Jeff Harper and Victoria Villareal during happier times (Photo: Victoria Villareal)
In early January, Victoria Villareal learned her fiancé was in a Chinese jail.
Former Iowa Wesleyan basketball player Jeff Harper had traveled to Shenzhen, a business hub of 12 million people, in the hopes of landing an international basketball contract.
Official records about what led to his jailing are limited, but here’s what Villareal says she’s been told:
In the early morning hours of Jan. 7, Harper was walking to a nearby fast-food restaurant after watching a friend perform a comedy skit. Along the way, Harper saw a man assaulting a woman. The alleged assailant stopped and approached the 6-foot-8 Harper as he moved toward the woman to check on her.
Harper, 32, shoved the man out of the way to get to the woman as quickly as possible. The man left the scene and Harper checked on the woman, who said she was OK.
Five hours later, the man Harper had pushed out of the way wound up in the hospital. Harper was arrested.
“We still don’t know what was done in those five hours,” Villareal said.
Harper initially was jailed for what Villareal has learned is “serious harm to another with negligence.” But the injured man has since died, so the charge against Harper could be upgraded to “causing death with negligence,” she said Harper’s attorney told her.
Under China law, Villareal said, only attorneys and defendants are permitted to see official documents in a case. Villareal knows only what Harper and his attorney, who works for the Dentons law firm in Shenzhen, tell her.
She found Harper’s attorney after extensive research — on the internet, from friends and from people with legal knowledge in Boise, Idaho.
“I feel I did my homework,” she said.
In the months since the incident, Harper has been largely cut off from the outside world. He was not aware of what the novel coronavirus was, even as it spread through China earlier this year, Villareal said.
He learned last week that his grandmother back home in Tennessee was terminally ill.
“Jeff was devastated,” Tess Woods, Harper’s mother told The Register on Monday. “He was very close to her.”
Villareal is trying to raise funds to help pay for Harper’s legal fees. She created a GoFundMe page for assistance in getting him out of jail, bringing him home and addressing any mental health care needs.
She is also working with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Harper’s attorney for the return of her fiancé to Boise, where the couple lives.
The Register reached out to former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who is now the U.S. ambassador to China, for comment. His office would not comment on Harper’s situation, including this email from Branstad’s office early Monday:
“Unfortunately, Mr. Harper has not signed a privacy act waiver, so we are unable to comment on anything about him or the allegations made against him.”
The Register also obtained correspondence between the U.S. Consulate in China and Crapo, which corroborates that Harper is being held in a Chinese jail.
“We’re just not sure what’s going to happen,” Villareal told The Register during one of multiple phone conversations. “It’s a very unique story, the way everything is happening. Jeff’s in China. I’m in Idaho. Laws are different. There’s a language barrier.”
Harper’s college basketball career, journey to Iowa
Harper was part of a Tennessee connection Iowa Wesleyan coach Alan Magnani recruited to his team in 2010. It started with Davis Warner, and continued with Joe Evans, Jeremy Simmons and then Harper. All four attended Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee. All four ended their college careers at the Mount Pleasant, Iowa, college.
“They were all big contributors for us,” Magnani recalled.
Harper was the biggest, the most imposing.
“He was an impressive-looking dude,” said Magnani, who coached at Iowa Wesleyan until 2012. “He maybe came across with a scowl sometimes, and maybe some thought he was the toughest guy in a room, but really, he’s a marshmallow. He would do anything for anybody.
“It doesn’t surprise me that he would go to somebody’s aid.”
That’s the side Villareal saw the first time they met.
Harper was working at a youth basketball camp in the same Boise facility where Villareal was working as a personal trainer. She was on one side of the facility, while Harper was on the other.
“He came to Boise during his (2017) off-season after playing overseas,” she said. “He’s got a teammate (in Boise) that he played with in Bolivia. Jeff came to stay with him and work his camps.”
Jeff Harper, shown here during his time at Volunteer State. Harper is currently being held in a Chinese jail and his family is working to bring him back to the United States. (Photo: Jackson Sun)
They still didn’t know one another well, until Villareal ventured to the other side of the gym to watch what was going with the basketball camp. Harper had already torn his patellar tendon while dunking the ball at one of the camp sessions. He was on crutches. They struck up a conversation. She eventually became Harper’s trainer.
“I’d never really met him before that,” she said.
They dated for a year. They’ve been living together for three years. Their engagement “wasn’t anything super exciting,” Villareal said. “It wasn’t a huge occasion. We weren’t even going to make it public until he got back from playing in China.
“Then this happens.”
An uncertain future
Villareal and Harper speak via cell phone every couple of weeks — most recently last weekend, when he sent this video message:
“This is not a joke. I need all the help I can get. It would sure be appreciated — this is my fiancée (he holds up a picture of them together). Please –— take everything that you see in here seriously.”
Harper said the video was sent sometime between conversations with the U.S, Embassy, which she said checks in on Harper occasionally, and Villareal.
When not on the phone together, she’s working behind the scenes to try to get him released.
Villareal forwarded to the Register a letter to Crapo from Jeremy Cornforth, Consular Chief and U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, China. Cornforth wrote, in part:
“We have been monitoring his case very closely since his arrest on January 7, 2020. Due to restrictions on in-person visits during the COVID-19 outbreak, the consulate is currently able to speak with incarcerated U.S. citizens only via telephone. A consular officer most recently spoke with Mr. Harper by phone on March 24, 2020 to check on his health and well-being and to deliver messages from family and friends.
“Please be assured that we have no higher priority than the safety and welfare of U.S. citizens. We are in close contact with Mr. Harper’s family, and will continue to provide consular assistance. I hope this information is helpful to you as you respond to your constituent.”
Villareal sends Harper workout suggestions through his attorney.
“I’m on his case to do what he can from a workout perspective,” she said. “It’s good for his mind and it’s good mentally. It’s all bodyweight stuff — push-ups, lunges, squats —things like that.
“He gets outside for exercise. He can walk outside of the room in what’s like a patio area.”
He also craves pizza, she said.
“I was recently on the phone with his lawyer (in China), and we found a Pizza Hut,” she said. “So, after four months, he’s going to get a cheese pizza.”
Meanwhile, his mother wonders when she’ll see her son again.
“It’s just so overwhelming,” Woods said. “I’ve not been able to sleep a lot. Victoria, his fiancée, is doing a wonderful job running everything.”
Mom and son spoke a couple of weeks ago.
“He’s such a good kid,” Harper’s mother said. “The only trouble he’s ever been in was when he was a little kid and finished his work in school early. He’d get in trouble for talking to people around him. He was bored. He was very smart. He finished his assignments before the others.”
What’s next?
Villareal doesn’t know. Harper is getting along as well as can be expected — she does know that.
“He’s (in a cell) by himself,” Villareal said. “That’s probably fortunate, considering the coronavirus that’s been going on.”
She waits as patiently as possible. She doesn’t know when they’ll be together again. A wedding date hasn’t yet been set.
“We’d talked a lot about marriage, and, get this — he didn’t believe in it at first,” Villareal said. “He didn’t see what the big deal was.
“He thought it was just a piece of paper, but he’s changed his mind.”
Columnist Randy Peterson has been writing for the Des Moines Register for parts of six decades. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, 515-284-8132, and on Twitter at @RandyPete.
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