West’s Web links revealing

Computer records show Mayor Jim West’s taxpayer-owned laptop contained links to images of men engaged in sex acts with other men.

Internet “history” files left behind on West’s computer also show it was used to view close-ups of male genitalia and sexually explicit poses by various men, many of them in their 20s.

The links to the sexually-explicit images were found after a more-detailed forensic analysis of a compact disc released to The Spokesman-Review last week. The CD contains some of the material copied from West’s City Hall computer.

Some of the CD’s Internet images, mostly from Gay.com, were viewed by West earlier this year before and during city business trips that took him to California, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The trip to the nation’s capital was sponsored by the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, which called on West to resign shortly after an abuse-of-office scandal was reported in early May.

A recall election is set for Dec. 6.

“I didn’t access the Internet for pornographic purposes,” West told the newspaper on Thursday, when asked about the Internet-access history recorded on the computer, which was seized in early May by the city attorney as part of an internal investigation.

According to computer experts, the history files on West’s computer show he deliberately went to Gay.com and accessed “adult” material found there, including the graphic pictures of sex acts.

Adult material is not automatically displayed on Gay.com, but can be viewed by paid members who deliberately click on an “adult” link.

In a live interview on KXLY-TV Thursday evening, West said he plans to file a lawsuit for invasion of privacy against The Spokesman-Review after the recall election.

“I did not download any of these pictures,” West said in response to e-mail questions posed by the newspaper before the broadcast.

The images “were cached without my knowledge when I opened profile pages,” West said.

“Looking at profile pages is not too different from reading the personal ads that your newspaper profits from,” West said.

The city’s written Internet Access Policy says employees “shall not” access the Internet to “access or transmit obscene, profane or pornographic” information, pictures or representations.

Asked if he violated city computer policy, West said: “There is an ongoing investigation, and I won’t comment on this because of that.

“If I’ve violated policy I would expect to receive a similar level of punishment that has been meted out to other employees for similar conduct,” the mayor said.

“I did not access these Web sites in City Hall, or at my desk or on city time,” West said. “This was done on my personal time.”

Analysis of the files show West used his laptop to access Gay.com at 11:49 a.m. (Pacific time) on April 25, while he was in Denver, en route to Washington, D.C., and at 11:57 a.m. (Pacific time) on May 2, while he was in Philadelphia.

“I wish I wasn’t surprised about this,” Shannon Sullivan, who led the grass-roots citizen recall effort, said when told of the latest material found on West’s government computer.

“I can’t stand it, particularly since he got elected on this ‘family values’ and ‘moral values’ platform.

“I mean what’s going on here?” Sullivan asked. “Where’s the ethics? I don’t care if it was ‘younghotchicks.com.’ I’m sorry, I don’t want my dime used this way.”

City Council President Dennis Hession said he didn’t want to elaborate on the mayor’s computer usage until an investigation is completed by Mark Busto, a Bellevue attorney hired by the council to see if West violated city policies, ethics or his office.

But Hession did say, “In my personal opinion, that’s not appropriate conduct by the mayor.”

Deputy City Mayor Jack Lynch declined to answer questions about material found on his boss’s computer.

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment during an open investigation and ongoing litigation,” Lynch said Thursday.

Busto has received the CD released to the newspaper by the city attorney’s office and a second CD of material West is attempting to keep from the public, Hession said.

Newspaper attorneys Duane Swinton and Tracy LeRoy said in supplemental court documents filed this week that material on the CD already released weakens West’s argument that the public shouldn’t see the contents of the second CD, which remains under court review.

Busto also will review a cloned copy of the mayor’s computer hard drive, which was seized this summer at the outset of an abuse of public office investigation by the FBI.

The material was provided to Busto under a “protective order” that forbids him from disclosing its contents. His report to the City Council will be kept secret 10 days, giving West an opportunity to seek a court order to keep everything from the public.

Hession said it’s possible the investigator may file a two-part report, one based on the publicly released documents and the second on files released under the secrecy agreement.

Busto couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.

Using the state’s Public Records Act, The Spokesman-Review filed various requests in early May, seeking all the material on the mayor’s computer and a copy of its entire hard drive.

A forensic examination of unallocated space on the computer hard drive likely would show material deleted by West.

Five months after the requests, the city attorney’s office – headed by a West appointee – has released only some of the mayor’s e-mail and the one CD of files copied from his computer’s main disk.

The city attorney’s office has previously said the delay is due to several requests for public records associated with the mayor.

The decision whether to release the second CD, containing other files found on West’s seized computer, is now before visiting Superior Court Judge Richard Miller of Adams County.

The judge is considering West’s request for an injunction that would block public release of the second CD.

Michele Earl-Hubbard, a Seattle attorney who is president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, said any record that is “owned, used, retained or prepared” by government is a public record.

“The problem for Mayor West is the fact these records are on a government-owned computer and are now being used by government in its investigation of his conduct,” Earl-Hubbard said.

“I think it will be very hard for West to show there isn’t a ‘legitimate public interest’ in these files he’s attempting to keep secret,” Earl-Hubbard said.