A councilor who held the number 1 position has been removed from office.
Crescenta Valley Councilman Chris Kilpatrick resigned from office after surveillance video showed him and another man urinating outside an LGBTQ+ bar in downtown Los Angeles. Kilpatrick and his boyfriend were seen relieving themselves in the employee entrance of Precinct, a bar on South Broadway, around 2 a.m. Saturday, according to a video posted on the bar's Instagram.
The two men left the bar with cocktail glasses just before urinating on some glass doors, according to the publication. An employee approached the men and attempted to take their drinks.
But the taller man, who was later identified as Kilpatrick, threw the employee to the ground, according to the publication.
“The electoral district is a safe space for everyone; Let’s have a good time,” the post read before urging customers not to be idiots (in cruder terms). “Oh yeah, we have several bathrooms too.”
Kilpatrick's attorney, John Duran, said two bar employees approached Kilpatrick and her boyfriend without identifying themselves and aggressively grabbed Kilpatrick and asked him if he had been at the bar.
“My client instinctively retreated in self-defense,” Durán said in a statement. “It was reasonable for him to believe that they were possibly about to be gay-bashed” by the bar's employees, who were not in uniform.
Durán, who served several terms on the West Hollywood City Council before losing his re-election bid in 2020, knows a thing or two about scandals in office. The city paid $500,000 in 2016 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit against him, and more allegations in 2019 sparked protests calling for his resignation.
While Kilpatrick was not identified in the Instagram post, people wrote in the comments that he looked like Kilpatrick, who was elected to the Crescenta Valley City Council in 2020.
Crescenta Valley, northwest of Pasadena, includes the cities of Montrose, Sunland and La Cañada Flintridge, along with sections of the city of Glendale. The city council where Kilpatrick served serves as “an advisory body that advocates for the interests and concerns of our residents,” according to council President Harry Leon in a recent blog post.
Council members learned of the surveillance video Tuesday and asked Kilpatrick for a statement, but by then he had already hired an attorney, according to a letter detailing the council's response. Leon called a special meeting on the issue, but before it could take place Kilpatrick “expressed his desire to resign from the council,” the letter said.
His resignation was accepted by the council and took effect that day.
“While we do not condone any of the behavior we observed on social media, we appreciate your 3 years of commitment and dedication to the community while serving on the council,” council leadership said in the letter.
Duran, Kilpatrick's attorney, said public urination is not a criminal offense and assault is a misdemeanor, which includes “unlawful touching as demonstrated by the individual who grabbed my client first.”
It is unclear if the bar employee was injured during the incident.
