Spokane mayor accused of molesting boys in 1970s

SPOKANE — Two men have accused Mayor James E. West of molesting them when they were boys and he was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader, The Spokesman-Review reported in a copyrighted article today.

West has denied the allegations.

In an interview last night, with two reporters and a photographer at the newspaper, West, 54, said the accounts given in court documents by Robert J. Galliher, 36, of Seattle, a craftsman and tile worker, and in interviews by Galliher and Michael G. Grant Jr., 31, were "flat lies."

Both men say in interviews that they had struggled with drug addiction and served time behind bars. Grant is currently incarcerated in central Washington following his seventh felony drug conviction.

"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," the mayor said.

At a news conference today, West again denied the molestation allegations, although he acknowledged visiting a gay Web site and "had relations with adult men. I don't deny that."

He said he intended to serve out the 1,150 days left in his term.

"I am a law-abiding citizen," West said during a brief news conference in which he did not take questions.

West discussed the allegations during a regularly-scheduled City Hall staff meeting this 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."

A third-generation resident of the area, West spent two decades in the Legislature, cultivating an image as a fiscally and socially conservative Republican, well-regarded for his lawmaking and budgetary skills but abrasive in style with a fierce temper.

He was majority leader of the state Senate before he was elected mayor in 2003.

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

West revealed he had colon cancer in April 2003, returned to work as majority leader a month later after undergoing surgery and four months later announced he was running for mayor to fulfill a "lifetime dream."

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.

Galliher said he was present when Hahn committed suicide at his apartment in 1981 after being publicly accused of molesting young boys but did not tell authorities at the time.

West is not named as a defendant and said he was unaware of the deposition or similar claims against him that were made in a letter Galliher wrote from prison early last year.

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 on South Hill.

Galliher said he had been molested at least four times by West, twice while West was on duty in uniform, driving a sheriff's car, and at least once in Hahn's apartment after Hahn had left. Afterward, Galliher said, "He just told me I better not tell anyone about this. I mean, kind of the same threat that Dave Hahn had told me."

Grant said he was sexually abused twice by Hahn and twice by West when he was 7 or 8, including once at Camp Cowles, a Boy Scout camp on Diamond Lake north of Spokane in Pend Oreille County. 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."

Also in its report, The Spokesman-Review said West offered gifts, favors and a City Hall internship over the Web site Gay.com to someone he believed was 18 but who was actually a forensic computer expert working for the newspaper.

West, who has opposed gay rights, abortion rights and teenage sex, said he had had online relationships in the past year through Gay.com and considers them private.

"My private life is my private life and always has been," he said.

The newspaper hired the forensics computer expert in October 2004 to create the fictitious identity and to verify whether the aliases were actually West.

Steve Smith, editor of The Spokesman-Review, told The Associated Press today 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.