Note: This article contains material that some readers may find disturbing or upsetting.
James Richard “Rick” Southerland, a candidate in the Democratic primary for the New Hanover County school board, is living with a convicted sex offender, a person with whom he also works and attends political events — that’s come as a surprise to Southerland’s fellow Democrats.
On Tuesday afternoon, after receiving an anonymous tip, WHQR examined state and federal law enforcement and court records, which confirmed that James Darius "Jaymes" Osborne is a registered sex offender, subject to federal parole supervision, due to a conviction stemming from April 2020 offenses in Virginia Beach. North Carolina sex offender and public safety records show he lives at the same address as Southerland.
Asked about the nature of their relationship, Southerland said the two are friends. Both worked for PTPT Studios, a performing arts training studio based out of Thalian Hall, where Southerland is the dean of performing arts and Osborne was listed as a teaching artist until Tuesday afternoon. WHQR emailed PTPT to ask about Osborne; they didn’t respond, but references to Osborne, including his bio, have been removed from the site.
Southerland discussed some of this with WHQR on Tuesday, saying both he and Osborne had experienced serious childhood abuse, and that Osborne’s story hadn’t discouraged him from running, and had in fact served as an inspiration. Osborne also offered his account of his arrest and guilty plea, which Southerland called a "wrongful conviction." They also discussed their decision not to share information about Osborne's criminal record during the campaign; Southerland said he was sorry for not disclosing the information, but blamed his inexperience as a candidate, saying it was a "steep learning curve."
While vote totals won't be finalized until the county canvass on March 13, preliminary results indicate Southerland won one of four primary spots for the school board election — meaning he'll be a candidate in the general election.
Several of Southerland’s Democratic colleagues privately expressed dismay and frustration after being caught off guard by the news, but haven’t publicly addressed it yet.
Wednesday morning, the New Hanover County Democratic Party (NHCDP) issued a statement in response to a request for comment from WHQR. Party Chair Jill Hopman said that Southerland failed to disclose information about Osborne to the party and called on him to withdraw:
The New Hanover County Democratic Party affirms its full support for survivors of sexual abuse, particularly women and children.
We require all candidates to disclose any personal or professional matters that could pose a risk to their campaigns, the community, or our party. No such information was disclosed to us.
We only learned about Rick Southerland’s partner yesterday afternoon, and we are deeply disappointed and heartbroken by the reports. In our school district, with its very dark and regrettable past, these crimes hit far too close to home.
In light of this troubling new information, we cannot support Mr. Southerland’s candidacy, and we are calling on him to withdraw from this race immediately. Party leadership will hold an emergency meeting later today to establish more-extensive guidelines to vet candidates and to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future.
Yesterday, during an interview with WHQR, Southerland did say he would step down if it was "clear that I need to step away." But on Wednesday, after being informed that the party had in fact asked him to step down, Southerland said he would not.
"[Hopman] nor anyone from the party has communicated that to me. I respectfully decline and refuse to be bullied into stepping down from doing what’s right and necessary in this climate. I am ready to serve the community that I love, using my learned skillsets to protect the already waning opportunities for the children in it," Southerland wrote in a text message.
"I have done nothing wrong personally, and showing support for a constituent in the community, understanding their victimization, the road that led there, and experiencing their personal remediation as an upstanding citizen post incarceration is not wrong. My hope is that we stay focused on the core issue of support and advocacy for children in today’s community by working on the policy and governance and less focus[ed] on a rehabilitated survivor. I am honored to have earned my votes and look forward to this tumultuous journey of doing the hard work to make sure every child is safe and supported in and around schools, and that no other child finds themselves in situations similar [to this]," Southerland wrote.
Legal background
In 2020, Osborne was charged with over ten counts of possessing child sexual abuse imagery, including seven felony counts, according to Virginia criminal records. The state case was dropped, but he was later indicted on two related charges of possessing and transporting child sexual abuse imagery in federal court.
According to the federal indictment:
On or about April 25, 2020, in Virginia Beach, within the Eastern District of Virginia, the
defendant, JAMES OSBORNE, did unlawfully and knowingly possess one or more matters, that is, one (1) EG cellular telephone and the SD card contained therein, which were manufactured outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and which contained visual depictions that had been mailed, shipped, and transported using a means and facility of interstate and foreign commerce and in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce, and which were produced using materials which had been so mailed, shipped, and transported, by any means including by computer, and the production of such visual depictions involved the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and such visual depiction was of such conduct, and at least one visual depiction depicted a prepubescent minor and a minor who had not attained twelve years of age.
Osborne pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography and, in April 2021, he was sentenced to 36 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release.
The court imposed a host of special conditions for that release, including treatment, polygraphing, and monitoring for sex offenders. Osborne is also prohibited from engaging “in employment or volunteer services that allow him access to computers or minors.”
He is forbidden from possessing “any pornographic material or pictures displaying nudity or any magazines using juvenile models or pictures of juveniles” and from having “contact with minors unless supervised by a competent, informed adult, approved in advance by the probation officer.”
According to court records, he was released from prison in January 2023 and registered as a sex offender at his current address in Wilmington. According to Board of Elections records, Osborne and Southerland live at the same address, which Southerland confirmed.
Osborne’s account
Osborne told WHQR that when he was young — around age 11 or 12 — he was kidnapped, drugged, and sexually abused while living in Florida. WHQR could not find any independent record of the abduction. However, as part of his federal court case, Osborne’s brother Richard wrote a character letter confirming he had been abducted and abused, noting the profound traumatic impact of the event.
Osborne said he learned in 2017 that the abuse had been video-recorded and distributed.
“I found out from a gentleman that I had met online, and he had basically let me know that he had seen my video out there. I had no idea that this existed when I was taken. I was drugged, and then from there on, don't really remember much,” Osborne told WHQR.
Osborne said learning this was “extremely traumatic,” but eventually set about trying to find a copy of the video. According to Osborne, he used the Telegram messaging app to access a large number of images (court records suggest over 13,500 images and videos were on his phone). Osborne said he found he couldn’t handle sorting through thumbnails looking for the video of his younger self.
“I couldn't stomach looking at this stuff. Three minutes go by. I'm like, I can't fucking — excuse my language — I cannot do this. I immediately deleted Telegram,” he said.
Osborne said he was unaware that the material had been saved to his phone’s memory card. Later, after Osbrone was involved in an altercation in Virginia Beach, police searched his phone and found illegal material.
Osborne said he was cooperative with authorities — which court records support—– who eventually put him in touch with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who connected him with Take It Down, a free service that helps people remove exploitation and abuse imagery from the Internet.
Osborne noted it was a difficult time, which is backed up by various court documents. It was hard to convince officials that his story was legitimate. Because he had been living in California, he was considered a flight risk by Virginia authorities, who kept him in detention. It was the height of the Covid pandemic and, during this time, his mother passed away.
Osborne said he was willing to take responsibility for possessing the child sex abuse material, even though it had not, from his point of view, been intentional. He prevailed on the court to sentence him to time served. The prosecution, which did note that Osborne had been cooperative, asked for six and a half years, followed by a lengthy period of supervised probation. In the end, a judge issued a lighter sentence. Osborne also agreed to pay $6,000 in restitution to victims who appeared in the illegal imagery.
Osborne noted his standing in the community, including “the most character witness letters that the court had ever seen.” Court records support that, showing 17 people, including his brother, wrote letters of support.
While Osborne freely pleaded guilty, he said he did it with the understanding that it would help him avoid a more severe sentence. He said he still felt the outcome was “victim blaming,” saying that he’d never been given the resources necessary to deal with his traumatic past.
Since serving his time, Osborne noted that he’s complied completely with his probationary requirements. (Osborne’s professional bio noted that he’s taught young students, but he clarified that it was prior to his arrest and conviction.)
“There's not even a semblance of my old life now, I've had to relearn how to live, being a Black, gay male in this society who's gone through the prison system, where there already is such a stigma behind African Americans and queers and people with mental health [issues]. You name it, there's a stigma with it. So, for me, I am glad, but also a little saddened, that, you know, Rick had felt this impassioned, like this is a part of his platform.”
“Obviously, this would be an issue”
On Tuesday, Southerland and Osborne acknowledged that they’d talked about potential complications in Southerland’s campaign due to Osborne’s criminal history and sex-offender status.
“I can’t say it wasn’t going to be an issue. Obviously would be an issue, especially because it is of public record,” Osborne said.
Southerland said Osborne’s story did resonate with one of his top priorities, the safety of children.
“That's why we need resources in our school from sex education, consent education, understanding predators, understanding the cues, so that we know and know who to go to, who can we trust, that are going to defend the victims and so that the victims do not [receive the] blame for the ills of society,” Southerland said.
Southerland also acknowledged he was more focused on unseating Republican school board candidates.
Asked about this decision not to share Osborne’s story with the Democratic party and fellow candidates while bringing him into the political fold, Southerland said he was “not a politician” and was “not sure what I was supposed to be sharing with regards to details about things regarding James."
He addressed the frustration and surprise in his party.
“I hold myself accountable to that, and I sincerely apologize to the entire Democratic Party and to everyone in the public, that was not my intention,” he said. “It was a huge learning curve for me, and this is a huge learning curve for anybody when they're trying something new, doing something new, and especially when they’re doing something when it's the right thing to do.”
“So I do apologize. I do understand how that may look,” he said. “But I don't apologize for being human, doing something new where I am learning. I don't apologize that when questions are asked, I do answer them.”
Southerland said he would have “further conversations with the chair of the [county] Democratic Party and others in the party.”
Asked what he would do if the party asked him to withdraw from politics, Southerland said, ” That would be considered in discussions so that we're all clear. But if it seems clear that I need to step away, I don't have a problem with that. But that's not going to stop me from fighting for victims.”
