Rep. Sarah Stevens, the Republican nominee for the North Carolina Supreme Court, attended a judicial fundraiser last fall hosted by convicted child sex offender Harvey L. West, Jr.
In 1999, West Jr., then 28 years old and a police officer, was charged with horrific crimes – the statutory rape of three girls, two of the victims as young as 14. West Jr. pled guilty to 16 charges of taking indecent liberties with a child, was sentenced to prison, and was placed on the North Carolina sex-offender registry.
In the years since his conviction, West Jr. has risen to power in local Republican politics, aided in no small part by key GOP figures, including the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Michael Whatley, who appointed West Jr. to lead the GOP’s 1st Congressional District Committee, as well as the Party’s powerful rulemaking committee.
West Jr.’s background has been well known among party insiders for decades. In 2012, West Jr. didn’t defend or run from his past in an interview with the Associated Press, saying instead, “This is who I am, and this is what happened to me.” One GOP leader called West Jr.’s rise to power despite his background “the worst kept secret in the Republican Party.”
West Jr.’s specialty now is fundraising for judicial candidates. With the support of Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, and Associate Justices Trey Allen and Phil Berger Jr., the North Carolina Judicial Picnic – West Jr.’s creation and calling card – has become a featured campaign stop and major fundraising source for GOP judicial candidates.
Which brings us to this past September, where Rep. Sarah Stevens stood alongside West Jr. at his Judicial Picnic. The entire point of the event was to raise attention and influence for judicial races – and Stevens showed up and spoke to attendees in front of a sign that said “Conservative Judges Matter Now More Than Ever.”
Judicial candidates do matter, and particularly those who seek to sit on the NC Supreme Court. The Court is one of the last checks we have on a Republican-led legislature that has gotten increasingly emboldened to pass extreme legislation to benefit themselves, their party, and their corporate donors.
It’s disgraceful for a Supreme Court candidate to cozy up to a convicted predator in order to further her own ambitions. And it’s a betrayal of public trust.
North Carolina deserves a justice with impeccable judgment who puts justice and public safety first, not her own power.
