Mallory Beach’s family wants civil case in Hampton, not Beaufort County, records show

This story first published Feb. 25, 2019.

Traveling to Beaufort County, where a boat crash killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach, would be nearly emotionally unbearable, family members say in affidavits filed recently in Beach’s mother’s civil lawsuit. The records were in response to a January motion by Parker’s 55 convenience store to move the case.

“I try to avoid going to Beaufort at all due to the extreme emotional distress that it causes me,” Phillip Beach, Mallory’s father, says in one affidavit. “I believe it would promote the ends of justice and dramatically help me and my family’s well being to have this matter tried in Hampton County. ”

Overall, nine affidavits from witnesses who may be called to testify during the civil case were filed by Beach’s mother’s attorney Friday, online records show. The witnesses include her mother, father and sister, along with their fiance/spouses.

Affidavits also included a witness who says Parker’s has sold her alcohol on numerous occasions while she used other people’s identification. Another witness claims to have been behind Paul Murdaugh when he purchased alcohol at the Ridgeland convenience store on Feb. 23, 2019, the night of the fatal crash.

Murdaugh, 20, of Hampton County was charged in criminal court in April with three felony counts of boating under the influence in the early-morning crash near Parris Island. He pleaded not guilty to those charges in May and was released on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond.

The affidavits ask a judge to deny Parker’s motion to change the venue of the civil case from Hampton County, where the family lives, to Beaufort County, where the crash happened. The motion claims five witnesses who worked at Beaufort Memorial Hospital on the night of Feb. 23 and morning of Feb. 24 all live in either Beaufort or Bluffton.

Their affidavits are almost identical requests that include the following statement: “Attending a trial in Hampton would be a hardship because I work the night shift and driving to Hampton County would be an inconvenience because I need sleep during the day so that I am alert and prepared for my shift which is from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.”

A spokesperson for Parker’s said in an emailed statement on Tuesday: “At Parker’s, we do not comment on pending litigation, but we anticipated affidavits in response to our motion to change venue. As stated in our motion, the convenience of the witnesses and the ends of justice require that this case be tried in Beaufort County, which is where all the relevant events took place.”

Hampton County

Family and witness affidavits filed by Mark Tinsley, of Gooding & Gooding law firm Friday say a Beaufort County case would be hardship on them in many ways.

“I will testify at the trial of this case how Mallory’s death has affected my life, my parents and the emotional stress we have endured as a result of the sudden and tragic loss of my sister,” the affidavit from Savannah Tuten says. “I will also testify about what happened to me since her death and how difficult it is to live with this loss.”

Tuten says she lives in Hampton County, about 21 miles from its courthouse and 46 miles from Beaufort County’s courthouse.

“The thought of having to attend a trial in Beaufort County is nearly unbearable since that is where my sister died,” Tuten says. “I cannot imagine how terrible it would be to ride an hour more each way every day of this trial which will likely last in excess of a week.”

Renee Beach, Mallory’s mother, plans to testify about what Mallory meant to her and other people.

She also claims the drive to Beaufort County would be unbearable. The Hampton County courthouse is about 5 miles from her house.

Beach also says that as a lifelong resident of Hampton County, she would rather have a jury from her area judge her credibility in the case.

Robin Beach, Mallory’s step-mother, says because of the emotional distress her husband faces, he avoids Beaufort County and instead finds comfort in the woods where he spent time with Mallory, along with at her gravesite.

Witnesses

A log truck driver said he was standing behind Murdaugh at Parker’s when a cashier “appeared to have glanced” at identification provided for the purchase of alcohol, the suit alleges.

“I spoke to the young man before his purchase and said to him something to the effect of, ‘Y’all be careful tonight,’” the document says.

The man said he didn’t believe the man appeared to be old enough to purchase alcohol, the documents say. He also said he thought it was obvious he planned to share the alcohol with a friend in the parking lot.

Traveling to Beaufort County would be difficult because the driver works in Colleton, Jasper, Hampton and Allendale counties, the affidavit says. It says he would have difficulty parking his truck at the downtown Beaufort courthouse.

A full-time nursing student and childcare provider said she will testify that Parker’s “was known among underage kids to be an alcohol retail establishment that does not properly check or even look at identification of the person purchasing it.”

The student says she used her stepmother’s identification and that of a 30-year-old cousin when purchasing alcohol at Parker’s, according to the affidavit.

“Neither resembled me and never was I denied or refused from purchasing alcohol due to the identification not belonging to me,” the document says.

She said traveling to the Beaufort County courthouse would be a hardship because she lives in Lexington County and provides day care to a single mother.

Civil case

Renee Beach originally filed the lawsuit on March 20 in Beaufort County, the site of the crash. The suit was later dismissed, court documents show. On March 29, the current suit was filed in Hampton County.

About a month ago, Tinsley filed a motion in the civil case demanding that Parker’s hand over evidence of events surrounding the boat crash. No rulings have been made on the motion, per court documents.

Murdaugh’s grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh III, and father, R. Alexander Murdaugh, are partners in the prominent Hampton County law firm Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth & Detrick. The law firm was founded by Paul Murdaugh’s great-great grandfather.

Three generations of Murdaughs have held the elected position of solicitor for the 14th Judicial Circuit, which serves Beaufort, Hampton, Jasper, Allendale and Colleton counties, since 1920. Randolph Murdaugh, who succeeded his father in the post, served from 1986 to 2006. He continues to work as a contractor prosecuting criminal cases for the office. His son, Richard Alexander Murdaugh, voluntarily assists.

The affidavits did not mention the Murdaughs’ possible conflicts of interest in Hampton County as a reason to change the trial’s location.

The Murdaugh family’s prominence in the community has resulted in several officials stepping away from the case. Two judges have recused themselves from hearing the civil case.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office recused itself from a criminal investigation into where the teens received or purchased alcohol on March 25. A “long-standing relationship with the Murdaugh family” was given as a reason.

A day after the crash, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone asked South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson to reassign the case should charges be filed because three of the boaters are related to employees of Stone’s office.

This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Mallory Beach’s family wants civil case in Hampton, not Beaufort County, records show."