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Things were going swimmingly for South Carolina attorney Mark Tinsley heading into 2024. Fresh off of his starring role in the ‘Murdaugh Murders‘ crime and corruption saga, the Lowcountry personal injury lawyer appeared poised to win a significant civil judgment stemming from a 2019 boat crash that claimed the life of a 19-year-old Hampton, S.C. woman.
The boat crash case – which many believe precipitated the unraveling of Alex Murdaugh‘s criminal enterprises – settled last summer out of court, but a separate complaint alleging misconduct by the corporate defendants in that lawsuit is still pending.
The second lawsuit – a so-called “outrage” case filed by Tinsley in December 2021 – is focused on the unauthorized disclosure of confidential mediation materials by those allegedly in the employ of wealthy Savannah, Georgia convenience store magnate Greg Parker, founder of the Parker’s Kitchen chain of gas stations.
Parker and his company were among the co-defendants in the boat crash case, having been accused of contributing to the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach by selling alcohol to the late Paul Murdaugh, who was allegedly driving the boat under the influence at the time of the fatal crash. In the second lawsuit, Parker’s defendants were further accused of leaking sensitive information during the mediation process of that case.
As I noted recently, while the outrage case is focused on Parker and his empire it has spawned allegations of unauthorized disclosures by Tinsley… as well as alleged conflicts of interest involving a former reporter at this media outlet.
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Heading into 2024, the outrage case was going exactly as Tinsley intended – but in February, the wheels suddenly fell off. Around that time, then-S.C. circuit court judge Bentley Price – who had issued multiple favorable ruling to Tinsley’s clients as this case progressed – was forced to withdraw in the aftermath of our media outlet’s reporting.
Notorious for his coziness with certain attorneys, Price has been linked to at least one looming inquiry involving judicial corruption in the Palmetto State. As our audience is well aware, he was also the poster judge for excessive judicial leniency for violent offenders – materially eroding public safety in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
As for Tinsley? He was recently accused by a former juror in the Murdaugh trial of participating in an alleged conspiracy to rig the jury in that internationally watched spectacle.
Prior to Price’s decision to stand down, Tinsley fought desperately to keep the embattled judge on the case – even though Price was deemed unqualified by a state judicial screening committee and was subsequently denied another term on the circuit court bench as a result of that determination. According to filings from Tinsley, Price should have been allowed “to complete pending work in the case before he leaves the bench.”
The S.C. supreme court disagreed, installing S.C. circuit court judge G.D. Morgan Jr. of Greenville, S.C. to handle the case instead. Since then, Tinsley’s winning streak has ground to a halt, with Morgan having “presided over this case in a manner which would restore (rather than diminish) the public’s faith in the fairness of this proceeding,” according to a recent court filing.
Morgan has also held Tinsley’s feet to the fire. In July of this year, he issued a belated order (.pdf) requiring the attorney to “fully comply” with a June 27, 2023 supreme court ruling mandating the production of discovery materials that Parker’s attorneys have been seeking for several years now.
Materials Tinsley has steadfastly refused to hand over…
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RELATED | EGG JUROR CONSPIRACY
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Backed into a corner, Tinsley is now demanding that Morgan recuse himself from the case. Why? Because his new law clerk previously worked for one of Parkers’ attorneys for two months while attending law school.
Wait… is Morgan’s new law clerk actually working on the case? No.
Did he ever do any work on the case? No.
Is there any evidence to suggest the new law clerk improperly communicated with the judge about the case? No.
Was this potential conflict hidden from anyone? No. It was immediately self-reported and Morgan immediately took the proper corrective action.
“I recused my law clerk when the issue arose, so he has not been involved nor would he be involved in the case at all,” the judge noted in an email to attorneys on September 18, 2024.
Why, then, is the judge’s integrity being called into question? Publicly, at that.
Tinsley’s demand for Morgan’s recusal was obtained by reporter Jessica Wade of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier – who published a story on it the day of the judge’s email. Wade’s article sent shock waves through the Palmetto State judiciary, according to multiple lawyers who spoke with this media outlet on condition of anonymity. The general consensus? That Tinsley’s bid to boot Morgan from the case not only failed to meet the legal standard for recusal – by a country mile – but reeked of desperation.
And could cause serious problems for Tinsley down the road…
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Serious allegations require serious consideration, they told us. It’s one thing to take legitimate conflicts up discreetly… but to publicly embarrass a judge over something so trivial? Something the judge clearly identified and addressed in an ethical and transparent manner? That’s playing with fire… and while Tinsley certainly plays for keeps, so do judges.
It’s not entirely clear why Tinsley would go “all in” on such a terrible hand – unless, of course, there’s something in the discovery files Morgan has compelled him to produce that’s really bad.
The recusal request also prompted a blistering response from Parkers’ attorneys, who in addition to citing extensive case law dealing with precisely such a scenario called Tinsley’s bid to throw Morgan off the case out for what it is…
“(Tinsley)’s attempted contrivance of even an appearance of partiality here is completely without merit,” the filing alleged, accusing the trial lawyer of engaging in “tortured logic to reach an absurd conclusion.”
It’s not immediately clear when Morgan will rule on the recusal request, but if he opts to remain on the case (as case law would apparently dictate he do) an appeal from Tinsley seems inevitable.
Count on this media outlet to continue to follow this process as it moves forward..
In the interests of full disclosure, Tinsley initiated an ostensibly unrelated lawsuit against this media outlet back in February – right around the time we were reporting on his preferred judge being forced to step down from this case.
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THE FILING…
(S.C. Fourteenth Circuit)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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