Ted Rollins and partner Mike Hartnett
at the New York Stock Exchange
One trip to her husband's office, while he was away on business, yielded evidence that their daughter, Sarah Rollins, had a trust fund that had been kept secret. That trip also produced signs that Ted Rollins was carrying on extramarital affairs with multiple women, including an Emory University health-care executive named Cary Sheahan.
A second trip to the office while Ted Rollins was away produced a scene that sounds like it came straight from a John Grisham movie. And that scene shows how far Rollins patriarchs will go to protect their secrets.
Sherry Rollins now lives in Birmingham, where she was on the wrong end of a courtroom cheat job once her divorce case unlawfully was shifted from South Carolina to Alabama; Shelby County Circuit Judge D. Al Crowson issued a bogus divorce judgment that was so one-sided it has forced Ms. Rollins and her two daughters--Sarah, now 19, and Emma, 15--to be on and off of food stamps for several years.
Ted Rollins, meanwhile, still lives in Greenville and is CEO of Charlotte-based Campus Crest Communities, which has generated more than $730 million in Wall Street support since it went public in 2010.
You might think that the CEO of a public company would have a history of transparency on financial matters. But not Ted Rollins. In fact, he will go to extraordinary lengths to make sure certain information stays under wraps.
How did Sherry Rollins' second trip to her husband's office come about? By this time, his quarters had moved from the First Union Building to the Crescent Center, which he had helped develop for a family business called St. James Capital. Also by this time, Sherry Rollins had filed for divorce, and a Greenville lawyer named James McLaren had suggested she get certain information for use in court.
That sets the scene for Office Visit No. 2, which Sherry Rollins described in an e-mail to Legal Schnauzer:
After [Ted] moved to the Crescent Center, my mother, Sarah and Emma went to the Crescent Center after hours around 5:00 and I entered the building. I needed proof of the cost of my house and other things about the company, St. James. The lawyer, Jim McLaren, asked me to get proof of certain things for court. Sarah was playing in the rose garden and Mother was watching her, and Emma was asleep in the car.
I went into his office as it was unattended and took files from a drawer regarding the house I lived in and other files, including the file on Sarah's trust fund.
Sherry Rollins was about to place the material in her vehicle when Ted Rollins appeared:
[Ted] walked up with a construction worker while I was loading the files. He grabbed Sarah and threatened to hold her and keep her if I didn't hand him the files. I reluctantly gave him the files in exchange for Sarah, as I knew I had files that were important to our future. He put her in her car seat and grabbed all the files.
How classy a guy is Ted Rollins? Here, according to Sherry Rollins, are the exact words he said to her:
If you want this kid, give me the G-d--ned, f-----g files.
Did Ted Rollins threaten to kidnap his own daughter--"this kid," in his words--if he did not get his files back? That's what it sounds like. One can only wonder what was in those files. One, however, need not wonder about Ted Rollins' vindictive nature. The following passage from Sherry Rollins spells that out in clear terms:
[Ted] later called the police and tried to have me arrested for breaking and entering. The office was open, and I did not break in. The police came for me the following day and threatened me. I was told to report to the police station and turn myself in. I called a lawyer locally and asked him to meet me there. He got me off of the charge.
I went back home, and mother packed, and the girls and I drove her home to Tennessee. We were so scared--mother crying, the kids crying. I drove all the way to Tennessee, and the girls and mother sobbed most of the way. It was horrible, so scary. Then when I got back to Greenville, the police came to my house again and tried to arrest me. I called the lawyer again, and he got them to leave me alone again. I can't remember how much I had to pay the lawyer; but it was a lot.
I contacted Ted Rollins via e-mail and requested an interview on the above incident. He has not responded to that request.
Previously in the series:
A Wife's Investigative Skills Turn Up Information About CEO Ted Rollins' Extramarital Activities (June 3, 2013)
New Court Ruling Might Force Wealthy Rollins Clan To Allow Light Into Some Dark Financial Corners (April, 23, 2013)
Why Would Wall Street CEO Ted Rollins Take Steps To Keep His Daughter's Trust Fund Under Wraps? (May 28, 2013)
