SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Spokane Mayor James E. West used his city computer to check out online prof... Spokane mayor visited sex
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Spokane Mayor James E. West used his city computer to check out online profiles of gay men while traveling on official business, The Spokesman-Review reported Saturday.
The history of the embattled mayor's computer use was found in files buried deep within a compact disc that City Hall attorneys released to the newspaper this past week. The paper said the information contradicted West's repeated claims that he did not access gay Web sites during workdays.
“Mayor West has been up front from the very beginning,” attorneys Bill Etter and Susan Troppmann wrote in a statement e-mailed to the Spokesman-Review.
The city's Internet access policy allows employees “limited use” of the Internet, but says it should not be used to access or transmit obscene, profane, pornographic, abusive, harassing, discriminatory or threatening information, pictures or representations.
Supporters of the recall effort allege that West offered help in obtaining a city internship to an online correspondent that the mayor thought was an 18-year-old high school student.
The 18-year-old was actually a computer expert hired by The Spokesman-Review to verify rumors that West was a closeted homosexual who was using his office for personal gain. The newspaper began publishing a series of articles in May about the mayor's secret life.
West, a longtime Republican state Senate leader and opponent of gay rights, has acknowledged making “errors” in his private life, but said he has been an effective leader for Spokane who should remain in office.
On Friday, the Spokesman-Review reported that West used his city computer to access information about a gay man in Fresno, Calif., while he was there on April 15 for a government-paid trip.
Further review of the CD shows West also used his laptop to access Gay.com at 11:49 a.m. PDT on April 25 while he was in Denver, en route to Washington, D.C., and at 11:57 a.m. PDT on May 2, while he was in Philadelphia, the paper reported Saturday.
The Internet addresses leading to profiles of the gay men are contained on a CD City Hall attorneys released to The Spokesman-Review on Thursday.
West and his private attorneys did not object to the release of the CD, which contains only a portion of the material from the mayor's city-owned computer, seized in early May.
In court last Wednesday, West's attorneys told Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard Miller that the second CD's contents include the identities and photos of hundreds to thousands of men whose privacy West wants to protect.
The new evidence recovered from West's computer makes it clear, Rodgers said, that a private investigator hired by the Spokane City Council “will have to conclude” the mayor violated city computer-use policies.
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