SPOKANE (WA)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SPOKANE, Wash. -- It's been a year of staggering news for a region that likes to bill itself as a good place to raise a family. The Spokane area seems awash in pedophiles.
Local residents were already reeling from months of revelations about pedophile Catholic priests when a judge ruled last week that individual parishes, parochial schools and other church property can be sold to pay off victims and their lawyers.
This spring, the local newspaper reported that Mayor James E. West was a closeted homosexual, used the Internet to seek dates with young men and molested boys as a sheriff's deputy decades ago. West vehemently denies any wrongdoing.
Then it was revealed that officials at the Morning Star Boys Ranch, a revered local institution, may have tolerated physical and sexual assaults against troubled boys. A lawsuit filed last week contended that, as punishment, some boys in the past were photographed with flowers sticking out of their rectums.