Recording said to be Mayor Fouts: boasting about Amsterdam where teens are 'sold for sex'

WARREN, Mich. (FOX 2) - More audio files attributed to Warren Mayor Jim Fouts have surfaced, this time for a 2013 recording released where he allegedly tells an employee about a trip to Amsterdam and teens being sold for sex.

The clip, obtained by Motor City Muckraker, includes a man alleged to be Fouts saying 'any kind of sex is legal', even with minors.

"Prostitution is legal. well in Amsterdam any kind of sex you want is legal," the recording said. " They have women sitting in store front windows - live women sitting there - you can tap on it -  they took credit cards back then - you could get a 16-year-old girl if you wanted one."

Motor City Muckraker has released multiple recordings that have prompted protests and outrage - including one where a voice (attributed to Fouts) is heard disparaging black people, older women, and the mentally disabled.

"My initial reaction is he needs to stop talking because every time this man opens his mouth nonsense comes out," said Lanette Olejniczak. 

Olejniczak is a special education teacher and a former commissioner in Warren who has been outspoken about her disgust regarding what she's heard in the recordings.

"He needs to step down because at this point he has talked poorly about disabled people, he's talked poorly about African-American people, he's talked poorly about older women and now he's making comments about Amsterdam being interesting because you can buy a 16-year-old prostitute. Let me remind everyone he was a school teacher working with 16-year-olds at one point in his life," she said.

Fouts has long maintained that's not him on those recordings but when pressed about that under oath, he declined to answer. In 2018, in a deposition regarding a racial discrimination lawsuit, Fouts was asked if that's his voice on the recordings degrading African-Americans. His attorney objected and he declined to answer on advice of counsel.

On Monday, he wouldn't confirm or deny that's his voice.

"With all due respect I've given my response in the past and it's more of the same. I don't even listen to them anymore and I'm not interested and most people aren't," Fouts said.

He spoke to FOX 2 on the phone but said he was too busy leading the city to grant an interview. 

"We're leading in all kinds of categories so I just can't be distracted by this and whatever they want to do they're going to do. It's an election year and maybe they're candidate shopping - I don't know," Fouts said.

Critics say this is just another strike against the mayor.

"He's not being responsible for his actions and that's a problem when you're running a city," she said.