 | Thursday, September 2, 2010 |
A SPOKESMAN-REVIEW INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
Allegations shadow politician throughout his career
By Bill Morlin / Staff writer
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 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 also accuses West of sexual abuse during the same era, including an incident at Camp Cowles, a Boy Scout camp on Diamond Lake.
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. ( Full story » )
Karen Dorn Steele / Staff writer
 In an Internet chat room last New Year’s Eve where he discussed his recent date with an 18-year-old man, Spokane Mayor Jim West criticized the “sex Nazis” who try to regulate private sexual behavior. For years, that’s exactly what West tried to do in Olympia. ( Full story » )
Bill Morlin / Staff writer
An 18-year-old Spokane high school senior meets someone who says he’s 53 in a gay chat room online. After talking for several weeks using the online alias “Cobra82nd,” the older man suggests the two meet for a dinner date, and the teenager accepts. The older man arrives in his late-model blue Lexus convertible on a warm June evening, and the two talk face to face for the first time over dinner at a trendy restaurant in north Spokane. Afterward, the young man picks up the tab. He smiles as he’s given the keys to the convertible in the restaurant parking lot. ( Full story » )
 A complete transcription of an interview between Spokesman-Review reporter Bill Morlin and Robert J. Galliher, conducted April 20, 2005, in the Seattle area. Galliher remembers being visited late at night in 2003 by Jim West at Geiger Corrections Center, and the last day in 1981 he saw Spokane County sheriff’s Deputy David Hahn. ( Full text » )
 A complete transcription of an interview between Spokesman-Review reporter Bill Morlin and Michael George Grant Jr., conducted April 26, 2005, in a central Washington jail. Grant describes being molested by Spokane County sheriff's Deputy David Hahn, and talks about where he was when West was elected mayor. ( Full text » )
Mike Prager / Staff writer
 In his 16 months in office at City Hall, Spokane Mayor Jim West has pulled off a series of significant accomplishments while enjoying broad political support both inside and outside the city. Possibly his biggest accomplishment was winning voter approval last fall of a $117 million bond issue to fix aging city streets. The victory was a remarkable turnaround from the resounding defeat by voters just two years earlier of a smaller street bond, under the previous mayor. ( Full story » )
May 5, 2005
Listen to reactions from city officials. ( Multimedia » )
Transcript of an interview between Mayor Jim West and Spokesman-Review reporters Bill Morlin and Karen Dorn Steele, which took place at The Spokesman-Review building the evening of May 4, 2005, before any stories on this investigation were published. Enhanced with audio clips. ( Full text » )
Text of an email sent by Mayor Jim West to city employees the morning of May 5, 2005. ( Full text » )
Transcription of a public statement from Mayor Jim West. ( Full text » )
Mike Prager / Staff writer
 Spokane Mayor Jim West Thursday gave every indication he intends to continue serving even as allegations of his sexual misconduct descended on City Hall. “I have 1,150 days left in my term of office and each and every one of those days will be dedicated to serving the city and making sure we prosper …” the mayor said. ( Full story » )
Text of a letter Rob Galliher wrote in January 2004 and sent to Mic Hunter, a St. Paul, Minn., psychologist and author of "Abused Boys," a book on sex abuse. Galliher said he was looking for help from Hunter when he wrote the letter, which accuses Jim West of sexual abuse. ( Full text » )
May 6, 2005
Mike Prager / Staff writer
Mayor Jim West's admission to cruising a gay chat site has prompted an inquiry from the City of Spokane. ( Full story » )
Listen to an interview with Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers. Hear Jim West's speech at a sign unveiling. ( Multimedia » )
Mike Prager / Staff writer
 Spokane Mayor Jim West gave no indication Thursday he is ready to relinquish the power of his office even as allegations of his sexual misconduct gripped City Hall. The mayor denied allegations by two men who claim that West molested them when they were boys while he was a Boy Scout leader and a Spokane County deputy sheriff in the 1970s. West said he did not deny additional reports in the newspaper "that I have visited a gay chat line on the Internet and had relationships with adult men." ( Full story » )
By Bill Morlin and Karen Dorn Steele / Staff writer
Spokane Mayor Jim West, facing accusations of using positions of public trust to develop sexual relations with young men, resigned Thursday from the executive board of the Inland Northwest Council of the Boy Scouts. ( Full story » )
Bill Morlin / Staff writer
The last time Robert Galliher talked publicly about being abused as a boy by a sheriff’s deputy he says he ended up with a black eye, bruised ribs and blood in his urine. Galliher claims he was beaten by correctional officers in the Spokane County Jail in 2003, about three months after he was quoted in The Spokesman-Review. In that newspaper story, Galliher said he and his older brother Brett were sexually abused in the late 1970s by Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy David Hahn. ( Full story » )
Alison Boggs / Staff writer
 Many Spokane business leaders expressed support Thursday for Mayor Jim West and said they hope the allegations leveled against him will not derail the city's momentum. ( Full story » )
Shawn Vestal / Staff writer
Mayor Jim West has insisted that his offers of an internship to someone he met in an Internet chat room did not amount to an abuse of office. But several political scientists said Thursday that such uses of an elected office and public resources represent an ethical transgression, if not a legal one. ( Full story » )
May 7, 2005
Bill Morlin and Karen Dorn Steele / Staff writer
The controversy swirling around Spokane Mayor Jim West grew substantially Friday when two men, now living in Seattle, came forward with new allegations about his conduct in 1980 and as recently as 2001. West faces allegations of sexual abuse of children dating to the 1970s and more recent allegations of abuse of public power. ( Full story » )
Mike Prager / Staff writer
Spokane city officials Friday announced an independent investigation into Mayor Jim West’s internship program and his use of city e-mail and the Internet. ( Full story » )
Jeff Schrock / Special to The Spokesman-Review
I met Jim West in the early 1980s when I was attending Lewis and Clark High School (Class of '86). I'm not sure of the exact timing of our acquaintance but over the course of three to four years, I got to know Jim fairly well. ( Full story » )
Saturday's letters to the editor from The Spokesman-Review. ( Read more » )
May 8, 2005
Bill Morlin and Karen Dorn Steele / Staff writers
 Spokane Mayor Jim West confided to a city councilwoman Thursday that he masturbated in his City Hall office during an online chat on a gay Web site. ( Full story » )
Mike Prager / Staff writer
Spokane Mayor Jim West on Sunday denied that he told City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers that he had online sex in his City Hall office. ( Full story » )
Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers stands by her account. ( Multimedia » )
Virginia de Leon / Staff writer
Vulnerable kids, like Michael Grant and Robert Galliher assert they were, are often the ones targeted by pedophiles and child molesters, experts say. And once they become victims of abuse, many of these children grow up to become troubled adults and struggle all their lives to recover. ( Full story » )
Karen Dorn Steele / Staff writer
The Local Planet, an alternative newspaper that ceased publication last year, considered pursuing a story about Jim West's personal life in 2003. ( Full story » )
Mike Prager / Staff writer
Spokane City Council members Saturday said Mayor Jim West's future should be left for him to decide. ( Full story » )
Steven A. Smith / Editor
This week's stories on Mayor Jim West's recent sexual misconduct and allegations of past sexual abuse have raised the credibility issue again. ( Full story » )
Spokane Mayor Jim West says he has a right to keep his private and public lives separate. He should have lived by that rule.( Full story » )
Doug Clark / Columnist
Poor Spokane. Here we finally elect a mayor who starts getting the streets fixed and will be seen eating lunch with me. Then – wham! – we catch him wooing a high school teenager on a gay Internet Web site by offering a City Hall internship. ( Full story » )
What other media outlets, from Seattle to New York, are saying about the Jim West case. ( Links » )
Sunday's letters to the editor from The Spokesman-Review. ( Read more » )
May 9, 2005
Mike Prager / Staff writer
Spokane Mayor Jim West on Sunday denied telling City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers that he was in his City Hall office when he masturbated while visiting a gay online chat room, looking for young men, but Rodgers stood steadfastly by her account of their conversation. ( Full story » )
Bill Morlin / Staff writer
 Mayor Jim West ended two days of public silence on Sunday in a rambling, sometimes emotional 30-minute conversation over an expanding controversy linking his sexual activities and the trappings of his public office. ( Full story » )
Notes taken by Spokesman-Review Editor Steve Smith during a Sunday morning phone conversation with Mayor Jim West. ( Full text » )
Interviews with Matt Spaur of The Local Planet and P.J. Watters of the Morning Star Boy’s Ranch. ( Multimedia » )
Spokesman-Review Editor Steven A. Smith answered readers' questions Monday afternoon about the newspaper's investigation and reporting. ( Transcript » )
High-salaried City Hall jobs and a position on a city policy-making board were offered to two young men after they met Mayor Jim West in an Internet chat room, both men told The Spokesman-Review on Monday. ( Full story » )
Video report on Shannon Sullivan, who filed a challenge for recall against Jim West on Monday. ( Multimedia » )
May 10, 2005
Bill Morlin / Staff writer
The FBI is in the initial phases of a possible "public corruption" case involving allegations that Spokane Mayor Jim West abused his office by extending jobs to gay young man he hoped to entice into sexual relationships. ( Full story » )
 Spokane Mayor Jim West told City Council members Monday that he would take a leave of absence amid controversy over his sexual behavior and use of the mayor's office. ( Statement; Full story » )
Shawn Vestal / Staff writer
The intersection of politics, religion and sexuality exploded in the gay community last week, when allegations surfaced that Mayor Jim West - a longtime conservative opponent of gay rights - had sexually abused boys and had relationships with young men. ( Full story » )
Spokane Mayor Jim West's votes on gay-rights and human-rights issues. ( Read more » )
Transcript of an interview Spokesman-Review reporter Bill Morlin conducted with Ryan Oelrich on May 9 in Spokane. Oelrich is talking about his appointment to the Human Rights Commission by Spokane Mayor Jim West. ( Full text » )
Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch talks about leading the city. ( Multimedia » )
May 11, 2005
Two former Spokane mayors - John Talbott and Sheri Barnard - called Tuesday for Mayor Jim West to resign. At City Hall, officials sought to turn their attention back to the business of local government. ( Full story » )
 A year ago, Spokane Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch was embarking on what he would come to view as one of the biggest challenges of his career: investigating the death of a sewage treatment plant worker and helping city employees cope with the tragedy. Now, Lynch faces what could be an equal, if not greater, test of his leadership skills. ( Full story » )
Key officials in an interim administration. ( Read more » )
May 12, 2005
Whether state authorities open an investigation into misconduct allegations against Mayor Jim West will depend on the outcome of a similar FBI probe already under way, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna announced Thursday. ( Full story » )
Spokane City Attorney Mike Connelly is asking for state and federal help with allegations of misconduct being lodged against Mayor Jim West. Connelly wants the FBI and the Washington State Attorney General's Office to open official investigations. ( Full story » )
The longtime director of Morning Star Boys Ranch on Wednesday denied a report that Mayor Jim West and a former sheriff's deputy "checked out" boys for day outings and camping trips in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ( Full story » )
May 13, 2005
At its heart, The Spokesman-Review's investigation of Spokane Mayor Jim West is a local story about a trusted public figure accused of abusing the privilege of elected office. But that isn't what brought the national news media to Spokane. ( Full story » )
May 14, 2005
Mayor Jim West is privately being urged to resign by some of his most important political allies – leaders of the Spokane business community who fear ongoing damage to economic development efforts because of the sex scandal enveloping the mayor. ( Full story » )
The U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington – a friend and financial supporter of Spokane's embattled mayor – said Friday he is taking steps to remove himself from any involvement in an FBI probe of public corruption allegations against Jim West. ( Full story » )
May 16, 2005
A Spokane City Council resolution asking embattled Mayor Jim West to take a formal leave of absence died Monday night on a 3-3 vote. ( Full story » )
Spokane resident Shannon Sullivan's petition to recall Mayor Jim West needs a bit more work before it can go to court for a review. ( Full story » )
May 18, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West's private legal bills stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct in office may be left for city taxpayers to pick up. ( Full story » )
Spokesman-Review Editor Steven A. Smith answered readers' questions Wednesday afternoon about the newspaper's investigation and reporting. ( Transcript » )
May 19, 2005
Mayor Jim West still has a standing invitation to Friday's Leadership Prayer Breakfast – an annual event that brings together hundreds of people who pray for the community and its political leaders. ( Full story » )
A Spokane resident, who finds herself reluctantly at the head of a movement to oust Mayor Jim West over sexual misconduct allegations, has filed a new petition to have him recalled by voters. ( Full story » )
May 20, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West returned to City Hall on Thursday, two weeks after news of a sex scandal surrounding his office became public and put his future as mayor into question. ( Full story » )
May 21, 2005
A special federal prosecutor and a separate independent panel were named Friday to oversee public corruption and abuse of office investigations into the activities of Spokane Mayor Jim West. ( Full story » )
When Jim West showed up at the Leadership Prayer Breakfast early Friday, the mayor was immediately showered with handshakes, hugs and words of encouragement. ( Full story » )
May 23, 2005
Two business organizations on Monday urged embattled Spokane Mayor Jim West to step down. An hour later the mayor issued his own statement, saying he was sorry for causing embarrassment to citizens but insisting he will serve out his term. ( Audio/Video; Full story » )
Text of a public statement from mayor Jim West. ( Full text » )
May 24, 2005
Two key business organizations on Monday urged embattled Spokane Mayor Jim West to step down, while City Council members launched a move that could lead to sanctions against the mayor. A leading Spokane Republican said the party locally appears to be leaning toward a call for resignation. ( Audio/Video; Full story » )
As state Senate majority leader in 2003, Jim West clashed with a fellow Republican whose aide found sexually suggestive e-mails between two male GOP staff members on a state computer. Instead of disciplining the aides who wrote the e-mails for inappropriate conduct, West went after the Republicans who disclosed the e-mails. ( Full story » )
New allegations of misconduct are surfacing against Jim West even as he digs in to save his job as Spokane mayor. The allegations include claims that West pulled down the pants of boys at a Boy Scout camp during the late 1970s and, as a deputy, fondled a teenager during a search for marijuana in 1977. ( Full story » )
May 25, 2005
The Spokane City Council is expected to call for the resignation of Mayor Jim West when it meets next Tuesday. All seven council members are now part of a growing chorus of community leaders who want West to step down over sexual misconduct allegations. ( Full story » )
The board of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council came out against Mayor Jim West on Wednesday, joining two other key business groups and a unified City Council in asking for West's resignation. ( Full story » )
May 26, 2005
When he was a sheriff's deputy, the man who is now Spokane's mayor sodomized a sixth-grade boy, according to allegations in court documents released Wednesday by an attorney for Spokane County. ( Full story » )
Deposition of Robert J. Galliher, who was asked questions under oath as part of his pending lawsuit against the county. ( Downloadable PDF; text version » )
The board of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council came out against Mayor Jim West on Wednesday, joining two other key business groups and a unified City Council in asking for West's resignation. ( Full story » )
May 27, 2005
Attorneys for Spokane Mayor Jim West asked the public Thursday to give the mayor a chance to respond to accusations of sexual misconduct before making judgments about him. ( Full story » )
SpokesmanReview.com video of a protest in front of city hall ( Watch » )
May 28, 2005
Debbie Brown, a mother of two, has never seen herself as an activist. She doesn't write letters to the editor, participate in protests or publicly display her politics. ( Full story » )
Investigative records relating to a sheriff deputy's suicide in 1981 – previously claimed to be "shredded" – were made public on Friday by Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk and county attorney James Emacio. The 49 pages of sheriff's office records, first requested in January 2003 by The Spokesman-Review, detail allegations of child sexual abuse by Deputy David Hahn, who killed himself in 1981. ( Full story » )
May 29, 2005
Jamie Tobias Neely / Staff writer
Judgment is such a funny word. Mayor Jim West said this week he used "poor judgment." Some Spokane residents say they want to avoid "a rush to judgment." ( Full story » )
In the three weeks since abuse of power allegations against Mayor Jim West became public, Spokane City Attorney Mike Connelly has had as many as three attorneys and an office assistant preparing records for an independent investigation into the mayor's use of his office. ( Full story » )
May 31, 2005
Mayor West speaks with Matt Lauer on NBC's "The Today Show." ( Full story » )
June 1, 2005
The Spokane City Council Tuesday unanimously called for Mayor Jim West to resign, and took an initial step to give the council impeachment power over the mayor through the City Charter. ( Full story » )
Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk said Tuesday that his office wasn't trying to hide anything when he said 16 months ago that documents detailing allegations of sexual abuse against a former deputy had been shredded. ( Full story » )
June 2, 2005
A petition to recall Mayor Jim West has been certified by the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, but it will take a judge from Tri-Cities to decide whether it moves ahead. ( Full story » )
June 3, 2005
Jim West should step down as mayor immediately because the citizens can no longer trust him, local and state Republican Party officials said Thursday afternoon. ( Audio/Video; Full story » )
Despite calls for his resignation, Mayor Jim West is staying in office, at least in part to defend himself, his attorney said Thursday during a televised forum. ( Full story » )
Full text of a memo sent by Jim West's attorneys to the media in advance of a June 3 press conference. ( Full story » )
June 4, 2005
An embattled Mayor Jim West, facing Spokane media for the first time in the month-long sexual misconduct scandal at City Hall, vowed not to resign and to pay for his own legal defense – even borrowing money from his elderly father if necessary. ( Video; Full story » )
June 5, 2005
Elected officials in Spokane have been threatened with recall for everything from approving the West Plains garbage incinerator to making homophobic comments to escaping reporters by jumping out a courthouse window. But few have been ousted or even faced the voters in a recall vote. ( Full story » )
Gary Crooks / Associate editor
You want to support the mayor. You think he's done a solid job of running the city after several years of moribund municipal leadership. You want to be fair, so you've withheld judgment. ( Full story » )
June 7, 2005
Spokane City Attorney Mike Connelly on Monday named a fifth member to an independent panel that is being asked to investigate Mayor Jim West and his use of city computers and an internship program to solicit dates from young gay men. ( Full story » )
June 8, 2005
Mayor West's attorneys call for a recall petition filed by Shannon Sullivan to be dismissed on the grounds it is legally insufficient. ( Downloadable PDF » )
June 9, 2005
Supporters and opponents of Mayor Jim West will have to wait at least until Monday to discover whether Spokane's chief executive will face ouster through a recall election. ( Full story » )
Spokane City Attorney Mike Connelly said Wednesday he expects to release within the next several days as many as five large binders filled with Mayor Jim West's office e-mails. ( Full story » )
June 10, 2005
As gays and lesbians in the Inland Northwest gather for the annual OutSpokane Pride festivities this week, many wonder about the private life of the city's most public official. ( Full story » )
The drowning of a scuba diving student 17 years ago in Lake Coeur d'Alene has now become part of the misconduct controversy surrounding Spokane Mayor Jim West. ( Full story » )
June 11, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West said he's found a new relationship with God and has redoubled his effort to manage the city in a new e-mail made public on Friday. ( Full story » )
June 13, 2005
Removing an elected mayor from office shouldn't be easy, but it shouldn't be impossible either. Under the Spokane City Charter, the task is close enough to the latter to justify the City Council's current interest in a corrective amendment. ( Full story » )
June 14, 2005
Spokane residents who want to oust Mayor Jim West at the ballot box should get a chance to gather signatures on a recall petition, a Superior Court judge said Monday. ( Full story » )
June 15, 2005
A stream of e-mails – many angry and vulgar, some supportive – poured into City Hall from around the nation in early May after The Spokesman-Review published stories about Mayor Jim West's dual life as an anti-gay politician who offered jobs and other perks in exchange for sexual favors to young men he met on the Internet. The media got a first look at the vociferous reaction on Tuesday, when city attorneys released some of West's e-mails in response to the newspaper's May 6 public records request. ( Full story » )
Two City Council members on Tuesday questioned the legality of an independent commission appointed to investigate the activities of Spokane Mayor Jim West. Council members Bob Apple and Cherie Rodgers criticized the commission when they were asked about a possible conflict of interest involving member Philip J. Thompson, a retired judge. ( Full story » )
Organizers of an effort to oust Mayor Jim West were reviewing the wording of their recall petition Tuesday after receiving a green light from a judge on one of the allegations in their ballot proposal. ( Full story » )
June 17, 2005
An independent commission investigating Spokane Mayor Jim West postponed its second meeting on Thursday after the group was asked whether its sessions would be open to the public. ( Full story » )
June 19, 2005
OLYMPIA – Six weeks after stunning public allegations of child molestation and sexual misconduct, Spokane Mayor Jim West remains in office, fighting a recall attempt and rebuffing repeated calls to resign. ( Full story » )
The Spokesman-Review's investigation of Mayor Jim West is fast becoming a case study in journalism ethics in university journalism schools around the country. An upcoming ethics newsletter of the Association of Educators of Journalism and Mass Communication will tackle the issue. But I think the West crisis could provide case studies in another arena – community leadership. ( Full column » )
June 20, 2005
If Shannon Sullivan's television hadn't been on the morning of May 6, her life would be so much simpler today. That was her son Dylan's ninth birthday, and when he came out of his room before breakfast, he looked at the TV screen and said, "Mom, that's the mayor. What's he doing?" ( Full story » )
June 21, 2005
Three Spokane business groups urged Mayor Jim West on Monday to skip any legal appeal of the recall effort he faces and let the voters decide whether he should stay in office. ( Full story » )
June 22, 2005
An e-mail released Tuesday in response to a public records request confirms that Spokane Mayor Jim West used his city computer to offer an internship to "Moto-Brock," a man he met on a gay Web site who he believed was an 18-year-old high school student. ( Full story » )
June 23, 2005
A panel appointed to investigate Spokane Mayor Jim West will hold its second meeting Friday, and it will be open to the public, a city official announced Wednesday. ( Full story » )
The controversy surrounding Mayor Jim West could become a prominent issue in the race to replace outgoing Spokane City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, one of West's toughest critics in the scandal. ( Full story » )
June 24, 2005
A special panel appointed to investigate City Hall-related activities of Mayor Jim West initially will plow through his 12,000 e-mails in an attempt to determine if he violated city ethics policies or laws. ( Full story » )
June 28, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West, ignoring calls from the business community to allow an immediate recall election, said Monday he will challenge a judge's ruling that there is sufficient evidence for a vote. ( Full story » )
Mayor James E. West With over 92 articles, hundreds of column inches, thousands of words, several editorials and screaming headlines by The Spokesman-Review, people have a hard time remembering this simple fact: In our system a person is innocent until proven guilty. ( Full story » )
June 28, 2005
Recall sponsor Shannon Sullivan on Tuesday asked the Washington State Supreme Court for an emergency review of her misfeasance case against Mayor Jim West. ( Full story » )
July 2, 2005
Recall sponsor Shannon Sullivan on Tuesday asked the Washington State Supreme Court for an emergency review of her misfeasance case against Mayor Jim West. ( Full story » )
"Please accept this letter as notification that I am resigning as a member of the panel appointed to investigate Jim West. For some reason, which still remains a mystery to me, I have been targeted as a potentially biased member of the panel. The allegations given to support that conclusion are either false or incomplete." ( Full document » )
Ken Sands / Online publisher Everyone in The Spokesman-Review newsroom knew from the beginning that the stories about Mayor Jim West would be controversial. As online publisher, my primary role in this ongoing series has been to enable the greatest degree of transparency as possible. ( Full column » )
Shannon Sullivan I am just your average mother whose son is the light of her life. I had no idea of the trials and tribulation that would come from starting a recall effort against Mayor James West. Making a statement for the children and citizens of the city was all I had in mind. ( Full column » )
July 3, 2005
Jim West's fight to save his career morphed last week into a campaign by a veteran politician to try to change public opinion. West's appeal on Monday of a recall petition set up a three-day media blitz in which he sought to refute aspects of a scandal that has dogged the 54-year-old mayor for two months. ( Full story » )
In the past week, Spokane Mayor Jim West conducted two television interviews, answered questions from The Inlander, and submitted a guest column for The Spokesman-Review's Opinion pages. In the process, West made several assertions about the newspaper's reporting that are not true. ( Full story » )
As Spokane Mayor Jim West navigates the biggest political storm of his quarter-century in public life, he faces two different questions. How long can he remain in office? How effective can he be while he is there? ( Full story » )
The Spokesman-Review ran a lengthy statement by Spokane Mayor James West on Tuesday's op-ed page. It was the second extended commentary by him to appear on these opinion pages since May 5, the day news stories broke about his online sexual communication with a person he thought was a 17-year-old high school student. ( Full editorial » )
July 6, 2005
The Spokane City Council wants a speedy appeal of a recall petition against Mayor Jim West in the wake of a sexual impropriety scandal that became public this spring. ( Full story » )
July 7, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West voiced strong opposition to a gay business district proposed for Spokane, according to e-mails released Wednesday in the ongoing abuse of power controversy at City Hall. ( Full story » )
July 12, 2005
As the state's highest court weighs the legality of the recall attempt against Jim West, the lawyers for Spokane's mayor have a message for the justices: Take your time. ( Full story » )
The sponsor of a recall effort against Spokane Mayor Jim West is planning a town hall meeting for Friday evening. ( Full story » )
July 14, 2005
A powerful politician embroiled in a sex scandal resists calls for his forcible removal from office. Those leading the charge want swift action, saying "justice delayed is justice denied." Sound like the drama gripping Spokane City Hall these days? ( Full story » )
A letter to Speaker of the House Clyde Ballard, a resolution supporting the impeachment of Gov. Mike Lowry for alleged sexual harrassment, and handwritten notes from then Sen. James E. West in 1995. ( 186K PDF » )
July 15, 2005
The Washington State Supreme Court will handle the possible recall of Mayor Jim West on a fast track. ( Full story » )
July 25, 2005
The Washington Supreme Court will listen to oral arguments on Aug. 24 about whether the proposed recall of Mayor Jim West should move forward. ( Full story » )
July 28, 2005
Supporters of the proposed recall of Spokane Mayor Jim West don't have enough time to get that issue on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, the county's chief election official said Wednesday. ( Full story » )
July 29, 2005
Mayor Jim West's private life shouldn't be a cause for his ouster from public life, the mayor's attorneys argued in a brief filed Thursday with the state Supreme Court. ( Full story » )
July 31, 2005
Three decades ago, while Spokane reveled in its changing skyline and the limelight of hosting a World's Fair, the city frequently was described as a great place to raise a family. ( Full story » )
August 2, 2005
Spokane City Council members voted unanimously Monday to take over a city investigation into allegations of misconduct by Mayor Jim West. ( Full story » )
August 3, 2005
A little Mayor Jim West in the classroom may be too much for Spokane Public Schools officials. Spokane County's largest school district has delayed a discussion on whether to purchase a new textbook on Washington state history because Mayor Jim West's bio and photo appear on page 95. ( Full story » )
August 6, 2005
Spokane City Council President Dennis Hession on Friday renewed his call for Mayor Jim West to resign in the wake of a report that the FBI searched the mayor’s home last week for evidence of public corruption. ( Full story » )
FBI agents have searched the home of Spokane Mayor Jim West, seizing his computers and related files as part of a public corruption investigation, according to U.S. District Court documents filed Friday. ( Full story » )
A recall effort targeting Mayor Jim West does not rely on unsubstantiated news accounts or ambiguous comments by the mayor to a potential intern, the recall sponsor argued Friday in papers filed with the state Supreme Court. ( Full story » )
August 12, 2005
The author of a petition to oust Spokane Mayor Jim West has set up a nonprofit organization to help pay legal expenses of the recall fight. ( Full story » )
August 17, 2005
Voters should have no chance to oust Mayor Jim West based on "The Spokesman-Review's invasive surveillance and contrived evidence" and that's all that recall sponsor Shannon Sullivan offered to support her petition, the mayor's attorneys contend. ( Full story » )
August 19, 2005
With five days to go before the state’s highest court considers whether Spokane Mayor Jim West will face a citywide recall election, several local attorneys have filed friend-of-the-court briefs arguing in favor of such a vote. ( Full story » )
August 20, 2005
Newspaper stories, without additional corroborating evidence, shouldn’t be enough to allow a recall election against Spokane Mayor Jim West, West’s attorneys said Friday in a brief to the state’s highest court. ( Full story » )
August 24, 2005
The text of the ballot synopsis approved by the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.
( Read document » )
More documents:
Appellant's brief (1.6 Mb PDF)
Appellant's reply brief (648 Kb PDF)
Respondent's brief (2.5 Mb PDF)
Amicus brief (414 Kb PDF)
Amicus brief, NASC (99 Kb Word)
Brief on accelerated review (54 Kb Word)
Amicus brief, Appendix A (24 Kb PDF)
Amicus brief, Appendix B (1.9 Mb PDF)
West response to amicus briefs (478 Kb PDF)
Court ruling (34 Kb Word)
August 25, 2005
OLYMPIA – Less than halfway into Spokane Mayor Jim West's four-year term, the state Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a green light to critics calling for a vote to oust him from office. ( Full story » )
Links:
Majority opinion
Concurrence (Madsen)
Concurrence (Johnson)
Dissent
Even a lightning-fast ruling from the state's highest court Wednesday did nothing to change the contention by Spokane County's top election officials that it's probably too late to add the recall effort against Spokane Mayor Jim West to the Nov. 8 general election ballot. ( Full story » )
August 26, 2005
OLYMPIA – Critics of Spokane Mayor Jim West on Thursday launched their petition drive for 12,567 signatures: the number needed to trigger a citywide recall vote. ( Full story » )
Spokane Mayor Jim West has taken legal steps to prevent the public from seeing what is on the hard drives of his city-owned computers. ( Full story » )
August 28, 2005
OLYMPIA – Imagine for a moment that you're Spokane Mayor Jim West. A middle-aged career politician battling cancer, you've been accused of child molestation. Several young men have said you offered them city positions after meeting them in a gay online chat room. And the FBI has seized computers from your bedroom. ( Full story » )
August 30, 2005
OLYMPIA – As the battle to oust Spokane Mayor Jim West shifts from the courtroom to campaign mode, West's detractors and supporters now must begin publicly reporting donations and spending. ( Full story » )
Supporters of an effort to oust Spokane Mayor Jim West said Monday they had about half the signatures they would need to get their recall petition on the ballot. ( Full story » )
September 1, 2005
OLYMPIA – The recall-related legal bills of Spokane Mayor Jim West and the group trying to oust him must be publicly disclosed by Tuesday, the state's campaign-finance regulator said Wednesday. ( Full story » )
Documents: Disclosure forms
Recall supporters:
Schedule A: Cash receipts and expenditures (80 Kb PDF)
Schedule B: In-kind contributions (52 Kb PDF)
Schedule C3: Monetary contributions (61 Kb PDF)
Schedule C4: Campaign summary (64 Kb PDF)
West supporters:
Schedule A: Cash receipts and expenditures (37 Kb PDF)
Schedule B: In-kind contributions (21 Kb PDF)
Schedule C3: Monetary contributions (34 Kb PDF)
Schedule C4: Campaign summary (39 Kb PDF)
September 6, 2005
"Dude, I sell chicken," said a smoky food worker in Riverfront Park when asked Monday where the booth was for those gathering petition signatures to oust Spokane Mayor Jim West. "I don't know anything about it. I haven't voted in five years." ( Full story » )
September 7, 2005
Supporters of a petition drive to put the recall of Spokane Mayor Jim West to a vote said Tuesday they have gathered about 12,700 signatures. ( Full story » )
September 13, 2005
The city-owned computer used by Spokane Mayor Jim West has been returned to him for continued use, allowing automatic obliteration of deleted files on the device's disk drive. ( Full story » )
Spokane city voters could decide whether to oust Mayor Jim West the Tuesday after Thanksgiving if the supporters of a recall petition collect all the signatures they believe they need. ( Full story » )
Two signs directing motorists to an area where they can sign petitions for the recall of Mayor Jim West were removed before dawn Monday morning by a Spokane Street Department worker in a city pickup truck, city officials confirmed. ( Full story » )
September 16, 2005
The author of a petition to recall Spokane Mayor Jim West filed a claim Thursday with the city for a campaign sign removed by a city Street Department worker in the pre-dawn hours Monday. ( Full story » )
September 22, 2005
A ballot measure to oust Spokane Mayor Jim West appears headed for a special election in late November, and the driving force behind the recall petition drive said Wednesday she is stepping away from the campaign. ( Full story » )
An investigator hired by the Spokane City Council is asking the city's legal staff for Mayor Jim West's City Hall computer files – which West claims in a recent court affidavit contain private contents that would be "highly offensive" to the public and shouldn't be released. ( Full story » )
September 23, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West will fight the city's announced release next Tuesday of the files on his city-owned computer, which he says in a sworn affidavit contain "highly offensive" private material that the public shouldn't see. ( Full story » )
Former Spokane City Councilman Steve Eugster is seeking a court order to stop the process that could lead to the recall of Mayor Jim West. ( Full story » )
September 24, 2005
The Spokane Human Rights Commission has ruled that Mayor Jim West behaved inappropriately and violated community mores when he appointed a young gay man to the human rights body and then pressured him for sex. ( Full story » )
Document: Letter to Ryan Oelrich from the SHRC
September 25, 2005
If Spokane Mayor Jim West cared as much for the city of Spokane as he professed when he was running for office two years ago, he would show it some mercy. ( Full story » )
October 2, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West said Saturday night that local leaders need the prayers of the community. "We elect them and assume that they are smarter than us, and they aren't," he told a prayer conference at the Korean Presbyterian Church in east Spokane. "… They are sinners. They have faults, any number of faults." ( Full story » )
Before the abuse-of-power scandal broke in early May over Mayor Jim West's offers of jobs and appointments to young men he met on a gay Web site, West was stressing the development of "leaders of character" at City Hall. ( Full story » )
October 4, 2005
The Spokane City Council on Monday stepped up its pressure on embattled Mayor Jim West by voting to hire an outside lawyer to argue for the release of West's hard-drive computer information. ( Full story » )
October 5, 2005
The proposal to force a vote on the ouster of Mayor Jim West moved closer to reality Tuesday with nearly three-fourths of the needed signatures verified by county elections workers, and supporters of the recall organizing for a Dec. 6 campaign. ( Full story » )
October 7, 2005
Spokane voters will decide whether to oust Mayor Jim West for using his office "for personal benefit" in a special, all-mail election scheduled for Dec. 6. ( Full story » )
October 8, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West is telling his longtime supporters he needs $150,000 for his fight to remain in office. ( Full story » )
Spokane Mayor Jim West's city-owned computer contains 1,800 files – at least half of them photos – that he doesn't want the public to see, according to court papers filed Friday. ( Full story » )
Spokane City Council President Dennis Hession on Friday warned Mayor Jim West not to turn a scheduled Monday night appearance before the City Council into an illegal campaign speech. ( Full story » )
October 11, 2005
Spokane city residents may be facing a choice between higher taxes or new cuts in city services, but Spokane Mayor Jim West on Monday used much of his annual address to the City Council to talk about the good things going on in city government. ( Full story » )
Spokane Mayor Jim West has no legal basis to prevent a private investigator hired by the City Council from examining the contents of the mayor's City Hall computer, legal documents filed Monday say. ( Full story » )
October 12, 2005
A cloak of secrecy was placed Tuesday over the City Council's investigation of alleged "workplace misconduct" by Mayor Jim West. A private investigator, hired with $15,000 in taxpayer money, struck a deal that will allow him to secretly examine the contents of the mayor's city-owned computer, but not publicly discuss the findings. ( Full story » )
Facing the prospect of being removed from office in a recall election on Dec. 6, Spokane Mayor Jim West has become increasingly visible in recent days, using his office to call attention to his work. ( Full story » )
October 13, 2005
The vice chairman of Spokane's Human Rights Commission has resigned in protest over the handling of a sexual harassment complaint against Mayor Jim West for appointing a young gay man to the commission and pressuring him for sex. ( Full story » )
A Superior Court judge in Ritzville will review an inch-thick packet of "highly offensive" pictures and correspondence from gay Internet sites, captured on Spokane Mayor Jim West's computer. ( Full story » )
October 14, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West used his city computer to view Internet information about a young gay man in Fresno, Calif., while he was there on a government-paid trip for a presidential commission, public records released Thursday suggest. ( Full story » )
A young man who filed a sexual harassment complaint against Mayor Jim West in May has released additional transcripts of their online conversations. ( Full story » )
October 15, 2005
A day before Spokane Mayor Jim West left on a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored business trip to Washington, D.C., public records show he used his city-owned computer to examine online profiles – some of them sexually explicit – of dozens of young gay men living there. ( Full story » )
Mayor Jim West denies using his office for personal gain and asks voters to reject his recall "so we can continue to work to make Spokane a better place." ( Full story » )
October 19, 2005
Some three weeks after Mayor Jim West asked supporters for financial help to fight an upcoming recall, he has raised $4,000 for the campaign to save his job. ( Full story » )
October 20, 2005
Computer records show Mayor Jim West's taxpayer-owned laptop contained links to images of men engaged in sex acts with other men. ( Full story » )
October 26, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West has battled for nearly six months against Shannon Sullivan, sponsor of a recall election against him. Now, Sullivan is asking West for an appointment to the city's Human Rights Commission, and the mayor is considering it. ( Full story » )
October 27, 2005
As Mayor Jim West finished an hour-long appearance Wednesday morning on a Spokane radio station in which he argued he should remain in office, a new group was announcing plans to campaign for his ouster. ( Full story » )
October 28, 2005
If the Dec. 6 recall election were held this week, more than twice as many people would vote to recall Mayor Jim West as would vote to keep him in office, the poll conducted for The Spokesman-Review and KREM 2 News shows. ( Full story » )
November 5, 2005
Hundreds of "highly offensive" documents and photos on Spokane Mayor Jim West's City Hall computer could only be there because West deliberately searched a gay Web site, including a members-only section, according to a computer forensics expert. ( Full story » )
November 9, 2005
A federal prosecutor and an FBI supervisor recommended against filing criminal charges against seven Spokane County Jail corrections officers involved in a 2003 incident that an inmate described as a jailhouse beating, FBI investigative records show. ( Full story » )
November 13, 2005
Ballots will be mailed to Spokane city voters at the end of the week for a historic election on the possible recall of Mayor Jim West. ( Full story » )
Recall arguments: For | AgainstPost-vote recall scenarios for City CouncilFull text of recall ballot
November 16, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West, fighting to keep the public from seeing the sexually explicit contents of his City Hall computer, is buttressing his legal case with an affidavit from the city's director of information technology. ( Full story » )
The campaign to decide whether Spokane ousts its mayor has proven to be a low-budget affair thus far. ( Full story » )
Lists of campaign donors: For recall | Against recall
November 18, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West has 3,300 pictures – 100 of them sexually explicit – from Gay.com on his City Hall computer, a Superior Court judge said Thursday in declaring the files to be public record. ( Full story » )
Some members of Spokane's largest city employee union believe Mayor Jim West has treated them fairly and gave him a "vote of confidence" as he approaches one of the biggest political battles of his life. ( Full story » )
November 19, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West violated state law and the city's Internet policy prohibiting access to pornographic material, a private investigator hired by the City Council concluded in a report issued late Friday. ( Full story » )
Document: Busto's report to the city.
November 20, 2005
Mayor Jim West may need to steal a page from Richard Nixon's playbook if he wants to survive in elective office, a new poll suggests. ( Full story » )
Tom Woodbury was shopping at Wal-Mart this spring when he saw the headline. "West tied to sex abuse in the '70s, using office to lure young men," it read. Six months and more than a hundred stories later, the 63-year-old retired factory worker still reads the paper every morning. But his initial shock, he said, has given way to something else: distaste and story fatigue. ( Full story » )
Q&A;: On the recall election
November 23, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West appears to be making Council President Dennis Hession a surrogate opponent in his recall fight. ( Full story » )
An attorney who helped Shannon Sullivan in her successful pursuit of a recall election for Spokane Mayor Jim West said West's attorneys backed away from a chance to hear from two accusers – young gay men who say West offered them city jobs and appointments in exchange for sex. ( Full story » )
November 24, 2005
Voters are returning their mayoral recall ballots at a brisk pace, with 30,000 arriving at the Spokane County Elections Office in the past two days. ( Full story » )
November 30, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West has raised far less money than he once hoped to fight his potential ouster by voters. But it's still more than twice what recall supporters have collected with a week left in the election. ( Full story » )
Lists of campaign donors: For recall | Against recall
Spokane Mayor Jim West may be picking up some support among the city's voters as the final day for the recall election approaches, a new poll shows. ( Full story » )
December 3, 2005
Spokane Mayor Jim West's city-owned computer recorded 6,626 pictures, most of them from Gay.com, during a three-month period earlier this year, according to public records released this week. ( Full story » )
The newspaper ad titled "Be Sure to Return Your Ballot; Vote 'No' Recall," purchased by the Committee for Spokane's Progress, covered a half-page in the first section of Friday's Spokesman-Review, with a black-and-white picture and a letter from Mayor Jim West that begins "Dear Friends." ( Full story » )
December 4, 2005
For some voters, Tuesday's mayoral recall may seem like the longest election in memory. ( Full story » )
December 7, 2005
Spokane voters ousted Mayor Jim West Tuesday, ending the political career of one of the community's longest serving elected officials. ( Full story » )
The recall of Spokane Mayor Jim West is likely to create weeks, if not months, of political jockeying for leadership of Washington's second-largest city. ( Full story » )
Shannon Sullivan The recall battle has come to an end. I have awaited this for the last seven months. ( Full story » )
December 8, 2005
A disheartened Spokane Mayor Jim West, reflecting Wednesday on his historic ouster from City Hall, said no one on the current City Council – including Council President Dennis Hession – is qualified to fill his shoes. ( Full story » )
December 13, 2005
A judge is being asked to reconsider his November ruling blocking the release of photographs from Gay.com found on Mayor Jim West's government-owned computer. ( Full story » )
December 15, 2005
Today will be Jim West's last day in office, and it probably won't involve anything special, the mayor said Wednesday. ( Full story » )
December 16, 2005
Jim West left his fifth floor City Hall office for the last time as mayor Thursday after a routine day. ( Full story » )
February 9, 2006
A newspaper investigation into misuse of office by Mayor Jim West has lessons for public officials and for journalists, a panel of experts told a packed auditorium at Whitworth College. ( Full story » )
February 16, 2006
After a 10-month probe, the U.S. Justice Department is expected to announce today that it is closing an FBI investigation into possible violations of federal law by former Spokane Mayor Jim West. ( Full story » )
Document: Department of Justice press release
February 17, 2006
The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI announced Thursday that there is insufficient proof to charge former Spokane Mayor Jim West under a "very narrow" federal public corruption law, but that doesn't mean wrongdoing didn't occur. ( Full story » )
Recalled Spokane Mayor Jim West lashed out at The Spokesman-Review on Thursday, hours after the FBI announced that a criminal investigation into his conduct in office did not produce enough evidence to warrant federal public corruption charges. ( Full story » )
Audio from press conference
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