Registered sex offender runs Historic Washington wedding venue and bed and breakfast

A registered sex offender is running Coulter Farmstead, a bed and breakfast and wedding venue in Historic Washington that markets itself as the premier wedding venue near Texarkana. The address on his sex offender registration matches the address of the venue, according to public records reviewed by TXKtoday.

Justice Lee West, 36, is listed on the Arkansas Department of Public Safety sex offender registry as a Level 2 offender for stalking in the third degree. His registered address is 209 Gray St. in Washington. That is the address of Coulter Farmstead.

The 11-acre property offers overnight stays in restored 1840s cabins and an 1860s Greek Revival main house. It hosts weddings with on-site lodging for up to 30 guests. The venue’s website lists Justice as a contact and advertises the email address [email protected]. Guest reviews repeatedly describe Justice by name as their host. Property records list Katie Marie West as the owner of the parcels.

The venue is listed on Arkansas.com, the state’s official tourism website, as a place to stay in Washington. The property sits surrounded by Historic Washington State Park land.

West is not violating any law or registration requirement by operating the venue. Arkansas places no residency restrictions on Level 2 offenders, who must register with the Arkansas Crime Information Center and local law enforcement every six months and report address changes at least 10 days in advance. State law bars registrants from jobs and volunteer positions involving direct contact with minors, such as schools, daycares and youth programs. It does not address owning or operating lodging or event businesses.

Level 2 offender information is typically not posted on Arkansas’ public registry. West’s entry is publicly searchable because state rules make an exception when the offender was 18 or older and the victim was 14 or younger. Nothing in the law requires a lodging or wedding business to disclose an operator’s registration status, and nothing in Coulter Farmstead’s booking process does. A guest would find it only by searching the registry on their own.

Coulter Farmstead is not listed on Airbnb or Vrbo. Both platforms prohibit registered sex offenders from hosting, and Airbnb says it screens U.S. hosts against public sex offender registries. The venue is listed on Expedia and Hotels.com, which distribute properties as lodging businesses rather than individual hosts, and takes bookings directly through its own website. Expedia Group, which owns Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo, did not respond to questions about whether its lodging policies address an operator’s registration status.

The criminal cases

West was arrested in November 2019 after a 14-year-old relative allegedly discovered a hidden camera, disguised as a phone charger, in a bathroom of a Blevins home, according to Hempstead County court records. He was arrested a second time in December 2019 after investigators reported finding images of a nude, prepubescent girl in a cloud storage account identified as his.

Prosecutors filed two cases. In one, West was charged with video voyeurism, a Class D felony. In the other, he was charged with stalking and two felony counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child.

The video voyeurism charge was nolle prossed, meaning prosecutors abandoned it, in March 2022.

In September 2023, nearly four years after his first arrest, West entered a negotiated guilty plea to stalking in the third degree, a Class A misdemeanor. The charge covered conduct from December 2018 through November 2019 that placed the victim under emotional distress and in fear for her safety, according to the amended charging document. The same day the plea was accepted, prosecutors dropped both remaining felony counts. His sole conviction is the misdemeanor stalking count.

On the sentencing order, Circuit Judge Duncan Culpepper wrote that the offense “is found by Court to be sexual offense, requiring sex offender registration.” West received a suspended imposition of sentence and a $2,500 fine, which the order notes was paid the same day. The order merged the video voyeurism case into the stalking case and assessed $960 in jury summons costs, indicating jurors had been called before the plea was entered.

A 2022 court filing signed by the deputy prosecuting attorney states that a joint stipulation in the case was reached in part to balance evidentiary concerns and avoid “the need to subpoena a reluctant witness.”

Nursing licenses surrendered nine days after arrest

West worked as an advanced practice registered nurse at a CHI St. Vincent clinic in Murfreesboro at the time of his first arrest. He had held an Arkansas nursing license since 2011 and received his nurse practitioner credential in December 2018.

Nine days after his first arrest, West signed a voluntary surrender of his registered nurse and advanced practice licenses. The Arkansas State Board of Nursing accepted the surrender Nov. 19, 2019, in a final order that states voluntary surrender is disciplinary action.

On the surrender form, in a section asking for the reason, West wrote: “Accused of video voyeurism.”

The board’s order allowed West to apply for reinstatement after one year or after his criminal case was resolved. Board records show his nursing credentials remain inactive, and his national nurse practitioner certification expired in December 2023. The discipline was reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank.

Before his arrest, West had served as president of the Blevins School Board and was a member of the local volunteer fire department.

West did not respond to a request for comment before publication.