The Story

The obstacle court the court sets up for pro se in South Carolina
>The Forced Move

The Forced Move

Displacement of Long Term Tenants in Good Standing

After asking for safety issues to be addressed during good faith lease negotiations, McNeil and Poyer are forced out in a heat wave with 2 days in a row of 114 heat index. Both collapsed from exhaustion.

>Filed Suit

Filed Suit

After an eviction of long term tenants in good standing based on demonstrably false pretenses and a falsified postmark instead of a timely deposit return.

On September 9, 2025 Chris McNeil and Meaghan Poyer filed suit against Meridian Residential Group LLC (run by Tara Bayles) and SAC 181, LLC (owned by the Altman family of Charleston) in the Charleston, SC Court of Common Pleas - case number 2025-CP-10-05095.

6 days later, on September 15 and acting on freshly discovered information, the Plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint that added new counts and defendants.

>Unauthorized Syndication

Unauthorized Syndication

The scope of the known harm expands rapidly.

After filing the Amended Complaint, on or around September 18, 2025, Plaintiffs discovered images of their private home life syndicated across at least 25 different online platforms without their knowledge or consent, drastically raising the stakes and requiring the immediate introduction of high-resolution photographic evidence into the public record.

The images included photos of Meaghan in the house as well as private spaces like their bedroom and bathroom. They had been taken during an "inspection" by Meridian's predecessor property management company, Roadstead.

In addition to the still images published through mass syndication via AppFolio and ShowMojo, there was a Matterport virtual tour for which Poyer had been promised "they would use AI to remove" Plaintiffs and their belongings. They did not, resulting in the tour publishing, portraying Chris McNeil reading on their old and incontinent blind dog Rocket in diapers (a dignity harm), and McNeil's Thaut business signage displayed prominently. This was all in in a virtual tour that prominently featured the brand of the property management company they are now suing for harassment and exploitative practices, as if in endorsement.

>Nervous Breakdown

Nervous Breakdown

Months of coordinated harassment and gaslighting net a nervous breakdown and "extreme" PTSD for McNeil.

The case churned on, with multiple defense parties coordinating a campaign where they pretended the major harms of the case never happened. The negation of trauma can cause reliving of that trauma to hold memories straight.

McNeil and Poyer made 2 emergency health based filings in late January 2026 after McNeil had a nervous breakdown and subsequently score 76/80 for an "extreme" combat-soldier level PTSD score.

>Obstruction of Pro Se Access to Justice

Obstruction of Pro Se Access to Justice

Plaintiffs experienced excessive friction at every step, encountering what came to be called the Ask<-->Harm Loop.

Lack of e-filing or email access, even after requesting ADA Accommodations for injury that the court itself enabled and participated in, meant stressful drives into congested downtown Charleston for every filing.

Further, two defense-favoring continuances were granted under demonstrably false pretenses by Judge Jennifer B. McCoy.

The defense even committed alleged witness tampering and obstruction of a government licensure investigation, as part of the discovery obstruction seemingly intended to prevent the Plaintiff's evidence from seeing the light of day in court.

>System Stock Crash

System Stock Crash

Tragedy of the Commons in the 9th Circuit Charleston, SC Court of Common Pleas

The system type that explains it is called "tragedy of the commons", where individuals pursuing their short-term self interest damage a commons that everyone who uses the system depends on, until the commons stock crashes, impacting everyone who uses it, including them.

This is the same system structure behind the setting of the movie "The Perfect Storm" where fishermen took wild risks due to the overfishing-caused crashed New England fishing stock. Some might also perceive similar wild risks taken by the justice system, perhaps Judge Wheeler's 18 defense-favoring error ruling that took 67 days instead of the promised 10 ... or Judge Jennifer B. McCoy denying the Motion for her own recusal with a strawman argument that pretended 4 of the 5 arguments in favor of recusal did not exist.

The stock that crashed in the 9th Circuit Court of Common Pleas in Charleston, SC is capacity for independent judicial decision making. And this case is their Perfect Storm.

>The Case of the Disappearing Woman

The Case of the Disappearing Woman

The 1-bit scanner setting essentially removed her from an image then a judge ruled against her based on not seeing her.

This is the issue now being put before the Supreme Court of the United States of America -

"Whether the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment permit a court to reserve electronic access for licensed attorneys, forcing self-represented litigants to use a paper intake that degrades the integrity of evidentiary exhibits central to their claims."

>SC's Judicial Selection

SC's Judicial Selection

Virginia is the only other state where the legislature picks judges, but they don't have a gatekeeping commission.

In SC, a commission composed largely of legislator-lawyers - the Judicial Merit Selection Commission or JMSC pre-screens state-level judges before the legislature gets to vote on them.

This structure explains the source of South Carolina's anti pro-se bias and lack of access to justice for the vulnerable.

The thinking behind it? The belief system that "Status Requires Justice". An alternative frame that removes the harm dynamics?

When you design a public service system from the point of view of the Most Vulnerable Member, then it works better for everyone who uses it, which means the cut curb principle is universal and belongs in the justice system.
>So the Plaintiffs Started Scannergate

So the Plaintiffs Started Scannergate

If you are a pro se in South Carolina, you can test the quality of scan setting used for your legal filings here. For free.

Just download the pdf from the docket in a browser like Firefox and upload it to the portal for an instant report of metadata that will reveal the settings used for each page.

When Plaintiff's blind Carolina dog, Rocket died after suffering unnecessarily for for over 10 months due to the forced move and subsequent defense exhaustion tactics, Plaintiffs made a vow that his suffering - and theirs - would not be in vain.

Chris McNeil and Meaghan Poyer are on a mission to prevent further unnecessary harm to the vulnerable and innocent by the unconscious abdication to bad actors implied by the model of passive investing and by the justice requires status model that categorizes varying access to justice by representation class.

They state,

"This way, at least Rocket's suffering will have some meaning. By exposing what happened, and attaching it to the reputations of those who knowingly contributed to Rocket's suffering, it will help prevent exploitative systems from causing suffering in other innocent, vulnerable beings - like Rocket - in the future."