Let’s remember former Spokane mayor Jim West, who died on this day in 2006 (July 21)
Former mayor of Spokane, Jim West, who was recalled in 2005, passed away thirteen years ago today. He was brought down the same way many lesser men have fallen: he was horny online.
The New York Times wrote in his obituary:
James E. West, who was recalled from office as mayor of Spokane over an Internet gay sex scandal, died on Saturday. He was 55.
The cause was complications of recent cancer surgery, according to a family statement issued by the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
Mr. West, a Republican who had frequently opposed gay rights bills in his 20 years as a state legislator, was voted out of the mayor’s office last December, seven months after The Spokesman-Review, the Spokane daily, began publishing results of a computer sting it had conducted to track his online activities in a gay chat room. The newspaper reported that in Internet chats involving discussions about sex, he had offered to help someone he thought was an 18-year-old high school student get a City Hall internship.
The mayor acknowledged having relations with adult men but denied doing anything illegal. The F.B.I. conducted a public corruption investigation into whether he had used his office for personal benefit, but the inquiry ended with no criminal charges.
Whoops.
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