Posted on 06/27/2005 7:28:47 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SPOKANE, Wash. - Lawyers for Mayor James E. West, accused of offering city jobs to men he met in a gay online chat room, are appealing a judge's ruling allowing a recall petition drive to proceed.
West, former state Senate leader and opponent of gay rights, has denied any criminal or unethical conduct and has rejected calls to resign.
"The citizens of Spokane deserve to know why I have decided to appeal," West wrote in a letter submitted to The Spokesman-Review newspaper. "Simply put, it is because the charges are false, and the ballot statement they would vote on was improperly prepared and is prejudicial."
Spokane resident Shannon Sullivan filed recall documents in May, shortly after The Spokesman-Review published a series of articles alleging West sexually abused two boys in the 1970s and 1980s.
The newspaper also alleged West offered city jobs to men he met in a gay online chat room. Sullivan's recall petition, which accuses the mayor of misfeasance, focuses on that allegation. The petition was approved by a judge earlier this month.
In West's letter to the paper, he contended that he encouraged a young man to apply for an internship, but did not reveal his office nor guarantee the young man would be chosen for the unpaid position.
Sullivan's telephone has been disconnected and she was not able to be reached for comment Monday. Rita Amunrud, a recall organizer, said backers expected West to appeal and plan to ask the state Supreme Court to expedite its review.
In a less publicized announcement, the Mayor unveiled the Connie Francis song, "Where the boys are." as his official recall campaign song.
This guy is a pitiful shame. He should resign rather than put the city through this.
Is there any chance the accusations are false?
Aw, I dunno. Seems to me that politics and bath-house buggery have a lot in common.
Not if you read his published emails to teenage boys he communcated with in the gay chat room and the job offers he put forward. All this from his city hall computer. This guy is a despicable pervert who has no shame.
Then he needs to go. NOW. What a perverted jerk.
Is this guy a RAT or a Republican? No party affiliation mentioned in the article...
This James West?
http://www.uvm.edu/~glambert/jwest.gif
What would Artemus say?
If that's true, shouldn't they be proceeding with criminal charges first? It would be easier to get the recall going with an indictment in hand.
I don't believe it is a matter of sequencing criminal charges, then a recall petition. The criminal charges will be appropriate if there is sufficient weight of preliminary evidence to indict and will then be done by prosecuting authorities. The requirements for a recall are different in terms of evidence, signatures, and proceeding to a ballot. Yes, it might be politically easier to have a successful recall if there were an indictment but it isn't necessary.
This guy, Jim West, should resign just like Gov. McGreevey of NJ who admitted to a homosexual relationship with one of his appointees (who, by the way, had little to no qualifications for the position to which he was appointed). Instead, West is denying the allegations of pedophilia and homosexuality with teenagers, offers of internship employment, and he apparently wants to fight it all the way. I don't think the Spokane community will tolerate his staying in office for long. The City Council has already unanimously given its opinion against him.
Spokane is a fairly big city, but few have been willing to take on the corrupt mayor. Thank God Shannon Sullivan has risen to the occasion. She has lost her privacy, I think she even lost her job because of the controversy, and now this story says she has disconnected her phone. I guess some of mayor West's pervert friends must've been calling her.
Shannon Sullivan went into court respresenting herself against the mayor's lawyers and WON! How often does that happen? She should consider running for mayor herself after the corrupt pervert West is recalled.
Just wondering if Jim Westyboy is using tax supported legal representation for this court case? If so, it is the worst corruption of revenues since B J Clinton used his State Farm Insurance homeowner's policy to pay for his legal representation.
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