As emerged this week in the final days of Statesboro’s mayoral race, candidate Raymond L. Harris Sr. was charged with three counts of aggravated child molestation and one count of statutory rape nearly 20 years ago in Clayton County. But a judge in effect dismissed one of the charges, and a jury found Harris not guilty of the other three.

Harris, who served one year in the U.S. Army Reserves and then six years on active duty in the Army before being honorably discharged in 1998, later worked in information technology for civilian companies and was briefly a Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office jailer. A resident of Statesboro for 16 years now, he is challenging incumbent Mayor Jonathan McCollar, now in the fourth year of his second four-year term.

Early voting was in its final four days and Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, exactly one week away when an anonymous note arrived in the mail to the Statesboro Herald editor.

“I googled Raymond Lamont Harris, Sr.,” the anonymous tipster stated. “Mr. Harris was put on trial on four charges about having sex with children. He werent (sic) convicted, but the locals had enough to put him on trial. I don’t want someone like this for mayor. …”

Enclosed with that message was a printout of a “Superior Court Criminal Case Inquiry” from Clayton County, Georgia, showing Harris’ name, attorneys’ names, and a March 3, 2006 disposition date. At the bottom of the page, a “case docket information” summary listed “Not Guilty Verdict-Jury” three times, as the final outcome for Count 2, which was the statutory rape count, and Counts 3 and 4, those being two of the three aggravated child molestation counts.

Wednesday morning, a former resident of the Statesboro area, who now lives in another part of the state, left the reporter a phone message about Harris’ having been charged with such crimes “back in 2005.” The “case inquiry” document also showed the initial case filing date as Nov. 9, 2005.

Harris responds to posts

The next person the Herald heard from about this matter was Harris himself, when he called during the noon hour Wednesday and volunteered to come in and talk to the reporter. After he arrived, Harris used his smartphone to show posts and comments that some McCollar supporters – or Harris detractors – had placed on Facebook or other social media.

One post screamed “CHARGED!” in big red letters and listed the original four counts. One of the many comments suggested that Harris wouldn’t be allowed near children on Halloween. But he was acquitted of all the charges and is not on a registry.

“They’re trying to destroy my character from something that happened 20 years ago, and they’re making it seem like it’s active, which is dirty politics, and that’s to be expected. …,” he said. “They put out charges but they didn’t put out what was the end result of said charges 19 years ago.”

Harris also shared a statement he posted on his Facebook page: “In a race where my opponent states he is for ‘People Over Politics,’ it is disappointing that I am being attacked for something I was acquitted for almost twenty years ago.  I was serving in Bosnia when these allegations were made and I maintain my innocence. Despite the attacks on my character, I will continue to fight for the people.”

However, one sentence in that statement, the assertion that he was “serving in Bosnia when … allegations were made,” appears to be overly general, based on further information Harris supplied. By his own explanation of the court’s actions, that may have been true of just one of the charges, the one the judge effectively dismissed by a directed verdict.

Harris supplied copies of several brief documents from the case. One was the verdict form, with “not guilty” circled three times, again for Counts 2, 3 and 4, and signed by a jury foreperson, with the date 03-02-06.

Count 1 dismissed

A separate page he provided shows what happened to the other count of aggravated child molestation, which wasn’t on the verdict form. “This Court hereby DIRECTS A VERDICT OF ACQUITTAL as to Count I of this indictment,” states a handwritten noted signed by Superior Court Judge Deborah C. Benefield and dated 3-1-06, copied from the back of the indictment form.

A directed verdict, issued before jury deliberation, indicates that the judge found insufficient evidence for the jury to consider the charge, and is also in effect a “not guilty.”

“One charge was dropped due to the fact I was in Bosnia when those initial accusations was made,” Harris said.

He was deployed to Bosnia for a time in late 1996 and early 1997, and said he had been able to show the court his Army orders.

But that timing issue was not the case with the dates of the other charges, he acknowledged. Those went into deliberations with a 12-member jury, which acquitted him of all three remaining charges.

Case file closed

Another document Harris shared with the newspaper was a “request to restrict arrest record,” he filed on July 25, 2017, when he was already a Statesboro resident. The record from his 2005 arrest by the Clayton County Police Department and other details of the case may have been sealed, as allowed under Georgia law after an acquittal in a case of this nature.

But Clayton County’s public, online court database – the obvious source of the tipster’s “Court Case Inquiry” sheet – still lists all of the court dates from the case, as well as the jury verdicts and a notation of the judge’s directed verdict.

The children alleged as victims in the case were two girls in Harris’s extended family, and the reporter asked him how old they were at the time.

“They were young, … and the mother was going through some things, but I don’t want to rehash the whole case,” Harris said. “I just want to make sure that people understand that the allegations that they’re putting forth have a solution, and it’s just not open-ended the way they’re trying to portray it to be.”

The reporter asked him, in a follow-up call, “Did you have inappropriate contact with underage girls?”

“I did not,” Harris said.

McCollar’s statement

Thursday, the Herald asked McCollar if he had anything to do with putting the information about Harris’ past arrest out before the public this week.

“The posting was not launched from my campaign team,” McCollar said. “I was made aware of it after it was posted. I, like others, had a lot of questions and began to inquire about the situation.”

Asked if he had anything further to say about it, the mayor added a statement he had posted on his personal Facebook page.

“This has been the messiest political race I’ve ever been a part of — even nastier and more escalated than the County Commission race in 2024. Statesboro’s political seasons were never like this before then,” McCollar wrote.

“From the very beginning, this race started out dark and mean-spirited. Since August, my character has been attacked, my wife has been attacked, my work history has been distorted, and people connected to me have had their personal business thrown out on social media. This week, a mailer full of lies was sent to family homes across the city,” he continued.

“Last evening, I spoke with the mother involved in the situation that was discussed on social media yesterday. She has been through an incredibly tough and emotional experience, and my heart truly goes out to her and her entire family.

“This race should never have been about tearing one another down. It should have been about our records of service, the strength of our ideas, and the vision we each have to make life better for the people who call Statesboro home.”