Cross Posted at Legal Schnauzer
You might say that Michele Rollins is the "unofficial queen of Jamaica." As the chair of Rollins Jamaica Ltd, the holding company for the island nation's famed Rose Hall Development, Michele Rollins is a prominent figure in the West Indies.
You might say that Michele Rollins is a major player in Republican Party politics. A close friend of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Rollins ran as a Republican in 2010 for a U.S. House seat from Delaware. She lost in the primary but left her mark as a proud member of the GOP's "Let Them Eat Want Ads" Caucus during a severe economic downturn.
You might also say that Michele Rollins is rich. Her personal financial disclosure with the Federal Election Commission reports a family fortune ranging from $92 to $350 million.
So why does Michele Rollins have grandchildren in Alabama who are on food stamps?
Michele Rollins is the widow of John W. Rollins Sr., who made mega bucks in pest control, truck leasing, outdoor advertising, and other enterprises. John W. Rollins was the father of Ted Rollins, the CEO of Campus Crest Communities and the focus of our reporting about a troubling divorce case he launched in Alabama.
That means Michele Rollins is Ted Rollins' stepmother. And that means Michele Rollins is step-grandmother to Ted Rollins' two teen-aged daughters, who live in Birmingham with their mother, Sherry Carroll Rollins. And as we reported recently, Sherry Carroll Rollins and her daughters are on food stamps, largely because of an extraordinary divorce judgment Ted Rollins received in Shelby County, Alabama--even though jurisdiction already had been established in Greenville, South Carolina, and the case could not lawfully be heard in another court.
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