Sex Offender Egg Vendor Causes Uproar At Donelson Farmer's Market

DONELSON, TN -- The discovery of a vendor on the state's sex offender registry and the subsequent social media uproar is bringing changes to a popular farmer's market.

Buyers and sellers at the Hip Donelson Farmer's Market were shaken to learn that a frequent egg vendor, Daniel Sherman Harris, is on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry for a 2007 conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a child in California.

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A Hermitage woman, Mora Cole, wrote on Facebook she bought eggs from Harris last year and he invited her and her son to come out to his farm

"He informed me that he has children come see his chickens, gather eggs, play with them," Cole wrote.

Thinking it would be a fun experience, Cole set up a time with Harris but decided to bring her husband along.

"Dan didn’t seem too thrilled when my husband got out of the car to meet him for eggs. In fact, he looked p----- off and was looking to see if anyone else was in the vehicle. He had only spoke to me and didn’t know my husband was coming," she wrote. "He asked if [her son] wanted to see the eggs and I told [her husband] to take him. He kept urging me to come too, but I declined. I was praying while I sat in the car, because again. Something didn’t feel right. He kept pressing for me to come look after [her son] came back. Again, I declined," she wrote.

Cole said that Harris stared at her in the car, leaving her "creeped out."

Fast forward and Cole is checking for sex offenders near her home when she saw Harris.

Her Facebook post relaying the information was shared more than 4,700 times. In response, the farmer's market banned Harris, who denied the crimes for which he was convicted. Hip Donelson organizers alerted other area farmer's markets - Cole said a woman told her she'd seen Harris near the playground at the 12South Farmer's Market. Hip Donelson will now perform checks on all its vendors.

Selling eggs at a farmer's market doesn't violate the state's sex offender registry laws, nor, in Harris' case, does having children on his property, provided that a parent is with the child. However, Harris was arrested by the Wilson County Sheriff's Department Wednesday in "an unrelated matter" for violating the sex offender registry laws.

Image via Wilson County Sheriff's Department