Judge files order against lawyer with ties to Southern group

RALEIGH, N.C. – An attorney who previously led the North Carolina chapter of a group that advocates for Southern secession has been ordered not to handle clients’ money.

A Wake County judge filed an order that prohibits Harold Ray Crews of Walkertown from accepting or disbursing client funds. The order signed Monday says the North Carolina State Bar received information that Crews had mishandled money entrusted to him.

It also says that Crews wants to co-operate and won’t appeal the order.

As recently as 2017, Crews was chairman of the state chapter of the Alabama-based League of the South, which advocates for Southern secession.

After a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Crews sought charges against DeAndre Harris, a black man who was severely beaten during the rally. A judge acquitted Harris.