RITZVILLE – A judge on Thursday granted a newspaper’s request to make public the contents of Spokane Mayor Jim West’s city-owned laptop computer, but prevented the release of 3,300 pictures from a gay-oriented Web site.
Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard Miller ordered the release of an index of the dates and times West used the computer to view Gay.com and other Web sites, but with individual Web addresses redacted to protect the privacy of third parties.
West is the subject of a Dec. 6 recall election because of a sex scandal involving gay men, and several news organizations have demanded the release of the contents of his computer under the state’s Open Public Records Act.
“Clearly, the public has the right to evaluate the mayor’s performance,” Miller said. “The dilemma this court finds itself in is, to release the pictures essentially releases the identity of the people in them. I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
The judge reviewed the contents of the mayor’s hard drive. He said he found 3,300 photographs. About 100 of those were pictures of male genitalia or buttocks, and 11 were of simulated sex acts, the judge said. Many showed upper torso pictures of shirtless men, he said.
There was no text with the photos, he said.
The recall ballot measure alleges West abused his office by offering a City Hall internship, in expectation of sexual favors, to a person he met in a Gay.com chat room and believed to be an 18-year-old man. The chat partner was actually a computer expert hired by The Spokesman-Review newspaper to track West’s online activities.
West has denied wrongdoing.
The judge’s decision came a day before the special election ballots were to be mailed.
West fought release of the computer contents, contending they were private and that the Internet sites were viewed during off-work hours.
Case law was scant on the issue, but Miller said he was convinced the information was a public record because of several investigations under way to determine if West acted appropriately while in office.
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