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Tag: Kahlil Seren

  • Released Body Cam Footage Shows Natalie McDaniel’s December Tirade at City Hall – Cleveland Scene

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    Around 300 days after an outburst at Cleveland Heights City Hall kickstarted months of scandal for Kahlil Seren and wife Natalie McDaniel, a refreshed law department now serving under a new mayor on Friday released police body cam footage that captured the interaction.

    Twenty minutes of footage, filmed by officer Jason Moze, provides audio of a loud and angry McDaniel going off on her husband after what seems to be a lapse in communication.

    Seren’s administration had steadfastly refused to release the footage to media or the public, even arguing in the Ohio Court of Claims that talk between the spouses “in private” was not a verified public record. On September 4, the courts denied that claim. (The release also came days after Seren left office after being recalled.)

    As Moze’s incident report explained earlier this year, McDaniel had been trying that morning to get ahold of Seren, who was apparently not responding to her texts. So, around 1 p.m. on December 6, McDaniel showed up to City Hall to confront him and his team in person.

    “I despise you,” McDaniel is heard behind closed doors as Moze sat at his desk. 

    “I’m not somebody off the fucking street,” she told Seren. “I can’t find you or answer your phone—I don’t know where you went. I just came out of a meeting and you were supposed to be there. You are being cryptic!”

    “Do you understand? I didn’t know if you were okay,” McDaniel told Seren, who kept quiet. “I didn’t know if you were okay. I had no fucking information!”

    Lt. Sean Corrigan joins Moze minutes into the incident, and eventually enters the mayor’s office—accessible by key fob only—to attempt to try and calm McDaniel down.

    “She’s going off. I can’t get in there,” Moze is heard telling Corrigan. “She’s screaming.”

    Corrigan’s involvement seems to simmer McDaniel’s outburst, leading to somewhat of an apology.

    “Why are you not talking?” McDaniel’s heard saying, possibly to Seren.

    And to Corrigan: “Fuck you! What are you, de-escalating? What are you doing!”

    “I am a light-skinned Black woman, okay?” McDaniel explained in a softer tone. “Asking me to suppress my natural reaction to disrespect by a giant white man is a bit much, but I hear your point.”

    After an overwhelming recall vote on September 9, the Seren administration came to end this week. Former Council President Tony Cuda took Seren’s post on Wednesday.

    Seren didn’t leave without a final mark. On Tuesday, he fired Law Director William Hanna for a plethora of reasons tied to what he saw as a breach of trust related to the release of public records. 

    Interim Mayor Tony Cuda rehired Hanna the next day.

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    Mark Oprea

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  • Cleveland Heights Voters Overwhelmingly Decide to Oust Mayor Seren in Recall Election

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    Mark Oprea

    Over 80 percent of voters decided Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren was no longer fit for office, Tuesday’s election results show.

    Voters in Cleveland Heights decided to recall embattled Mayor Kahlil Seren in Tuesday’s election, the results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections showed in an unofficial count.

    As of Wednesday morning, 8,307 voters turned out to polls across the city to cast their decision on the issue; a whopping 6,829 of them decided that Seren was no longer fit to lead. The city needed a simple majority to oust Seren three months before the end of his term in January.

    Josie Moore, a 2021 mayoral candidate that helped back Seren’s recall campaign, said she believes Cleveland Heights made the right decision.

    “The people of Cleveland Heights were clear: we could not afford to wait,” Moore told Scene. “We must now act to protect our city.”

    “This wasn’t about politics. It was about responsibility,” she added. “To our city employees, to our finances and to our future.”

    After the results are certified on September 26, Cleveland Heights’ first elected mayor will be forced to concede his seat to City Council President Tony Cuda, who will act as mayor until January 1.

    In early June, Moore and a handful of colleagues traversed Cleveland Heights with fellow supporters to try and validate a recall they all felt was long overdue. They collected 3,845 signatures—well over the 2,900 needed.

    Seren, they claimed, was unfit to lead. He and wife Natalie McDaniel had become embroiled in a series of scandals, including anti-semitic remarks, multiple instances of unprofessional behavior, allegations of wiretapping, and McDaniel’s indictment on trespassing charges.

    There was, Moore and others wrote in a letter this summer, “a pattern of leadership failures that place the city at risk.” Those that, they claimed, led to “extremely high” staff turnover, the resignation of three city administrators and a my-way-or-the-highway take on management that “fostered public alarm and distrust.”

    Seren’s successor will undeniably have to tackle issues of trust when they take the seat from Cuda in January.

    In Tuesday’s primary mayoral election, Jim Petras and Davida Russell, both on Cleveland Heights City Council, finished with roughly 28 percent of the vote each. The two will face off in a general election in November.

    Cleveland Heights City Hall has not released an official statement on the election results thus far, and did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

    “We will not speculate about outcomes. We will await the Board of Elections’ official results and, as required, certification,” Seren wrote in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

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    Mark Oprea

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