05/05/2005

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS  / Associated Press

Mayor James E. West, a former Republican legislative leader and opponent of gay rights, has been accused of molesting two boys decades ago and more recently offering a City Hall internship during an online chat to someone he thought was a young man but was in reality a computer investigator hired by a newspaper.

West, 54, acknowledged to The Spokesman-Review that he offered gifts and an internship over the Web site Gay.com to what he believed was an 18-year-old man, but was actually a private computer expert hired by the newspaper.

But in a Wednesday night interview with the newspaper, West denied the claims of past abuse by Robert J. Galliher, 36, of Seattle, and Michael G. Grant Jr., 31, of Spokane, as "flat lies."

"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," West said in the copyright story that capped a three-year investigation by the paper.

West discussed the allegations during a regularly-scheduled City Hall staff meeting Thursday morning, spokeswoman Marlene Feist said.

"The mayor did address it. He was open and honest with cabinet members," Feist said. "And then they went on to the regular business of the city."

West has not decided if he will make a public statement about the allegations, and did not say anything about resigning, Feist said.

While he opposed gay rights, abortion rights and teenage sex during a two-decade legislative career, West said he considered his online relationships through Gay.com to be private.

"My private life is my private life and always has been," he told the newspaper.

"The Gay.com thing has only been, I can't recall, but it hasn't been very long," he said. "I can't tell you why I go there, to tell you the truth ... curiosity, confused, whatever, I don't know."

Concerning his sexual orientation, "I wouldn't characterize me as 'gay,'" West told the newspaper.

He made no similar assertion about bisexuality when asked about his online aliases, "Cobra82nd" and "RightBi-Guy."

Spokane in the past year has been rocked by dozens of claims of past sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, and the Diocese of Spokane has declared bankruptcy because of legal claims from the abuse.

The newspaper said its investigation of West arose out of tips received in 2002 during its investigations of the Catholic sex abuse.

The newspaper hired the forensics computer expert in October 2004 to create a fictitious identity as an 18-year-old boy, and to verify whether the aliases were actually West.

Steve Smith, editor of The Spokesman-Review, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the newspaper was reluctant to hire the computer expert, but felt it was necessary because of West's apparent abuse of office and ongoing potential for harm to young people.

The expert brought knowledge of tracking Internet addresses and identities of chatroom participants that the newsroom lacked, he said.

West denied that his offers to the computer expert constituted abuse of his public office.

West, a lifelong resident of this city of 200,000, spent two decades in the Legislature, rising to majority leader of the state Senate. He was a conservative, well-regarded for his political skills but abrasive in style, with a fierce temper.

He made headlines in 1990 when he proposed marriage from the floor of the Senate to Ginger Marshall while she was visiting the Capitol. Their marriage ended five years later. The Spokesman-Review said she could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

He won the mayor's office in 2003, and has been praised for bringing stability to city government.

Molestation accusations against West, dating from his years as a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout troop leader, were made in a deposition for a lawsuit against Spokane County by Galliher. The lawsuit seeks damages for Galliher, his older brother Brett and two other men, who claim they were molested by another deputy at the time, David Hahn.

West was not named as a defendant and said he was unaware of the deposition.

In interviews with the newspaper, Galliher and Grant said they were introduced to West by Hahn in the late 1970s or early '80s, when the two sheriff's deputies were close friends and leaders of Boy Scout Troop 345 at Hamblen Elementary School.

Galliher said he was present when Hahn committed suicide at his apartment in 1981 after being publicly accused of molesting young boys.

He said he was molested at least four times by West, twice while West was on duty in uniform, driving a sheriff's car said, and at least once in Hahn's apartment.

"Jim West ended up ... just grabbing my penis, fondling me, making me fondle him. Some oral sex, if you call it that," he said.

Afterward, Galliher said, "He just told me I better not tell anyone about this."

Grant, in jail on a drug charge, said he was sexually abused twice by Hahn and twice by West when he was 7 or 8.

"They just molested me, sodomized me," Grant said. "Not at the same time, just like took turns. They took me into the bathroom and one came in, then the other."

He said West told him that "if I was to tell anybody, that he would kill my mom ... that she would not exist no more."

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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesmanreview.com