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by WILL FOLKS
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A Midlands, South Carolina woman and her husband have filed a civil lawsuit against their hometown after she allegedly suffered a heart attack while being illegally detained inside a public building in Blythewood, S.C.
Michelle Layman, 43, of Blythewood, has sued the town for false arrest and imprisonment – among other claims – after she and her infant child were allegedly detained illegally at Doko Manor (a town-owned event space) on the afternoon of September 11, 2025.
Layman’s husband, Fred Layman, is the director of operations for Doko Manor and its surrounding 25-acre park – facilities which have been bleeding local taxpayers dry ever since they opened in 2013. Fred Layman is also listed as a plaintiff on the complaint – which names the municipality and its mayor, Sloan J. Griffin III, as defendants.
Doko Manor has been a source of controversy – and taxpayer consternation – for more than a decade.
The 5000-square foot building – which hosts Blythewood’s monthly town council meetings – has continued to amass red ink despite numerous leadership changes, running a deficit of $175,000 during the recently concluded fiscal year.
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A big part of the problem, according to critics, is the facility’s alleged provision of free and discounted rentals to friends of Griffin and local elected officials – including Richland County councilman Derrek Pugh.
Griffin has defended his use of the facility, and brushed aside concerns about its chronic financial problems.
“This building was never set up to make money,” the mayor told The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper recently.
Well, it hasn’t… it has lost money (a ton of it), which strikes us as a compelling reason why government shouldn’t be subsidizing such ventures in the first place.
While officials with the S.C. State Ethics Commission (SCSEC) investigate the use of Doko Manor, the wife of its director has dropped a bombshell complaint against the town and the mayor.
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According to the filing (.pdf), Michelle Layman visited the facility at approximately 4:00 p.m. EDT on September 11 “to drop off a check on behalf of her husband,” who was purportedly unable to deliver the check himself “because he was undergoing cancer treatments.”
After waiting on the facility’s assistant director, Kim Kacsur, to emerge from a closed door meeting, Michelle Layman decided to slide “the check and documents under Mrs. Kacsur’s door to ensure it was received prior to the close of business,” the lawsuit alleged.
At this point, Layman was allegedly confronted by mayor Griffin, who “demanded that she retrieve the check,” according to the pleading. She stated that she refused to do so – urging him to take the matter up with her husband.
At this point, “Griffin became increasingly insistent that (Layman) retrieve the check,” per the filing – prompting her to attempt to “leave Doko Manor.” Those attempts were unsuccessful, according to the lawsuit, because she was physically blocked from doing so.
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A town employee, allegedly acting under Griffin’s orders, “held the door shut so (Layman) and her infant child could not leave, and confined her within the building.” Another employee allegedly “guarded a hallway which led to another potential exit and further restrained (Layman),” per the complaint.
Griffin is alleged to have instructed these employees that Layman and her child “were not allowed to leave unless she took the check with her.”
“For an extended period, (Blythewood) employees and officials forcibly blocked the exits to ensure (Layman) and her infant child were not free to leave,” the lawsuit alleged.
Footage of this alleged illegal detention was provided to The Voice, a local media outlet covering happenings in Fairfield County…
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According to Layman, as she and her child continued to be held against her will she began experiencing “shortness of breath, headache, and chest pains” – requiring her to retrieve medication she has been prescribed for hypertension. Still, according to the lawsuit, Griffin and the other town employees refused to allow her to leave.
“With her physical symptoms increasing in severity, (Layman) made a desperate call to (her husband) to plead for help,” the complaint noted. “(He) immediately called 911 and told the dispatcher that his wife was essentially being held hostage by (mayor) Griffin at Doko Manor.”
Per the lawsuit, Griffin and the other town employees “only stopped blocking the door when Richland County Sheriff’s Department officers, firefighters, and EMS arrived at Doko Manor.”
After giving her child to a “trusted family friend,” Layman was reportedly transported by EMS to a regional hospital where her complaint asserted her blood pressure was recorded at 192/100 – a definitional “hypertensive emergency.”
Layman was “admitted (to the hospital) with symptomatic uncontrolled hypertension and ultimately diagnosed with a heart attack,” the lawsuit noted.
Curiously, Layman was cited with a trespass notice after local law enforcement determined she “entered the property without authorization and slipped a white envelope in the main office with nothing but a person’s name on it and tried to leave.” Responding officers also concluded the Laymans’ claims of her and her child being held against their will “were untrue.”
Layman insists those conclusions were based on “false publications” by the mayor – whom she is suing for defamation in addition to the aforementioned causes of action.
The Laymans’ lawsuit seeks a jury trial and the awarding of damages for emotional distress, loss of freedom, loss of time, loss of enjoyment of life, restriction of movement, physical manifestation of emotional distress, damage to reputation, physical pain and suffering, punitive damages, general and special damages, past and future economic damages and “other damages as will be shown through discovery and at trial.”
Count on FITSNews to keep track of the town’s formal response to this lawsuit. Also, count on us to monitor developments related to the town-owned facility at the heart of all this drama – a definitional government boondoggle.
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THE COMPLAINT…
(S.C. Fifth Judicial Circuit)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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1 comment
Mayor G will face a felony kidnapping charge. 10 to 30 years in prison will do him good for holding this woman against her will.