Is This Apology Good Enough?

January 20, 2009

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The Secretary of Portland Police Officers Association Asks Sam to resign. Sam said ‘no.’

In this story at KGW TV, the story shows Adams protesting the Bob Ball accusation about having sex with a teenager saying,

“this is one of the, you know, worst smears, you can say against a gay guy. It preys on the homophobic stereotype that gay men cannot be trusted with–young people.”

Adams admits to enlisting Beau Breedlove, then 18, into lying about the nature of the relationship.
What’s worse? The sex with an 18 year old kid or getting him to lie for you about it when you were supposedly mentoring him?
I’ll be covering the Adams news conference today and have more this afternoon on the show (Victoria Taft, 5-8pm KPAM 860).
The following is Sam’s apology. Should it be good enough?

“I want to publicly acknowledge a mistake I have made and I want to apologize for it.
“In the past, I have characterized my relationship with Beau Breedlove as purely non-sexual. That is not true. Beau Breedlove and I had a sexual relationship for a few months in the summer of 2005 after he turned 18 years of age.
“I should have been honest at the time about the true nature of my relationship with Beau Breedlove when questions about my relationship with him first surfaced publicly in October 2007. In fact, Beau encouraged me to be honest about the facts of our relationship. I am deeply sorry that I asked him to lie for me.
“I lied at the time because I was afraid that people would believe untrue rumors, being circulated by an undeclared mayoral opponent, that I had broken a law involving sexual relations with a minor. But this is not a good excuse.
“Until today, with the exception of Beau, I have not discussed with anyone the true nature of my relationship with him: not with my colleagues, staff, friends or family.
“I apologize to Beau for asking him to lie for me. I apologize to my colleagues for my poor handling of this matter. I apologize to the people of Portland for my dishonesty. I should have been truthful from the beginning.

Mayor Sam Adams”

Photo by Oregonlive

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