Jim West

 

Jim West was Mayor of Spokane, Washington, when he was involved in a sex scandal in 2005. He was accused of sexually abusing two young boys during the 1970s, and also of luring teenage boys into his office as interns. One of the most shocking aspects of the scandal was that he had campaigned forcefully against gay rights, yet he himself had engaged in gay sex for many years in his private life.

 

Child sexual abuse

 

James Elton West had grown up in Spokane County, Washington, attending high school there. In 1978 he graduated from Gonzaga University with a degree in Criminal Justice and went on to serve in the US army. As a Republican, he joined the Washington Legislature, and worked hard to further his career. Many respected his commitment to his job, although some found his style abrasive. Nevertheless, his career flourished and he became mayor of the city. As Senate majority leader, he supported or introduced a great deal of anti-gay legislation, and in 1995 was involved in the impeachment of the governor, Mike Lowry, when a scandal regarding Lowry’s alleged sexual harassment broke. However, ten years later it was West who was at the centre of a bigger, more serious scandal involving the sexual abuse of minors.

According to several reports, when West was a Boy Scout leader in the 1970s and 1980s, he had sexually abused two young boys. Later, as mayor, he corresponded on the Internet, under the name ‘Right-BiGuy’, using his position to lure teenage boys into sexual relationships with him. He was discovered to be using the Gay.com website to do this, and when confronted with the accusation that he had been trawling for sex on the Internet, admitted that this was what he had been doing. However, he continued to deny that he had ever had sex with minors.

 

Child witnessed suicide

 

In June 2005 the Spokane Republican Party called for West to resign. A commission was set up to enquire into the allegations against him, and the FBI was called in to consider whether West had actually broken any laws, or gone against any of his policies.

 

For example, he proposed a bill outlawing sexual activities between any young people aged below eighteen, yet as it later emerged, he himself had been sexually involved with teenage boys, and – it was alleged – had even had sex with underage boys. In addition, West had also tried to have all gay and lesbians teachers and carers banned from working in educational and social institutions, even though he himself was gay, or bisexual. He later said that he regretted voting for these laws, but explained his hypocritical stance, and the gap between his public face and his private behavior, by saying, ‘If someone hires you to paint their house red, you paint it red, even if you think it would look better green’. However, his plea for leniency was rejected and he was asked to stand down, and was officially stripped of his duties on 6 December 2005. Later, he was diagnosed with colon cancer, and after undergoing several operations, died on 22 July 2006.Two months later the FBI took away West’s computer to analyse it, but on 16 February 2007 he was cleared of all the charges. He left office and became ill with colon cancer, but according to some reports, shortly before he died on 22 July 2006, he was considering returning to office.

 

more allegations

 

The darkest part of the story emerged in recent years, when two men came forward alleging serious sexual abuse at the hands of West and another leading Spokane figure, the county sheriff’s deputy, David Hahn. West was friendly with Hahn, who was revealed as a paedophile, and committed suicide as a result in 1981. At the time both men were working with young boys in their capacity as scout leaders, and were members of an organisation called Morning Star Boys Ranch.

The men, Robert Galliher and Michael Grant, both in their 30s, alleged that during their childhood West and Hahn had sexually abused them. On some occasions they fondled them and forced them to have oral sex, while on others they sodomised them. One of the most horrifying aspects of the story was that when it was discovered that Hahn was a paedophile, he took Grant into his bedroom and pointed a gun at his head, then turned it on himself and blew his brains out in front of the boy, who ran away and hid.

 

Sodomy and oral sex

 

This happened, according to Grant, when he was very young, at the age of about seven or eight. Hahn is said to have picked him up from time to time in his patrol car, offering him a lift home. However, instead, Hahn regularly sexually abused him. On one occasion Hahn took the boy to his apartment, where he called West to join them. The boy was taken into the bathroom, and one by one, the men sodomised him.

Hahn had been forcing his attentions on another young boy, Robert Galliher. Like Grant, Galliher came from a poor family and from a young age spent a good deal of time out on the streets with his friends. Hahn befriended the Galliher family, and young Robert and his brother Brett were impressed by his sports car, which was equipped with an early version of the mobile phone. Hahn regularly took the boys on outings – separately, of course – to the gym and to his apartment. He then introduced Robert to West, leaving them alone together. He claims that West forced him to engage in oral sex, threatening him if he told anybody what had happened. On some occasions the men gave Robert marijuana to smoke, although they did not partake themselves.

 

Traumatizing experiences

 

Sadly for both these men, who were naturally traumatized by their experiences, the crimes committed by Hahn against them did not come to light for many years. After Hahn’s suicide, the records of complaints against him were destroyed and the case was closed. It was only later that the men felt able to come forward. Up to that time they had been too frightened to make these disclosures against the mayor, fearing that his powerful position might cause them to be put in jail or otherwise punished. Both men had had a history of drug abuse and spells in jail, and therefore felt themselves in a weak position to criticise the powers that be.

What later emerged was that there had been a huge cover-up of Hahn and West’s activities. In addition, another man, George E. Robey, who was a scout leader and a friend of the two men, was also alleged to have sexually abused boys in his care. Like Hahn, he killed himself, but there were no records to show that he was the subject of an investigation. Galliher also alleged that before West died, he visited him in prison and told him not to talk about the past. West had threatened ‘severe consequences’ if anything untoward came to light.

 

Cruel and disturbing

 

Until his dying day, West never admitted to the crime of having sex with under-age boys. He said that he had no idea his friend Hahn was a paedophile, and denied that there was ever any sexual abuse at the boy scout camps he ran.

‘I ran scout camps for five years,’ he said. ‘I had 1,300 kids a year come through the scout camp . . . and I taught a lot of kids how to swim.’ Because of his position, he was believed, and it is only now that the truth is beginning to come out.

According to the Galliher boys’ mother, Marlene Traynor, there was never a formal investigation into either Hahn or West’s activities, even though she reported the sexual abuse of her children to the police in the 1980s. The police paid for some counselling for the children, but never followed up the claim. When Hahn committed suicide, Traynor was horrified to find that Hahn was given an official funeral. ‘He was given a bloody hero’s funeral,’ she said. ‘It’s like he died in the line of duty.’

Today, the true story of the activities of David Hahn, Jim West and others in the boy scout camps of the 1970s and 1980s is only just beginning to emerge. But it seems clear that the allegations now coming forward point to a form of child sexual abuse that was far more cruel and disturbing than the inappropriate sexual relationships West formed through gay Internet websites in the 1990s. And, as many have pointed out, it is only when the real facts of the case are discovered that the victims who suffered so much at the hands of West and his friends can begin to rebuild their lives.