'The Mayor's Forced My Hand': Cleveland Heights Police Chief Responds to Kahlil Seren's Various Allegations in Scathing Letter

Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren at a council meeting in May. Credit: Mark Oprea

Last Thursday at Cleveland Heights City Hall, Mayor Kahlil Seren approached a podium in council chambers to once again back up and defend his wife and first lady, Natalie McDaniel, from yet more public scrutiny and to lambast what he said was a police department run amok and intent on destroying the couple’s lives.

The day before, around 10:30 on Wednesday morning, McDaniel was seen on a neighbor’s Ring camera entering their front door without knocking. Seconds before, she had kneeled down to snap a photo of a sign promoting the recall of her husband. McDaniel later told police she’d spotted a dumpster out front, and was hoping to get contractor information. “I was thinking, ‘Empty house, these people are sanding floors,’” she said, according to police. “Can I get card?”

McDaniel wasn’t at fault, Seren said in his hour-long conference. The police were. “I have lost pretty much any confidence in our police division,” Seren said. “This is a ridiculous situation.”

Cleveland Heights Police Chief Christopher Britton has lost that same level of confidence in the mayor.

On Tuesday morning, Britton released a scathing four-page letter on Seren and his first lady, in an attempt to set the record straight and defend the integrity of his department.

“There are so many things wrong with what Mayor Seren had to say, that it is hard to know where to begin,” Britton wrote, adding, “Mayor Seren implied that I and CHPD as a whole are racially biased and that this bias has pervaded the department’s personnel decisions. There is absolutely no factual basis for any such claim.”

Britton defended the criminal justice process despite many attempts, he said, by Seren to “distract and deflect” when accused with misbehavior—from accusations of hiding a laptop to secretly record testimony in the Law Department to an investigation into possible trespassing by McDaniel on July 30.

Both cases that are now either on the desk of the County Sheriff or in the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. (The Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to Scene Tuesday afternoon they’re “reviewing both” cases.)

Passing those cases off constitute right procedure, free of bias from Seren’s possible construing of such, Britton said.

And to avoid the clearest conflict of interest: Seren, as mayor and safety director of Cleveland Heights, is Britton’s boss.

“It is clear that he is biased in favor of any story that his wife might tell him,” Britton said. “This temptation of human nature precisely illustrates the wisdom of turning the reigns of the investigation over to an outside agency.”

“Any person involved in law enforcement knows that police should not conduct a criminal investigation into the conduct of the spouse of the person to whom they ultimately report,” he added.

If Britton is right about anything, it’s that the police response to McDaniel’s alleged break-in is undeniably thorough, to say the least. In a 17-page investigative report released July 31, five officers recount viewing McDaniel’s behavior on five home cameras—one which shows McDaniel walking in without stopping to knock—and interviewing a housekeeper and the two contractors inside the house that morning.

McDaniel was detained for two hours after being interviewed by police. Seren arrived on the scene shortly after she was stopped on Coventry Road; McDaniel pocketed her iPhone, which officers reported was still recording, shortly after the mayor arrived on the scene. Officers took it for evidence after.

As in the December 6 incident, where McDaniel was seen at City Hall on body camera footage berating Sgt. Jason Moze, Britton reasserted his officers’ actions were “consistent with relevant police policy.”

“In the same situation, I would have done the same thing. He followed procedure and did nothing wrong,” Britton said about the incident with Moze. “But in return for doing his job, he had his name publicly dragged through the mud, most notably by the mayor.”

This is the first time Britton has commented at length about the language and actions of the Seren administration. Comments Britton seems to have made after the straw broke the camel’s back.

“Retaliation is a very real threat in this administration in Cleveland Heights City Hall,” he wrote. “There is a long list of people who can attest to it. The tension and fear are profound. The behaviors of the mayor and his wife have led to an atmosphere of dysfunction, chaos and fear of reprisal.”

“I do not relish being in this position where I have to make a public record of these matters,” he added. “But the mayor has forced my hand.”

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