On Monday, The Justice Project launched ProtectKidsNotPredators.com, a website where North Carolinians can demand that their elected officials give up the “dirty donations” they received from Harvey West Jr., a convicted child sex offender.
West was a 28-year-old police officer when he was charged with rape after sexually assaulting two 14-year-old girls and a 16-year-old girl, resulting in child sex offense convictions and his placement on the sex offender registry.
According to an investigation by the Asheville Watchdog, “the multiple felony convictions and decade-long listing on the registry didn’t prevent his engagement in the state Republican Party.
After his release from prison, West regained his right to vote and quickly became active in the local GOP leadership. He was elected to attend the 2012 Republican National Convention as an alternate delegate until news stories about his past surfaced, and he stepped down.”
West, who has long-standing ties with Republicans in the state, was promoted to powerful positions in the state Republican Party by then-chairman Michael Whatley.
West has remained active behind the scenes, becoming a major political fundraiser, hosting Republicans’ big money annual event for judicial candidates, the NC Judicial Picnic, at his estate in Plymouth, NC.
All five of North Carolina’s Republican Supreme Court justices and Sarah Stevens, the 2026 Republican nominee for Supreme Court, were featured at and attended West’s event, raising tens of thousands of dollars for their campaigns, according to the group’s press release.
“North Carolinians can’t trust Sarah Stevens or the Republican justices on the Newby-Berger Supreme Court to keep us safe when they’ve been caught kissing the ring of a known child sex offender in exchange for campaign cash,” stated Eric Holl, North Carolina state director for The Justice Project. “People on both sides of the political aisle are calling out politicians who have been to the West estate and taken West’s dirty donations. Until they publicly disavow West and give his money to a charity that prevents child sex trafficking, it’s clear their priority will always be political power and money over our safety.”
The Justice Project notes that many of the politicians most closely tied to West have tried to portray themselves as hardliners on crime, including Supreme Court justices Paul Newby and Phil Berger Jr. However, their support for and from a convicted child sex offender raises concerns.
The Justice Project is pushing recipients of West’s dirty donations to give the full amount they raised from West to Present Age Ministries, a respected faith-based North Carolina organization committed to combating the sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking of teen girls.
North Carolinians can visit ProtectKidsNotPredators.com, for more information and to tell politicians to give the cash they received from West to a respected faith-based anti-human trafficking org.
