Alex Murdaugh denied bond after arrest in alleged settlement scam

COLUMBIA - Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced attorney whose prominent family was long thought untouchable in Hampton County, will be stuck in jail for at least another week as he awaits trial on allegations that he plundered millions from the family of his late housekeeper.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman on Oct. 19 ordered that Murdaugh be detained pending the results of a psychiatric exam. The ruling punctuated an hourlong hearing in which a state prosecutor laid out new details of Murdaugh's alleged financial schemes and Murdaugh's attorneys attempted to shift blame to one of his purported co-conspirators.

Newman's decision, issued to a courtroom packed with dozens of lawyers and reporters, marks another precipitous drop in the suspended lawyer's stunning fall from grace. It was also a stark departure from the light-handed treatment Murdaugh received in a similar bond hearing a month ago in his native Hampton County.

In September, a magistrate released Murdaugh on a $25,000 personal recognizance bond after he was charged with enlisting a hitman to kill him in a failed scheme to collect a $10 million life insurance payout.

Murdaugh is the scion of a wealthy legal family that simultaneously ran a high-powered Hampton law firm and the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office for nearly a century. He appeared in court Oct. 19 to face two felony charges that he siphoned $3.4 million from a wrongful death settlement intended for the sons of Gloria Satterfield, a housekeeper who was mortally injured at a Murdaugh family home.

At the hearing, Creighton Waters, a lawyer from the state Attorney General's Office, laid out in painstaking detail how Murdaugh allegedly tricked Satterfield's sons into filing a legal claim against him, then pocketed the proceeds. Waters, an experienced public corruption prosecutor, called it a "chain of events that, your honor, I've never seen before."

Satterfield died in February 2018 after a slip-and-fall accident at Murdaugh's home in Colleton County, Waters explained. Murdaugh then approached her sons, encouraged them to file a lawsuit against him and pointed them in the direction of an attorney who could handle their case, Waters said.

The sons hired Beaufort lawyer Cory Fleming, not realizing he was Murdaugh's longtime friend, his former classmate and the godfather to one of Murdaugh's sons.

Once the case ended in a pair of financial settlements worth $4.3 million, Murdaugh intervened and had Fleming direct the Satterfields' money to a fraudulent bank account Murdaugh had created in 2015, Waters said.

Murdaugh named the account "Forge" to make it appear connected to Forge Consulting, an Atlanta-based financial firm that handles lawsuit settlements, Waters said.

Within a few months after Satterfields' money was deposited into the dummy account, Murdaugh transferred it to his personal bank account, pocketing about $3.4 million of the overall settlement, Waters said.

Among a flurry of transactions that followed, Murdaugh wrote checks for $610,000 and $125,000 to himself, and cut his father a check for more than $300,000, Waters said.

"He had been carrying a $100,000 credit card balance for months. That gets paid off," Waters said.

Satterfield's family, who was in court Oct. 19, got nothing after Murdaugh "absconded with the money," Waters said.

"He absolutely used his position, his prestige, his reputation as a lawyer to steal from this family," the prosecutor said. "They trusted him."

Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, attorneys for the Satterfield family, also spoke in court Oct. 19. They described Murdaugh as "a stain" on the legal profession and the state of South Carolina.

Richter alleged Murdaugh not only stole from the Satterfield family, he also embezzled $10 million from his former law office of Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, Detrick.

The Hampton firm in early September accused Murdaugh of stealing from his partners and clients and forced him to resign, but it hasn't put a number on its loss. Murdaugh has admitted to stealing from the firm his great-grandfather founded in 1910, but he has yet to face criminal charges in connection with those allegations.

Bland and Richter said the only difference between Murdaugh and a bank robber is that he used a pen, not a gun, to pilfer millions of dollars.

"We have never seen such a breach of trust," Bland said. "A man who stole money from the very family of the housekeeper who helped raise his kids."

Murdaugh's attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, countered that Murdaugh was the defendant, not a practicing lawyer, in the Satterfield case.

They said Fleming, the Satterfields' attorney, and Chad Westendorf, the banker who represented the Satterfield estate, should have ensured the settlement money got to the family.

"They were responsible for making sure Mr. Murdaugh could not, if he in fact did, purloin that money," Harpootlian said.

Fleming has since settled a lawsuit brought over the missing money by Satterfield's sons. He acknowledged making mistakes and agreed to pay back all legal fees he earned from the case. But also blamed Murdaugh for the disappearance of the money, saying his friend duped him. Fleming said he didn't realize the Satterfield family never received the money until last month.

Waters recommended Newman release Murdaugh on a $200,000 surety bond, which would require the attorney to put up $20,000 cash as collateral to ensure he continues to appear in court as required. The prosecutor also argued Murdaugh should be subject to GPS monitoring and the surrender of his firearms.

Waters reasoned that Murdaugh's access to money and the enormity of the allegations against him make him a flight risk. Murdaugh's recent attempt to orchestrate his own murder shows he can be dangerous to the community, Waters said.

"A man who is a danger to himself is a danger to others," Waters said.

Murdaugh's attorneys asked Newman to release Murdaugh on a personal recognizance bond. They stressed Murdaugh has lived in Hampton County his entire life and needs more treatment for his yearslong opioid addiction after spending the past six weeks in detox and rehab facilities.

"He's really got nowhere to go," Harpootlian said. "He's from South Carolina. He's lived here his whole life."

Bland and Richter said Murdaugh shouldn't be released at all.

"He stole," Bland said. "He is a liar and a cheat."

After weeks of lawsuits and criminal charges, Murdaugh's attorneys have acknowledged their client will likely spend time in prison.

Murdaugh remains a "person of interest" in the State Law Enforcement Division's investigation of the fatal shootings of his wife Maggie and son Paul at the family's Colleton County home - the same property where Satterfield suffered her fatal fall - his lawyers said last week. But they again insisted after the Oct. 19 hearing that Murdaugh had nothing to do with the slayings.

Murdaugh's attorneys have said they are running their own investigation into the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. But Harpootlian has refused to disclose any findings from that private probe. He said he has shared nothing with SLED, either.

At one point in the Oct. 19 hearing, Newman called up a SLED agent to testify about the status of other investigations involving Murdaugh and his family.

The agent was hesitant to speak but ultimately acknowledged that SLED is probing other allegations of financial crimes against Murdaugh. The agency is also investigating the manner of Satterfield's death, the agent said.

And, he said, SLED has reopened an investigation into the 2015 unsolved death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, whose body was found with blunt-force head trauma on a Hampton County road in July 2015. The agency had previously acknowledged reopening that case because of information it gathered while investigating the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh in June.

Waters called the revelation of Murdaugh's alleged financial schemes "the tip of the iceberg."

"This is an ongoing investigation," he told Newman. "And I think there is going to be far more that we reveal."