape attempt.

Vezina, 47, now an aide to U.S. Sen Mark Begich (D-Alaska), sent WW a response on Wednesday, Jan. 21. He categorically denied any assault.

“The statement by Mayor Adams that I attempted to assault Mr. Breedlove is completely false,” Vezina wrote.

To Norm Costa, Adams’ verbal attack on Vezina is eerily similar to Adams’ attack on Bob Ball, the Pearl District developer who first floated rumors in 2007 about Adams’ sexual relationship with Breedlove. Costa is a veteran Portland gay-rights activist who worked on Adams’ campaigns for City Council in 2004 and for mayor in 2008.

Costa says it sounds as if Adams tried to attack Vezina just as he attacked Ball, an openly gay man.

“There’s a real parallel here,” says Costa, who served as co-chair of the Portland Police Chief’s Forum under Mayor Vera Katz.

In September 2007, whenrumors about Adams and Breedlove first became public, Adams successfully turned the tables and made Ball’s motives the story.

“I have been the target of a nasty smear by a would-be political opponent,” wrote Adams in a Sept. 18, 2007, letter released to constituents. “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.”

Costa says Adams’ comments about Vezina seem part of a pattern.

“What [Adams] said about Ball was defamation of character,” Costa said. “It’s that type of behavior—‘I have to protect myself at all costs no matter who falls under the treadmill.’”

Contacted on Friday, Jan. 23, Adams backed away from his earlier explanation of Vezina’s actions and offered a new one. He acknowledged that Vezina was telling the truth about Adams’ having had sex with Breedlove. But the mayor still insisted that Vezina’s motives weren’t pure.

Instead, he said Vezina was angry because he learned that Adams lied to him about his whereabouts on July 9, 2005.

“I did lie to John and tell him I could not meet up with him that weekend [in July 2005] because I was going to visit my sister in Springfield,” Adams wrote in a Jan. 23 email. “But in reality I told him that so I could spend Saturday night with Beau.” (That was the weekend, Breedlove told The Oregonian in a story published Jan. 25, he spent at Adams’ house, two weeks after his 18th birthday.)

As for his earlier claim that Vezina assaulted Breedlove?

“I do not actually know what happened between Beau and John,” Adams admitted. “I honestly don’t know what happened.”

^Audio And Transcripts From WW's Jan. 15 Interview With Adams

CLIP 1:

Download audio file (adams090115-vezina1.mp3)

NIGEL JAQUISS: Why was John Vezina so upset with you?

SAM ADAMS: Because I accused him of trying to rape Beau.

JAQUISS: And, anything else?

ADAMS: Um, no, not that I know of.

JAQUISS: Was he upset with you because you told him you were going to be one place, but in fact spent the weekend with Beau?

ADAMS: That's what he says, I've come to learn that's what he says, yeah.

JAQUISS: And why would he say that if it's not true?

ADAMS: Because he says Beau told him that.

CLIP 2:

Download audio file (adams090115-vezina2.mp3)

JAQUISS: So you've said that Vezina had a motive, because you say Vezina tried to rape Beau, so for some reason that would make him want to--

ADAMS: No, I didn't say that. I didn't say Vezina had a motive, I just said--

WADE NKRUMAH: He didn't say he had a motive--

ADAMS: Yeah, Nigel, I didn't say he had a motive.

JAQUISS: OK, maybe I misheard you, but you had said--

ADAMS: No, I said--

NKRUMAH: You asked him why he was mad at him, and Sam said, "Because I said he tried to rape Beau."

JAQUISS: OK, if that's not a motive, maybe I don't understand. You're saying that Vezina is not telling the truth.

ADAMS: Actually, I didn't say that.

JAQUISS: Vezina IS telling the truth?

ADAMS: I have no idea. I wasn't there for the conversation between Vezina and Beau. I don't know. I can tell you that Beau felt Vezina tried to rape him. And called me in hysterics, very upset that night. And I left a message with Vezina saying, "What the fuck?," basically, and never heard back from him. And then sent him an email after not hearing back from him for a while that says, basically, "What gives?" And then he sent me an email back saying, "I don't want to have any communication with you." So that's--for months afterwards, I don't know how long transpired--that's what I thought happened there.

HANK STERN: Did you report that to the police or counsel Beau?

ADAMS: No. I asked Beau if we should--if he wanted to report it to the police, and he said no. And that nothing actually happened, but the attempt was made.