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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

County may settle Hahn suit

By Bill Morlin and Jonathan Brunt The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County commissioners today will consider paying $325,000 to two men who say they were molested by a county sheriff’s deputy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The men filed a lawsuit in 2004 that alleges the county was negligent for the actions of Deputy David Hahn, in part because Hahn was allowed to keep his job even after his commanders were told that he abused boys.

Under the deal being considered, Robert Galliher, now 37, would receive $225,000 and Douglas Chicklinsky, 41, would be paid $100,000, county documents say. The money would come from the county’s risk pool, a fund dedicated to paying claims against the county.

Hahn committed suicide Aug. 28, 1981, at age 36 after he was confronted at least a second time about the allegations.

According to the resolution that will be voted on today, the law firm representing Spokane County recommended the payments.

Commissioner Todd Mielke said the county and attorneys representing the men came to a preliminary agreement within the past two weeks.

“The thought is we’re probably going to come out the same if we negotiate a settlement,” Mielke said.

The lawsuit that prompted the proposed settlement was filed after a news story in which Chicklinsky, Galliher and his brother, Brett, all alleged they had been sexually abused as teenagers – more than 20 years ago – by Hahn.

They said the sheriff’s deputy abused them while he was on duty, in uniform, and off duty when he would take them on outings after befriending their families.

“Every time I see a cop in uniform, my heart really just starts pounding,” Chicklinsky said in a series of interviews for the article.

Chicklinsky and Galliher both declined to comment Monday on the proposed settlement.

Their attorney, John Allison, was out of town and couldn’t be reached for comment.

The proposed settlement comes five months after Terry Lackie, a private attorney hired to represent the county, attempted to have the entire lawsuit dismissed as insufficient.

Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly dismissed two of four plaintiffs and left intact a claim that the county, through the Sheriff’s Office, was negligent in retaining Hahn after senior commanders were told Hahn was sexually abusing boys.

The judge dismissed claims from Brett Galliher and another from a fourth defendant from Oklahoma who happened to be visiting Spokane when the June 2003 newspaper article about Hahn was published. The Oklahoma man alleged that Hahn had abused him, too, when he was a teenager living in Spokane.

The judge ruled that the abuse against Chicklinsky and Robert Galliher occurred on separate occasions after the county and the Sheriff’s Office knew or should have known about it.

At the time of the abuse, Hahn’s partner at the Sheriff’s Office was Deputy Jim West. The two men also were co-leaders of a Boy Scout troop based on Spokane’s South Hill.

After the lawsuit was filed, Galliher said in a January 2004 letter to a counselor and in a April 2005 sworn deposition that he also was sexually abused in the late 1970s or early 1980s by West.

That allegation and similar ones from former Boy Scouts who were in the Hahn-West troop in the late 1970s and early 1980s led to a lengthy investigation by The Spokesman-Review.

That investigation resulted in a series of news stories, beginning May 5, 2005, after West had left his post as state Senate majority leader and been elected mayor of Spokane.

West denied knowing that his friend Hahn had molested boys when the two served as deputies and Boy Scout leaders. West also emphatically denied he had ever molested anyone himself.

West publicly said he would sue The Spokesman-Review – something he never did before dying of cancer 15 months later.

West’s conduct, including his use of City Hall computers to contact dates on a gay Web site and offers of city jobs and appointments, led to the lifelong Republican’s recall.

The City Council subsequently adopted a new ethics code and a streamlined process to recall a mayor.