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Jewish World Review Nov. 3, 2005 / 1 Mar-Cheshvan, 5766 Caught red-handed, now mayor is suing By Dan Abrams
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
What is a poor mayor to do if he is busted trolling gay websites on city time? Even accused of promising a city hall job to an ambitious young man he met while surfing the net? Do you resign? Do you try to lay low?
Not if you're Spokane, Washington Mayor Jim West. No. Mayor West is adding to the litigation glut by announcing a lawsuit against the paper that caught him red-handed, so to speak.
Back in May, the Spokesman Review newspaper reported that West offered a man he believed to be an 18-year-old gifts, favors, and even a city hall internship. It turned out that sweet young thing was actually a computer forensics expert retained by the newspaper, hired after its own reporting revealed that West had a relationship with another 18-year-old man he met through a gay website.
West eventually acknowledged publicly that he had relationships with several adult men he met through gay websites. OK. But now local authorities are investigating whether he violated state laws by viewing sexually explicit sites on a state-owned computer. The FBI is investigating whether he used his office to coerce young men and violated federal law.
West has refused to step down, pronouncing that the people of Spokane elected him to finish his term. He's now facing a recall election in December.
As he prepares for the December race, a new report says while traveling in his official capacity as mayor, he used his city hall laptop to search internet profiles of gay men in cities across the United States.
Uh Oh. But don't feel sorry for the embattled mayor. No, in the time-honored political tradition of passing the buck, the mayor announced he's suing the Spokane paper for invasion of privacy.
The legal standard in the state of Washington? "The interference with a plaintiff's seclusion must be a substantial one resulting from conduct of a kind that would be offensive and objectionable to the ordinary person."
That's right. Mayor West needs to prove that what the paper did to him was "offensive and objectionable." You want to talk about offensive and objectionable? How about that while being investigated by both his own state and the feds, he is threatening a frivolous lawsuit that will almost certainly get thrown out of court?
But the voters of Spokane can rest easy. West has said he won't file the case until after the recall election because he doesn't want the lawsuit and the entire episode for that matter to become a "campaign issue." A campaign issue? Why does he think he is being forced to campaign again in the middle of his term?
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JWR contributor Dan Abrams anchors The Abrams Report, Monday through Friday from 6-7 p.m. ET on MSNBC TV. He also covers legal stories for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, Today and Dateline NBC. To visit his website, click here. Comment by clicking here.
© 2005, MSNBC |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||