Rick Southerland’s roommate speaks out after controversial school board candidacy withdrawal

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY-TV) – Nearly one week after New Hanover County School Board candidate, Rick Southerland withdrew his candidacy, his roommate, a registered sex offender is speaking out about the controversy.

“I’m surprisingly doing pretty well, the outpouring of love and support and encouragement has been amazing,” said Jaymes Osborne.

After a week of a political whirlwind, Osborne said he’s still trying to pick up the pieces.

“It helps to have a very solid support system and unfortunately that’s what is bringing all of this stuff and myself to the attention of the public, is that support system,” said Osborne.

Osborn found himself at the center of a political controversy that led Southerland to withdraw candidacy, all connected to Osborn’s registration as a sex offender.

“Especially when all of the details and the context are laid out before you, if you could use your critical thinking skills, I think that you will also get to the area of being a supportive member of the community,” said Osborne.

Osborne said those details go back to his childhood, when he was 11 years old and regularly brought food and water to a neighbor he believed needed help.

“One day, he just grabbed me and said if you scream or anything, I’ll kill you,” said Osborne.

Osborne said he tried to get the attention of nearby off-duty officers, but things escalated.

“Unfortunately, I was taken to a home, and the rest is what were dealing with today, said Osborne.

Osborne says he was kidnapped, drugged and sexually abused and that the abuse was recorded. He said he didn’t learn the video had been distributed until years later, when a man confessed to recognizing him.

“He took a little temperature gauge and then confessed that he thinks he knew how I looked familiar and then proceeded to show me that footage,” said Osborne.

In an attempt to find the source of the video, Osborne said he searched Telegram where he came across additional child pornography.

“I couldn’t stomach it so for three minutes I was scrolling through the thumbnails and I couldn’t do it so I deleted it off my phone,” said Osborne.

Osborne said he thought the video was permanently deleted off his phone, which later came to light after an altercation that led authorities to confiscate his phone.

“So when the cops came I was 100 percent open and ready to be as cooperative as I could be,” said Osborne.

Osborne later pled guilty to one county of possessing child pornography in April 2021. He was sentenced to 36 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release. Osborne was registered as a sex offender which was not disclosed when Southerland filed to run as a Democratic candidate for the New Hanover County school board.

After Southerland received enough votes to move on to the November election, the Democratic party called for Southerland to withdraw which Osborne pushed back against.

“The narrative that he was dishonest on his questionnaire and the pushing of that is amusing, I challenge the elected officials and the candidates, who released statements, I think they should revisit them and update them now that they have more context,” said Osborne.

Tune into WWAY News on Wednesday to hear more from Osborne about his hopes moving forward after the political controversy.