For more than three years, a single anonymous caller left racially charged voicemails for Councilman Henry Davis Jr., filling his voicemail box with racial slurs, references to white supremacy and expressions of satisfaction at the death of a person of color, according to records obtained by Redress South Bend.
More than 200 calls were placed to Councilman Davis from the same source, including over 40 messages delivered during a six month period in 2023 alone. Portions of the recordings, now publicly available, document what appears to be a sustained campaign of racial harassment directed at a sitting member of the South Bend Common Council.
Davis reported the voicemails to city officials, including Mayor James Mueller and members of the Common Council. Internal email correspondence shows that senior city leaders declined to listen to the messages, discouraged escalation and framed the harassment as an unavoidable feature of public life.
In a July 29, 2023 email to Davis, Mayor Mueller acknowledged the voicemails but stated that he had not listened to them.
“I have not listened to the voicemail because it makes
no sense to play into this man’s hatred,” Mueller wrote.
Rather than initiating any internal review or referring the matter to law enforcement, the Mayor placed the burden on Davis to determine whether the harassment warranted police involvement.
“If there’s a credible threat of violence or other crime, please report it
to the police. They will take the matter seriously,” Mueller wrote.
The Mayor also suggested that Davis consider resigning if the harassment had become overwhelming.
“If you decide that serving is too much,
I think we’d all understand,” Mueller wrote.
In the same email, Mayor Mueller minimized the racial nature of the abuse by describing such messages as commonplace for public officials.
“Obscene and hateful comments have no place in our political discourse.
Unfortunately, we all receive them in some form or another,” he wrote.
He also linked the harassment to Davis’s political conduct, writing that he wished Davis had expressed similar concern when colleagues experienced “disturbing, hateful attacks (and vandalism) due to your political theatrics.”
Other members of the Common Council echoed a similar posture of resignation and inaction.
In an email to Davis earlier that day, Councilman Canneth Lee advised him to ignore the caller and not listen to the messages, describing the calls as routine and affecting multiple council members.
“We get calls from this guy all the time,
all of us,” Councilman Lee wrote.
Davis rejected the framing of the harassment as ordinary or inconsequential, describing the messages as threats and questioning whether white council members were being targeted in the same way.
“I find it repulsive and terroristic,” Davis wrote.
He also criticized the city’s failure to act despite years of complaints.
“I have asked the IT department to trace or track these messages
and never got anywhere. I think there should be more protection
from such individuals,” Davis wrote.
In a later response to Mueller, Davis accused the Mayor of dismissing the racial dimension of the harassment and failing to provide leadership.
“I am asking you to step up to the plate (leadership),” Davis wrote.
The internal correspondence shows no indication that the city initiated an investigation, contacted law enforcement or implemented any formal response to the harassment at the time.
The episode has raised new questions about how seriously the city attempted to identify the caller.
Davis told colleagues that he had asked the city’s IT department to trace or track the messages and “never got anywhere.” The correspondence shows that senior officials declined to listen to the voicemails, discouraged escalation and treated the harassment as an unavoidable feature of public life.
By contrast, Redress South Bend, a small independent outlet with no law enforcement authority and no technical investigative resources, identified the caller after listening to hours of audio recordings. The individual was later terminated from his or her job as a result of the misconduct.
The disparity has prompted scrutiny over why city leadership and municipal departments failed to identify the source of the calls when a private newsroom was able to do so without institutional power or access to investigative tools.
According to Redress South Bend, the identity of the caller has since been shared with the F.B.I. Davis has filed a complaint with the F.B.I.’s Indianapolis field office, and a federal agent has contacted Redress South Bend seeking additional information.
Despite Davis’s departure from office, the harassment has continued, according to people familiar with the matter, suggesting that the campaign has become personal rather than political.
Redress South Bend has released eight minutes of the voicemails, drawn from more than an hour of recordings. The organization is urging anyone who recognizes the voice or has relevant information to contact federal authorities.
Before dismissing the recordings as fabricated, the group notes, the city’s own legal department has confirmed the existence of the messages and related internal communications.
Additional reporting is expected as the federal investigation continues.
Logan Foster
Logan Foster founded Redress South Bend and reports on local government and public records in South Bend and St. Joseph County. He is 31 years old and is majoring in finance. He is a Cleveland sports fan and a longtime season ticket holder of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
