JC Reindl, and Zlati Meyer

Detroit Free Press

A former political adviser to embattled Warren Mayor Jim Fouts says he has sat in meetings in which Fouts used the N-word and once saw him "dance around like he was a monkey" while referencing black Detroiters.

Joe DiSano, a political consultant who says he advised Fouts from 2003 until 2013, told the Free Press on Monday that the content of newly released recordings in which a voice that is purported to be Fouts denigrates black people and older women was nothing new to his ears.

“In many meetings I’ve heard him casually use the N-word," DiSano said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. "At one of the last meetings I ever had with him, he actually stood at the front of the conference room table and danced around like he was monkey. And that was in reference to voters in Detroit."

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On Monday, a national holiday meant to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of America's greatest civil rights leaders, Fouts found himself having to deny the veracity of newly released audio recordings purportedly of him comparing African-Americans to chimps and using vulgarities to disparage older women.

Fouts denied during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event in Warren that it is his voice on the recordings and accused Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel — with whom he has been feuding — of being behind the "phony, engineered tapes."

"Mark Hackel and friends attempted to hijack this ceremony by releasing more vile, vitriolic, phony tapes against me," Fouts later wrote on his Facebook page, referring to the city's pre-scheduled MLK Day event.

Fouts left the event, pursued by the Rev. W.J. Rideout III of All God's People Church in Detroit, who called the mayor a racist and demanded he resign.

"You call my people chimpanzees, you devil," Rideout shouted as Fouts went through a door at city hall and left the crowd and TV news cameras behind.

The source and date of the audio tapes are unknown.

They were revealed Monday on the Motor City Muckraker website, operated by Steve Neavling, a former Free Press reporter who previously covered Warren City Hall. Neavling declined to reveal who provided the tapes, only saying that he believes they are authentic.

Fouts did not respond to repeated requests from the Free Press for comment.

“Blacks do look like chimpanzees. I was watching this black woman with her daughter and they looked like two chimps," the male voice says in one of the tapes embedded on Neavling's website.

In another, the N-word is used.

In two other tapes, the male voice disparages older women, calling them "mean, hateful, dried up ..." and using vulgar terms for female genitalia to describe them.

"I’m not interested in any old ugly hag. I think after a certain age, they are dried up, washed up, burned out.”

DiSano claims to also have heard the mayor remark about Arabs and Albanians. He.said he stopped working with Fouts because he could no longer stomach the increasingly vile behavior.

"It’s been like watching a slow descent into madness," DiSano said. "He has always been eccentric, but the past couple years have been increasingly hateful toward other people."

"He is completely isolated. He’s surrounded himself with 'yes' men who only reinforce his bad impulses," he added.

Fouts has denied the authenticity of the latest recordings as well as earlier released recordings containing derogatory remarks about disabled people. He says that the "phony, engineered tapes" are part of a conspiracy against him by Hackel and other political opponents.

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DiSano said he believes the voice on both sets of recordings is indeed that of Fouts, although he denied being the source of the recordings. ​

“It is a complete joke that he is able to get away with this story that it’s part of a conspiracy," DiSano said.

He recalled hearing Fouts on at least two occasions tell the same anecdote that is heard in the new recordings about a schoolmate whose father owned a party story and would let in "only two N-----s at a time."

“Finally, I said to myself, 'enough is enough,' '' DiSano said.

Last month, Fouts came under fire after recordings were released by Hackel said to be of the mayor insulting developmentally disabled people. The voice called them "retards" and "not even human beings."

Fouts denied on Facebook that it was him on the tapes, but refused to talk to reporters.

Hackel said he released those tapes to the media after receiving them from a source.

John Cwikla, a spokesman for Hackel, denied that county executive was the source of the new recordings.

"He’s not involved. He has no knowledge of these recent tapes. He has no further comment," Cwikla told the Free Press.

The battle between the two men began over the dumping of dirt at the closed Freedom Hill County Park landfill in Sterling Heights. Fouts called it illegal and has accused Hackel of illegal actions.

Warren Councilman Scott Stevens said he wants the City Council to vote on a resolution calling for Fouts to submit to voice recognition analysis and a polygraph test. He said he'd wanted them to take similar action after the first recordings came out.

He explained that the city previously had a reputation "for not being very inclusive or welcoming to people of other races," but "over the years, we’ve lost that reputation and here it comes again. It's not only about blacks, but now we’re ridiculing women. We’re ridiculing the mentally challenged. C'mon."

In a phone interview Monday, Neavling declined to identify the source who provided the recordings, but said he trusts the individual and believes the recordings are authentic. The source is concerned about his or her own safety, he said.

“The person wanted complete anonymity and I promise them that I wouldn’t even give a context of where they came from or anything like that,” Neavling said.

Neavling said he has no doubts that the voice on the recordings is that of Fouts.

“I’ve talked to Mayor Fouts dozens of times and he has been disparaging to me about women, so this isn’t surprising at all,” Neavling said. “I can tell from the inflections and mannerisms it is Jim Fouts, so there is no doubt for me that it is authentic.”

Neavling said he pressed his source to provide the recordings in time for Martin Luther King Day.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@JCReindl.