FBI Enters Gay Chat Mayor Case

Spokane, WA () -- As Mayor Jim West began a temporary leave yesterday, FBI started looking into the possibility of opening a "public-corruption" case against the Mayor for offering city jobs to men he met online, possibly in exchange for sex.

Thomas Rice, chief criminal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Spokane, confirmed that FBI now is involved in the case and FBI agents are expected to contact two young men who claim to have been offered City Hall jobs by the Mayor while chatting at a gay online chat site. 

He also is accused of molesting young boys, but those allegations cannot result in charges because of statute of limitations laws.

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. 

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 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.