FBI enters Spokane mayor case

SPOKANE — The FBI has opened a preliminary inquiry into a possible "public-corruption" case involving accusations that Mayor Jim West offered city jobs to men he met online, a federal prosecutor confirmed yesterday as West began a temporary leave.

The FBI involvement was confirmed by Thomas Rice, chief criminal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Spokane, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported in a copyright story posted last night on its Web site.

Agents were expected to interview Ryan Oelrich and another man, both 24, who said they were independently offered City Hall jobs after online chats with a man who turned out to be West, the newspaper reported.

"The FBI has opened what's called a 'preliminary inquiry' to determine whether a full-blown investigation should occur," Rice said. "We can assure the public it's being looked at for possible violations of federal law," he told The Spokesman-Review, declining to discuss details.

Associated Press calls for comment last night to the Spokane FBI office and U.S. Attorney's Office were not returned.

Spokane City Attorney Mike Connelly earlier launched an investigation of allegations that West offered internships in exchange for sex. Connelly also is investigating whether West's City Hall computer was used improperly.

Meanwhile, Shannon Sullivan of Spokane filed paperwork to begin a recall of the mayor. If a Superior Court judge authorizes the recall in a hearing, she would have 180 days to gather at least 12,567 signatures to place it on the ballot.

West, 54, a former Republican state Senate leader and an opponent of gay rights, last week denied the molestation allegations but acknowledged he had visited a gay online chat room and had relations with adult men.

He said Monday he would take a leave for several weeks to defend himself against the allegations raised by The Spokesman-Review in a series of articles that began Thursday. He has not responded to calls for comment since then.

Additional people have subsequently come forward with stories that West propositioned them.

Oelrich said he accepted West's appointment to the city's Human Rights Commission in April 2004 after meeting West online at Gay.com.

The newspaper reported in yesterday's editions that Oelrich said he had resigned from the commission in January after West "hounded me for months" and asked him out on dates. Oelrich said that he refused the mayor's advances and that he knows of "five or six other young gay men that Jim West has met online and offered City Hall jobs."

Oelrich told The Associated Press yesterday that he initially thought West was appointing him to the commission because of his background as director of the nonprofit Gay Youth Association. But it became apparent the mayor was more interested in asking him out, Oelrich said.

The Spokesman-Review also has reported allegations that West sexually abused two boys while he was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a claim West denied. The statute of limitations has expired on those allegations and no criminal investigations are under way in connection with them, local law-enforcement agencies said.

State Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, who frequently clashed with West in the Legislature, has called for his resignation. So have Spokane City Council members Mary Verner and Cherie Rodgers.

The editorial pages of The Spokesman-Review and The Seattle Times also have called for West to step down, as did the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a national gay-advocacy organization.

"If all or any of the allegations of sexual misconduct are true, then the mayor should resign immediately," said Patrick Guerriero, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay members of the GOP.