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Mayor James West released the following statement:"Today a series of articles in the Spokesman-Review leveled allegations against me about my private life. I am a law-abiding citizen, and I believe my public record of service stands on its own merit."
"Allegations about my private life were two-fold. I categorically deny allegations about incidents that supposedly occurred 24 years ago as alleged by two convicted felons and about which I have no knowledge. The newspaper also reported that I have visited a gay chat line on the Internet and had relations with adult men. I don't deny that."
"The business of the City remains my top concern. We have made significant progress as a community over the last year and a half, and I am confident that we will continue to be successful in our initiatives."
West tied to sex abuse in '70s, using office to lure young men
Bill Morlin / Staff writer
© The Spokesman-Review 2005
For a quarter century, the man who is now Spokane's mayor has used positions of public trust - as a sheriff's deputy, Boy Scout leader and powerful politician - to develop sexual relationships with boys and young men.
One man, Robert J. Galliher, claims in a court deposition that Jim West molested him in the mid-1970s when he was a boy and West was a Spokane County sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader.
A second man, Michael G. Grant Jr., also accuses West of sexual abuse during the same era, including an incident at Camp Cowles, a Boy Scout camp on Diamond Lake.
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In addition, an investigation by The Spokesman-Review has revealed that 17 months after leaving the state Legislature, West has used the trappings of the mayor's office to entice and influence young men he met on a gay Web site.
On one recent occasion, West offered a man he believed to be an 18-year-old - whom he met online at Gay.com - gifts, favors and a City Hall internship, Internet dialogues retained by the newspaper reveal. The 18-year-old was actually a forensic computer expert working for the newspaper. (See related story.)
Last June, West went on a dinner date with another 18-year-old he met in the same gay chat room. The young man, initially unaware of his date's identity, paid for dinner, and then was allowed to drive West's blue Lexus convertible. The evening ended with consensual sex, the 18-year-old told the newspaper.
Rob Galliher has accused Jim West and David D. Hahn, who were Spokane County sheriff's deputies at the time, of child molestation in the 1970s. (Brian Plonka/The Spokesman-Review)
West, interviewed Wednesday evening at the newspaper, called the allegations leveled at him by Galliher and Grant "flat lies," but he admitted having private online relationships in the past year through Gay.com.
Asked if he had ever abused a child, he responded: "Never. Never. Absolutely not."
Asked about the claims of Galliher and Grant, West said, "I didn't abuse them. I don't know these people. I didn't abuse anybody, and I didn't have sex with anybody under 18 - ever - woman or man."
"My private life is my private life, and always has been," the mayor told two Spokesman-Review reporters and a photographer.
"There's been a strong wall between my public life and my private life," West said Wednesday.
He admitted offering an internship in his office, sports memorabilia he's collected, help with college admissions, and trips to sports events and Washington, D.C., to a man he believed was an 18-year-old he met online at Gay.com. But he emphatically said he didn't view those offers as "enticements to teenagers" or an abuse of his public office.
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