CHEROKEE COUNTY, SC - This past weekend, karma came knocking for James Lawhorne - the man behind the bankrupted Tennessee Valley tomato company, Cypress Creek Organic Farms, as well as a string of felonies as long as the list of the states he committed them in. Lawhorne has been on the run for almost a year now, but was finally apprehended by South Carolinian authorities in Cherokee County after he was found to be driving under the influences and possessing an open container.
The DUI and open container violations are just the latest in a slew of crimes James Lawhorne has committed over his life. Under the alias Paul Rodger, he was indicted for 10 counts of bank fraud in 1987. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay over $34,000 in restitution payments to his former investors. More recently, he fled Alabama in order to avoid paying $228,000 in damages to Alabama investors which they were awarded in a civil lawsuit. He is also wanted in Tennessee, where there is an outstanding warrant for his arrest, issued after he failed to appear for court. He has been on the run ever since, at least until now.
Lawhorne will be held in a South Carolinian jail until he can be extradited to Tennessee to answer for his crimes. According to reporters at the Waff 48, he must first pay back the $1,400 dollar bond levied against him for his DUI charge before he can be extradited. Regardless, Tennessee prosecutors and Lawhorne's many defrauded investors can take solace in the fact that justice is finally in sight.
