SPOKANE -- A lawyer for embattled Mayor James West on Thursday attacked the credibility of a man who contends he was molested repeatedly by West as a youth.
Robert Galliher is lying when he says West visited him in prison in 2003 and told him to stop making the allegations, and that should cast doubt on Galliher's other claims, lawyer Carl Oreskovich said.
"There is a lack of credibility with respect to Mr. Galliher," Oreskovich said.
West also plans a news conference some time next week to answer allegations of sexual abuse and misuse of his office made by several men, Oreskovich said. The allegations, first reported by The Spokesman-Review newspaper, have brought numerous demands for West to resign.
"We ask the public to give the mayor the opportunity to investigate and come forward with his side of the story and not rush to judgment against him," Oreskovich said.
The newspaper has reported that a second man has also accused West of sexually abusing him as a child during the same era as Galliher's claims.
West has repeatedly denied the abuse allegations, calling them "flat lies." The statute of limitations has expired on the molestation claims.
West, a 55-year-old Republican former state legislator and opponent of gay rights bills, revealed earlier this month that he was a closeted homosexual after the newspaper published damaging allegations.
West is the subject of separate investigations by the Justice Department and the city into reports that he misused his office in recent years by offering jobs to young men he met in a gay chat room. The newspaper conducted a sting operation on a Gay.com chat room to confirm that West was making the offers.
West denied the accusations but acknowledged that he visited gay chat rooms and had relations with adult males.
The newspaper on Thursday published transcripts of a deposition Galliher, 36, of Seattle, gave in his lawsuit against Spokane County, in which he contends West abused him in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the mayor was a Spokane County sheriff's deputy.
The deposition was released by Terry Lackie, a private attorney defending Spokane County, after the newspaper filed a request under the state's Open Records Act.
Galliher alleged in the document he was sexually abused by West at least four times between the ages of 8 and 12, and West and sheriff's Deputy David Hahn gave him alcohol and marijuana. Galliher is suing the county, alleging the sheriff's office was negligent in hiring, supervising and retaining Hahn. West is not named in the lawsuit, Galliher said, because he remains afraid of the mayor.
Galliher said in the deposition that the day he first met West, "he molested me on that occasion.
"Just fondling. Making me fondle him," Galliher said.
West was a fellow deputy, close friend and fellow Boy Scout leader with Hahn, who committed suicide in 1981 after child abuse allegations were made.
Galliher also contended in the deposition West visited him in the Geiger Correctional Center outside Spokane in 2003 and told him to keep his mouth shut. West was running for mayor at the time, and Galliher was serving a sentence for eluding police and burglary, which he said were related to his history of drug abuse.
Oreskovich said the prison has no record of a visit by West, which should cast doubt on the rest of Galliher's story. Galliher's failure to name West in his lawsuit also points to the mayor's innocence, Oreskovich said.
Meanwhile, pressure on West to resign increased Thursday as gay business leaders spoke out against him.
The Inland Northwest Business Alliance, which represents gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual business owners and professionals, said the lack of community support for West undermines his ability to lead the city.
All seven members of the City Council are expected to vote Tuesday to demand that West, who has 2 1/2 years left in his first term, resign. But under the city's strong-mayor form of government, West can be removed from office only through a recall vote. One woman has filed a recall petition.
Monday, West rejected calls for his resignation from the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce and Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau.
