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A multi-faceted criminal investigation into embattled Colleton County, South Carolina clerk of court Becky Hill has picked up significant momentum in recent weeks, multiple sources familiar with the status of the inquiry confirmed to this media outlet.
Among other escalations, Hill now finds herself squarely under investigation for allegedly perjuring herself during her disastrous testimony at last month’s evidentiary hearing for convicted killer Alex Murdaugh.
Murdaugh, readers will recall, is seeking a new trial based on allegations that Hill tampered with the jury that found him guilty of murdering his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son – 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh – on the family hunting property in June of 2021. Hill’s office managed Murdaugh’s double homicide trial in Walterboro, S.C. from January 23 through March 3, 2023. In fact, she read the guilty verdicts to a waiting world on the evening of March 2, 2023.
Murdaugh’s initial bid for a retrial was shot down last month by former S.C. chief justice Jean Toal – although his attorneys are confident they will prevail on this matter as it enters the appellate phase.
In the meantime, Hill’s situation has grown infinitely more precarious now that she is no longer useful to the state in its bid to sustain the guilty verdicts it won against Murdaugh last winter. Indeed, the appetite for investigating and prosecuting Hill appears to have dramatically increased since the Murdaugh hearing concluded last month.
To recap: On the eve of Murdaugh’s hearing, our media outlet exclusively reported that Hill’s county-issued cell phone – which had been missing for months – had finally been located. This mobile device – a Samsung Galaxy S10E – was discovered on January 23, 2024 and immediately reported to the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
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We can now confirm this device was collected by SLED agents on January 28, 2024 – one day before Murdaugh’s retrial hearing. We can also confirm SLED agents obtained a search warrant for records related to this phone in the days immediately after the hearing – records which were finally obtained on or about February 12, 2024.
What else? We now know where the phone was discovered …
According to our sources, Hill’s mobile device was found in a desk drawer in a county office previously used by her son – former Colleton County information technology director Jeffrey “Colt” Hill. Additionally, we can confirm that this phone – like multiple other devices sought in connection with this ongoing investigation – had been reset to factory settings when it was obtained by investigators.
How do all of these pieces connect?
Back in November, our Andy Fancher exclusively reported that Jeffrey Hill had been arrested on one count of wiretapping for having “willfully and feloniously intercept(ed) electronic phone communication.”
A key component of Fancher’s report? The notation that Becky Hill had been “forced to surrender her phone to SLED upon the issuance of a search warrant” in connection with the wiretapping investigation into her son.
Which phone, though?
Not the one they were looking for, it would appear …
As previously reported, Jeffrey Hill’s wiretapping arrest was reportedly tied to an effort to keep his mother “abreast of the investigations into her conduct,” including a pair of probes launched by the S.C. State Ethics Commission (SCSEC) last summer. One of those investigations is focused on whether Hill abused her position as clerk of court in an effort to facilitate the publication of her book about the Murdaugh trial, Behind the Doors of Justice.
Our media outlet further linked Becky Hill to the wiretapping investigation into her son, noting SLED investigators were “exploring obstruction of justice charges against both Becky Hill and Jeffrey Hill as it relates to the mushrooming wiretapping scandal.”
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RETURN OF THE MISSING PHONE …
According to our source, SLED asked for Jeffrey Hill’s office to be locked down upon the occasion of his arrest on November 21, 2023 – and county officials reportedly complied with this request. Not only that, county officials reportedly searched his office prior to locking it – but Becky Hill’s phone did not turn up in that search.
So … how did it wind up in Jeffrey Hill’s former office two months later?
Sources familiar with the status of the inquiry say the discovery of the missing device is part of an “ongoing obstruction of justice inquiry” being run by SLED with support from the statewide grand jury, which operates under the auspices of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson.
As previously reported, the iPhone Becky Hill surrendered to SLED last fall is not the phone she used during the trial. Nor is it a separate iPhone Hill has been reportedly been using since the allegations against her son were made public.
Sources familiar with the inquiry said Becky Hill switched from a Samsung device to an iPhone in the days immediately after she was publicly accused of tampering with the Murdaugh jury. However, Jeffrey Hill reportedly told county officials on August 30, 2023 his mother’s Samsung phone had already been turned into the county – even though Becky Hill was reportedly still using it on the day the jury tampering allegations were announced a week later.
We also previously reported that Becky Hill’s county-issued cell phone number was “released” from its taxpayer-funded Verizon account and added to her personal account in late July 2023. This, we were told, was part of an effort to dodge a looming subpoena for cell phone records tied to the two SCSEC investigations.
Becky Hill reportedly told ethics investigators on multiple occasions she did not keep her county-issued Samsung phone after her son transferred the line from the county to her personal account in late July.
None of the devices linked to either Becky or Jeffrey Hill have been handed over to investigators intact. The iPhone Becky Hill provided to SLED investigators last fall had been reset to its factory settings. Similarly, two phones provided by Jeffery Hill to SLED – one a personal Samsung and the other a county-issued Samsung – had both reportedly been reset to factory settings.
Also, two other Samsungs belonging to Jeffrey Hill – a personal device and a county phone – were reportedly destroyed when he first learned SLED wanted to question him in connection with the wiretapping scandal.
“These evasive measures appear to have taken place at pivotal moments in the evolution of this story,” I noted earlier this year, referring to when ethics investigators asked Becky Hill for her cell phone records, when Becky Hill was publicly accused of jury tampering and when her son was contacted by SLED for an interview on the wiretapping allegations.
Now we discover SLED obtained the wiped phone discovered in Jeffrey Hill’s office the day before Becky Hill was scheduled to take the stand at Murdaugh’s retrial hearing in Columbia, S.C. last month.
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PERJURY RAP …
In addition to the ongoing misconduct and obstruction investigations, Hill is also the focus of a new line of inquiry: Whether she perjured herself on the stand at last month’s big hearing.
Under grueling questioning from Murdaugh attorney Dick Harpootlian – and later from justice Toal – Hill withered and was exposed as a liar and a fraud. Her credibility was “utterly and completely eviscerated on the stand,” I noted at the time. Claiming “poetic license,” Hill admitted to fabricating portions of her book – the same book portions of which she previously admitted plagiarizing.
But did Hill also lie on the stand?
Under questioning from justice Toal, Hill was repeatedly asked about sealed exhibits – specifically images from the crime scene and from Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh’s autopsies – and whether she allowed members of the media to view these sensitive records.
“Did you ever allow anyone from the press to view these sealed exhibits?” Toal asked Hill.
“No ma’am,” she responded.
Toal asked the question again as she grilled Hill about her process for safeguarding these graphic images.
“Were any press people ever allowed to view the exhibits – even the sealed exhibits that you had on file?” Toal asked.
“No ma’am, no ma’am,” Hill responded.
According to sources close to the ongoing investigation, SLED agents visited the Colleton County courthouse on February 14, 2024 in search of evidence they believe will prove Hill lied on the stand.
In addition to executing search warrants for key card access to the courtroom – and to several of its adjoining chambers – agents reportedly sought security footage from the courthouse. They also reportedly took pictures of rugs and carpets within the building as part of an apparent attempt to tie certain images and videos of sealed exhibits back to Hill.
According to these sources, Creighton Waters – the lead prosecutor on the Murdaugh case and the chief attorney for the statewide grand jury – will be briefed on the status of SLED’s investigations into Hill and her son later this week.
Count on this media outlet to keep our audience in the loop on any new developments related to these ongoing inquiries …
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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 and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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16 comments
Still waiting on a Carmen Mullen update.
Exactly
What a brazen whitewash, FITS!!!
Nothing will be done to Becky Hill unless and until Jean Toal closes the record of the new trial hearing.
I am NOT a lawyer, only better than half of them according to now-Senior U.S. District Judge Joe Anderson, and better than ALL of them according to OBJECTIVE RESULTS. After all, I was, thank God and without a lawyer, able to get for myself what Messers. Harpootlian, Griffin, and Barber, and Maitresse Fox and Ms. Miller, COMBINED, could not get for their client: avoid a wrongful criminal conviction in the pro-prosecution court of now-Active/Retired SC Circuit Judge Clifton Newman.
With that disclaimer, Jean Toal did NOT issue a final WRITTEN order on Alex Murdaugh’s (“AM”) motion for a new trial, but kept “the record open” until after the transcript was received and the parties had had a chance to submit proposed orders.
Ask any of your licensed lawyers who cannot hold a candle to my pro se knowledge of the law; and they will confirm to you that any oral ruling has no effect until a final written order is filed; and so, Jean Toal MIGHT reconsider and reverse herself any time from now till then.
This means that all this lengthy source-this and source-that from you is a paid whitewash to make it seem that Alan Wilson and Creighton Waters take perjury seriously. They do NOT. BOTH of them, and Don Zelenka, have known for years about Hatchet-for-Hire Heather’s (Heather Weiss) subornation of 365 perjuries from one witness alone in my 22-26 February 2010 trial but they did nothing about it, nothing that is other than try to intimidate ME from pursuing my right to not be victimized by THE perjury (for though I was, thank God, ULTIMATELY FULLY ACQUITTED, I suffered at least four years under horrendous bond conditions imposed from my false arrest until dismissal of the charges WITH PREJUDICE) which caused me to go through all that. Wilson, Zelenka, and Waters are STILL trying to intimidate me with threats of contempt of court.
So, the smart money is on Alan Wilson PRETENDING to take Becky Hill’s perjury seriously until Jean Toal issues a final WRITTEN order.
You have been acting as if I did not exist lately; but some voices cannot be silenced.
Could you point me in the right direction if there is, out there in internet-land, any source of info related to your Feb 2010 trial? I am intrigued and possibly alarmed.
Nancy Bryson, I responded but it is waiting FITSNews’ approval.
Again, Nancy Bryson, thanks for your interest and God bless.
I wrote a detailed response guiding you to where to find the OFFICIAL transcript of my 22-26 February 2010 General Sessions jury trial with Judge Clifton Newman presiding, along with my DETAILED OBJECTIVE proof og the 365 instances of subornation of perjury against me; BUT FITSNews did NOT let it through.
So, I shall, God willing, try again piecemeal; perhaps FITS lets my replies to you this time.
Nancy Bryson, FITS is holding the link I tried to post “awaiting review”; so, I am posting the SC appellate case where you can find the testimony part of the trial transcript and my analysis of it.
Case Information: 2019-000708
Court: Court of Appeals Classification: Certiorari – PCR – Common Pleas – Other
Short Title: Marie Assa’ad-Faltas v. State of South Carolina Case Status: Remittitur
View Full Title
Consolidated:
Filed Date: 04/29/2019 Oral Argument Date:
Disposition Date: 12/10/2021 Disposition Type: Certiorari Denied
Remittitur Date: 12/31/2021
Lower Court or Tribunal: Richland (2017CP4006831)
– Party Information
Appellate Role Party Name Former Attorney(s)
Petitioner The State N Johnny Ellis James, Jr. (Former)
Lindsey Ann McCallister (Former)
Michael D. Davidson
Respondent Marie Assa’ad-Faltas N Christopher Stephen Truluck (Former)
Robert Michael Dudek (Former)
Jessica M Saxon
Please note that was a case where THE STATE tried to appeal a judgment in MY favor BUT the Court of Appeals DENIED the State that permission.
If FITS lets this reply through, I shall, God willing, give you further detail on where EXACTLY in that case to find the OFFICIAL transcript of the testimony part in my 22-26 February 2010 trial.
Thanks again for your interest and God bless.
I just tried four more times to give you more details; but FITSNews is not letting my replies to you through.
So, briefly, once you open 2019-0000708, scroll to “09/03/2021” “Motion – Relieve Counsel.” On the right hand side, click on the document icon THEN click on the blue bar which appears.
You will get a 3-page motion followed by 1516 pages of attachments.
Pages 390 to 1170 are the transcript of the testimony part of the trial as prepared by the court reporter.
The rest may or may not be self-explanatory; but you can begin there.
Thanks again for your interest and God bless.
Nancy Bryson and all justice-loving people of the world (or at least justice-loving readers of FITSNews):
If and after, God willing, you have succeeded in locating and downloading the OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT of my 22-26 February 2010 trial as prepared by the court reporter, you can go to pages 1252 to 1300. It is the SAME TEXT OF THE TRANSCRIPT of my false accuser as prepared by the court reporter BUT annotated with each footnote OBJECTIVELY proving the instance of perjury in the text of that false accuser’s testimony.
Because some perjuries are repeated throughout the transcript, each time is counted as a new perjury because, by law, if a witness recants during the proceeding, it is not perjury. Converserly, if the witness keeps repeating the same perjury, it counts as new perjury because she could have recanted.
Hatchet-for-Hire Heather (Heather Weiss) could not have been ignorant of the fact that Corey/Cory Lamont Curry, who was falsely portrayed as victimized by ME even though HE had threatened to rape me and stood in my parking lot grabbing his crotch at ME, is a convicted cocaine dealer. It was none other than Hatchet-for-Hire Heather who had, nine years earlier, convicted THAT Curry of PWID-crack cocaine.
Knowing that, Hatchet-for-Hire Heather brazenly LIED to Judge Clifton Newman and pretended THAT Curry ONLY had a simple marijuana possession in 2005. Curry hat THAT possession in 2005 AND later drug convictions IN ADDITION to his crack-cocaine dealing in 2000, which Hatchet-for-Hire Heather herself had prosecuted.
Worse yet, there is a photo of THAT Curry grabbing his crotch at me; but Hatchet-for-Hire Heather presented it as proof that I “harassed” my false accuser’s guest.
Is it any wonder that I have the opinion I do of Alan Wilson and his underlings?
Nancy Bryson, were you able to find anything with those references?
I would appreciate your letting me know.
Thanks and God bless.
FITS, it is what it is. I trust that justice will prevail. Given the international notoriety, Rebecca Hill is not going away, nor should it until the full truth is known. I agree with Justice Toal that she was bitten by the celebrity bug. Regardless, Alex Murdaugh’s guilty verdict will prevail, based on the overwhelming evidence presented at trial. Thanks, FITS, for the update.
SubZeroIQ, your handle says it all. You’re freakin’ nuts.
So-called Veritas, SC should NOT move past a man wrongly convicted of two murders.
Alex Murdaugh (“AM”) did NOT kill his wife or his younger son any more than Buster Murdaugh (“BM”) beat Stephen Smith (“SS”) to death with a baseball bat or Maggie Murdaugh (“MM”) killed Gloria Satterfield (“GS”) by pushing her down the seven front steps of the Moselle residence.
The same liars put all those rumors out but succeeded only in FALSELY pinning two murders on AM.
GS died IN HOSPITAL 24 day after having COINCIDENTALLY fallen at Moselle. GS was a chronic, poorly managed, diabetic and died of a documented heart attack IN HOSPITAL caused by her diabetes, not her fall at Moselle.
The vehicular accident which killed SS has been investigated more than the one which killed Princess Diana. So far, THREE forensic pathologists have INDEPENDENTLY CONFIRMED that SS died of motor vehicle versus pedestrian collision.
In my VERY learned opinion, it was a suicide disguised by SS for his family to collect something. Why else would a teenage prostitute who was failing his middling nursing school classes and unable to blackmail richer older males walk in the middle of the road at night?
And Paul and Maggie Murdaugh could not possibly have died as early as the Prosecution claimed. The victims would not have had so little food in their stomachs, and the food would not have been so digested had they died only 15-20 minutes after finishing dinner.
Also, AM’s T-shirt was “spattered” with the blood of the chicken he had extracted from Bubba-the-dog’s jaws but had NO blood or DNA from Paul.
Please review my comments elsewhere for more details.
FITS, your “starving artist” self-description of a week before the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh may be half-correct in that the “artist” is evident in your (if it is yours) choice of the most appropriate and reader-attracting photos for your stories.
Whether you were then, or now still are, “starving” or not is something as to which I have no knowledge and on which I can pass no judgment.
Having complimented your artistry, I have to question your journalism in missing the latest release of an installment of Becky Hill missives; this time texts between her and Doug, and irony-of-ironies, ordered released by none other than Jean Toal.
Doug is the Elmo operator (or “artist”) during Alex Murdaugh’s (“AM”) two-murder trial; Dough was hired by AM’s defense team for $5K/week. When Dick an Jim ran out of money because the trial took longer than expected, Becky Hill brags about master-minding a solution as if she had solved the Middle East’s permanent crisis.
Apparently, either Doug is now about to sue Dick and Jim or Dick and Jim are about to sue Doug; and Jean Toal thought the release of the texts between Doug and Becky Hill might serve to facilitate negotiations and obviate the need of litigation.
To the extent they are decipherable, the texts between Doug and Becky Hill are as shocking as her emails and quite more salacious.
Apparently Doug wants to hit on Jay Bender’s (new?) wife and/or on Kenny Kinsey, Ph.D. because Doug asks Becky if Kenny is gay.
And Becky never misses an opportunity use her connections through AM’s trial to get favors for herself and/or her family. For example, Becky asks Doug if he can find a back-up to Becky’s singing daughter.
More disturbing though is Becky’s efforts to use Doug to spy on the inner workings of AM’s defense team. For instance, Becky asks Doug if AM wrote Jim’s closing argument. Doug bites the hand that fed him by describing Dick and Jim as “snakes in the grass” because they wanted to contract with Doug directly instead of through his company.
Everything about those texts is the opposite of what a clerk of court should be doing. It may not be a case of only perjury but also failure of neutrality and bringing the court system into disrepute.
But who is counting anything against Becky Hill? After all, she helped convict the most hated man in South Carolina.
Hope this comment doesn’t stick in your crow, FITS.
Finally, a person who pointed out many of the things I was thinking of SS, GS and AM. Here’s one to think about: They said Alex was driving in excess of 70mph “faster than any speed he drove that day” back to Mosele after visiting his mother. Ok, if he actually committed that crime, would he rush back to the crime scene or stay longer at his moms to create a viable alibi? Neither! He was rushing back because Mags n Paul never answered his texts or calls that evening after they went to the kennels. AM thought something was amiss! That’s why he was speeding.
So I guess now we know why there was an article about that test msg exchange between Becky and Doug.. SubZeroIQ you are magnificent.. I am looking up the case you sited to Nancy..I am all to interested in reading that entire thing!
This should really give you an edit option..lol
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