It has been awhile since we last updated our readers on the status of #TheMcGills, an erstwhile power couple that was – by all accounts – living the dream in suburban Columbia, South Carolina until about a year ago.
That dream came crashing down, though – violently – and now the two well-connected politicos are locked in a bitter legal battle. We think the back-and-forth between the telegenic former couple ought to be the subject of a national reality television series, not a local courtroom drama.
But the Richland County, S.C. courtroom is where the scene was laid this week …
The ongoing feud between Palmetto political scion John McGill (son of former S.C. lieutenant governor Yancey McGill) and his estranged wife Jenny McGill (a business consultant and the niece of U.S. district court judge Terry Wooten) has been generating headlines since last March, when this news outlet exclusively reported on a bizarre domestic incident that took place at the couple’s home in the upscale King’s Grant neighborhood of Columbia, S.C.
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(Via: Provided)
In the early morning hours of January 27, 2018, John McGill (above) – ostensibly under the influence of laced cocaine – called officers from the city of Columbia, S.C. police department to his residence in response to “a possible home invasion.” There was no home invasion, though. McGill apparently hallucinated the whole thing. He also appears to have hallucinated a second attempted home invasion just sixteen hours later – during which he “unloaded” his handgun on the phantom assailants.
“They got close and I just unloaded,” McGill told a police dispatcher during the second incident, adding “I’ve got 24 magazines to go.”
Yeah …
Police searched the area after both reported home invasions and found nothing. Thankfully, Jenny McGill and the couple’s three young children had left the residence after the initial incident and were not in the home at the time John McGill discharged his weapon.
After the incidents, Jenny McGill filed for divorce – setting off a contentious financial/ custody fight between the 33-year-old strategist and her 39-year-old husband, who served for years as a top advisor to former S.C. lieutenant governor André Bauer.
[su_dominion_video_scb]#TheMcGills previously appeared opposite one another in Richland County court under the names Doe vs. Doe, but their divorce case – which has been under a judge’s seal for months – was delayed last fall due to John McGill’s decision to file for bankruptcy.
A meeting in John McGill’s bankruptcy proceedings was held last Friday, sources tell us, while a pre-trial conference featuring both McGills (and their attorneys) was held Monday morning in family court under the supervision of S.C. family court judge Rosalyn Frierson-Smith.
How do we know about this hearing? Because our name was invoked by one of the attorneys …
According to an audio recording of the proceedings provided to this news outlet, John McGill’s lawyer – John McDougall – told Frierson-Smith he would not object to certain financial documents related to #TheMcGills divorce case being unsealed so long as those documents were provided to “bankruptcy court and nowhere else.”
“We don’t want it published in FITSNews,” McDougall said.
Really? We hate to break it to McDougall, but it’s not the financial stuff we are interested in …
McDougall later confirmed to Frierson-Smith that he believed nothing beyond the estranged couple’s financial declarations and other “discovery-related financial information” should be turned over to the bankruptcy trustee.
“Other issues in this case – I would object,” McDougall said.
Really? On what grounds, we wonder? Because this case file should have never been sealed in the first place …
“Prominent politicos in the Palmetto State should not be allowed to have their dirty laundry hidden from public view when that courtesy is not afforded to the rest of us,” we wrote last July.
Indeed. Accordingly, we would urge Frierson-Smith to correct the error her predecessor in this case made by unsealing the files. All of them.
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(Via: Provided)
In related news, this outlet has obtained a Columbia police incident report filed by John McGill last December against his estranged wife (above). According to the document (.pdf), Jenny McGill is accused of “continuously” coming by the rental residence where he is currently residing “despite having a court order advising her not to do so.”
The incident report also alleges John McGill’s aforementioned attorney sent Jenny McGill a “letter of no contact.”
John McGill also told the investigating deputy that “he has texts, along (with) the court order, and is willing to submit both to an investigator upon request,” per the incident report.
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