Investigators with the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS) are reportedly involved in the contentious, high-profile case of #TheMcGills – an erstwhile political power couple whose world was turned upside down last January following a bizarre shooting incident in an upscale Columbia, S.C. neighborhood.
According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, there is an “active investigation” related to this ongoing drama – although we have yet to determine what the agency is probing.
SCDSS sources tell us there have actually been two investigations related to #TheMcGills – one that was closed earlier this year and one that is ongoing. They declined to discuss details of either inquiry, except to say there is concern within the agency as to alleged “mishandling” of the first case.
They also indicated both investigations were “unrelated” to the January 2018 shooting incident that broke this story wide open last spring.
We have covered this Shakespearean saga off-and-on for several months now, first detailing the shooting – then pressing the South Carolina court system to open up its sealed file on the couple’s subsequent divorce drama.
“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.
A year later, though, these case files remain hidden from public view …
#TheMcGills is the story of 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).
(Click to view)
(Via: Provided)
The couple (above) appeared in a S.C. fifth circuit courtroom earlier this spring in the aftermath of John McGill’s federal bankruptcy case. Our founding editor Will Folks was at the Richland County, S.C. court house for this hearing, but it was closed to the public and neither John McGill, Jenny McGill or their attorneys spoke publicly about the case after leaving the courtroom.
John McGill’s attorney has repeatedly pushed to keep the court record hidden from public view.
“We don’t want it published in FITSNews,” McDougall told S.C. family court judge Rosalyn Frierson-Smith back in February.
Last March, this news outlet exclusively reported on a shooting that took place in January 2018 at the couple’s home in the gated, upscale King’s Grant neighborhood of Columbia, S.C.
In the early morning hours of January 27, John McGill – ostensibly under the influence of laced cocaine – called officers from the city of Columbia, S.C. police department to his home 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.”
Police searched the residence after both reported home invasions and found nothing. Thankfully, Jenny McGill and the couple’s three young children were not in the home during the second incident when John McGill fired his weapon.
[su_dominion_video_scb]“No one was ever arrested in connection with either of these bizarre incidents … which we find absolutely baffling given the substances allegedly used, the fact that a weapon was discharged and the massive police response generated by both hallucinated home invasions,” we noted earlier this year.
In addition to providing more information about these hallucinated home invasions, the court files in this case may also have a national reality television connection.
According to our sources, #TheMcGills soap opera allegedly involves a “star witness” – a transgender woman named Tessa Harris who is reportedly connected to at least one cast member of the hit Bravo TV reality series Southern Charm, which is filmed on location in and around Charleston, S.C.
This news outlet has publicly reached out to SCDSS for comment on this case, however the agency has a longstanding practice of refusing to respond to our inquiries. We certainly understand its reticence to share information with us, as we have exposed all manner of corruption, incompetence and inefficiency at SCDSS in recent years.
This is why it did not surprise us in the least to hear the agency had been accused of “mishandling” this case the first go-round.
Sounded pretty much “par for the course” to us …
Stay tuned … it has obviously been awhile since we last updated our readers on the status of #TheMcGills, but we have not forgotten about this case and we will continue our push to see its records unsealed.
In the meantime, in the event SCDSS does decide to comment on its investigation – either to us or another media outlet – we will be sure to pass along that information to our readers.
-FITSNews
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