Former criminal defendant files suit

A Lexington County resident found not guilty of murder in Oconee County has filed a lawsuit against the Oconee Sheriff’s Department and a detective, alleging the only evidence that linked him to the murder of a Seneca taxi cab driver was an un-confirmed and un-investigated statement that proved to be false. The lawsuit names Lloyd Lash the plaintiff and the Sheriff’s Department and Rory Jones, a former Seneca detective, as the defendants. It alleges Lash suffered actual damages in lost earnings and earnings potential, degradation of his good name, reputation, along with fright, humiliation, indignity, and mental pain and suffering. At the age of 24 in 2011, Lash was found not guilty on all charges in a four-day trial in Walhalla. He went to trial charged with murder, attempted armed robbery and the possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. The shooting death of cab driver Butch Roberts in 2004 turned into a cold case homicide investigation, but in a post-trial interview Lash’s attorney, Public Defender Wilson Burr, said the police “missed it.” Solicitor Chrissy Adams said, without DNA evidence, it was difficult case. Yet Adams made it point to commend the Seneca police for its work in trying to find Roberts’ killer. To this date, the murder of George Arthur “Butch” Roberts in Seneca’s Bruce Hill community remains unsolved.