SC judge denies Alex Murdaugh bond in missing $3.4M case, orders psychiatric evaluation

A South Carolina judge Tuesday morning denied Alex Murdaugh bond on charges he embezzled $3.4 million from his deceased housekeeper’s estate.

And Murdaugh, 53, must undergo a psychiatric evaluation before his bond is reconsidered, Judge Clifton Newman ordered.

“There’s no amount of bond the court can set that can provide safety to Mr. Murdaugh and the community,” Newman said after the hearing, which stretched longer than an hour.

Murdaugh is being held on two felony charges in what state Attorney General prosecutor Creighton Waters described as “a chain of events that I’ve never seen before.”

Warrants allege Murdaugh stole $3.3 million from the estate of his family’s longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died in a 2018 fall at the family home. The money was supposed to go to Satterfield’s two sons for her funeral expenses and for compensation for her loss, warrants allege.

The $3.3 million was in the form of two checks — one for $2.9 million and the other for $403,000 that Murdaugh was able to divert from estate insurance proceeds and, using a friendly law firm, was able to steer into a sham bank account he controlled, according to warrants and a civil lawsuit, Waters said.

The allegations are central to a lawsuit filed by the son’s attorney, Eric Bland, who was in court Tuesday.

Once Murdaugh took control of the money he stole, he used $100,000 to pay off an existing credit card debt and another $300,000 or so to pay off another obligation to his father, Waters told the court. Murdaugh also wrote two checks to himself, one for $610,000 and the other for $125,000, Waters said.

“He had all that money, … and he used it for his personal use,” said Waters, who added that investigators used Murdaugh’s bank records to reconstruct what he did with the money. “This is an ongoing investigation. This is the tip of the iceberg.”

Prosecutors had sought a $200,000 bond and a GPS monitor. Murdaugh’s defense lawyers, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, instead asked that Murdaugh be released on his personal recognizance, promising to appear for future court proceedings.

In making his decision, Newman said he considered whether Murdaugh posed a danger to the community and was a flight risk. He also noted that Murdaugh is a recovering opioid addict still undergoing treatment, had recently attempted suicide and that there are “a great number of pending investigations” surrounding him.

Newman also said that Murdaugh, whose law license was suspended last month following embezzlement allegations, had once “achieved high accolades in the law and was placed in significant positions of trust and now stands accused of stealing millions of dollars.”

“I can tell you I am not in any way considering a personal recognizance bond,” Newman hinted ahead of his ruling.

Murdaugh, seen wearing a navy-colored jail suit and mask with handcuffs fitted to shackles around his waist, did not speak Tuesday. Throughout the hearing, he sat at the defense table between his two lawyers with his head downcast.

“No, sir, your honor,” Murdaugh said when asked whether he wanted to address the court.

Harpootlian told reporters after the hearing they’ll comply with the judge’s order, saying a rehearing could occur next week.

In court, Harpootlian told the judge Murdaugh has for weeks been in a Georgia and Florida drug treatment facility for a 20-year opioid addiction. He told Newman, if allowed out on bond, Murdaugh would submit to random drug testing.

“He is not a flight risk. He’s got nowhere to go,” Harpootlian told the judge. “We are not here today to debate the allegations against him. At this point, he is presumed innocent.”

Afer the hearing, Harpootlian told reporters, “We’d like to get him back to treatment.”

An alleged ‘breach of trust’

On Tuesday, the Richland County Courtroom was packed with state and national reporters and docudrama producers — media attention that has followed the once prominent Lowcountry attorney since the grisly shooting deaths of his wife and son.

In June, Maggie and Paul were found dead at the family’s Colleton County home on the ground near the dog kennel.

The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the killings, but has announced no suspects.

Months later, on Sept. 3, Murdaugh resigned from his his law firm, PMPED of Hampton County, after his partners accused him of stealing money from the firm’s clients and the firm.

A day later, according to SLED, Murdaugh persuaded a former longtime friend and client, Curtis Edward Smith, to kill him so Murdaugh’s sole surviving son, Buster, could collect $10 million from a life insurance policy.

The plot — to be carried out with Smith shooting Murdaugh on a little-traveled country road — failed, and SLED charged Murdaugh with insurance fraud. Smith, 61, was charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

Calling Murdaugh a “danger to himself, Waters said Tuesday his life “has come apart at the seams.”

“A man who is a danger to himself is a danger to others,” he said.

In September, Satterfield’s two sons — Michael “Tony” Satterfield and Brian Herriott — sued Murdaugh and two of his friends, Beaufort attorney Cory Fleming and Hampton banker Chad Westendorf, alleging they had stolen millions in insurance proceeds from their mother’s estate.

That lawsuit, and subsequent filings by attorneys Bland and Ronnie Richter, set forth in detail how Murdaugh and his friends schemed to get the millions from Satterfield’s estate. Last week, SLED, using information in large part based on the lawsuit, issued warrants charging Murdaugh with two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses.

“We’re not the only victims. We’re the only ones here today,” Richter said.

In response, Harpootlian argued Tuesday that his client was the defendant in the wrongful death case, not the lawyer, therefore he wasn’t responsible for issuing the checks. But Satterfield’s attorneys said Murdaugh and his law firm played a part in the insurance settlements that the housekeeper’s sons never saw.

Bland also asked the judge to order that Murdaugh not be allowed to make any financial transactions. Recently, Murdaugh gave his son, Buster, a financial power of attorney, Bland said.

Waters told the judge that “$2.7 million is supposed to go to these boys back here.”

“This is a sad day for lawyers,” Bland told the judge. “Alex Murdaugh stained our profession. He also put a black eye on this state. We have never seen such a breach of trust.”

SLED agent Phillip Turner told the judge Tuesday that additional charges against Murdaugh could be coming.

“These are the charges that SLED felt comfortable bringing forward to you today,” he said.

Only four months ago, Murdaugh, a former president of the state trial lawyers’ association, was one of South Carolina’s most prominent lawyers.

Now he’s in jail and ensnared in the webs of six ongoing criminal investigations involving the killings of his wife and son, the embezzlement of millions, an alleged insurance fraud scheme involving a botched suicide attempt and the untimely deaths of three people linked to the Murdaugh family.

“Today is the day that Alex Murdaugh needs to get comfortable being uncomfortable,” Bland said.

This story was originally published October 19, 2021 at 10:57 AM with the headline "SC judge denies Alex Murdaugh bond in missing $3.4M case, orders psychiatric evaluation."