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In a significant development for plaintiffs in a civil case linked to the ‘Murdaugh Murders’ crime and corruption saga, a South Carolina circuit court judge has recused himself after lawyers questioned his ability to impartially preside over the high-profile proceedings.
S.C. circuit court judge G.D. Morgan Jr. stood down late last week over a “controversy” involving his newly appointed law clerk. Morgan’s recusal was published in an order issued on October 18, 2024 – just days after the family of the late Mallory Beach formally settled their wrongful death action with the final remaining party in that case, convicted killer Alex Murdaugh.
Beach tragically lost her life in a boating accident in the early morning hours of February 24, 2019. The boat involved in the crash, owned by Alex Murdaugh, was allegedly piloted by his underage and intoxicated son, Paul Murdaugh. Prior to the crash, Paul Murdaugh had purchased alcohol from – among other locations – one of a chain of convenience stores owned by Savannah, Georgia businessman Greg Parker.
In July 2023, Parker’s insurance company settled with the Beach family for $15 million. Earlier this month, plaintiffs agreed to a $500,000 insurance settlement from Alex Murdaugh. Murdaugh’s liquidated personal assets – totaling $1.76 million – were distributed to victims through a court-appointed receivership in February 2024. The settlement with Murdaugh marked the end of the wrongful death case.
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The second lawsuit – a so-called “outrage” case filed by plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark Tinsley in December 2021 – is focused on the unauthorized disclosure of confidential mediation materials by those allegedly in the employ of Parker. These materials included disturbing video footage of Mallory Beach’s body, which was used in a documentary sizzle reel posted online.
Plaintiffs claim this material was leaked by individuals hired by Greg Parker. They argue a coordinated campaign was waged to diminish the credibility of their case – and to sap the family’s will to fight.
Tinsley has faced similar accusations related to the improper disclosure of case information. He was also 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. Although plaintiffs were ordered by the S.C. supreme court to provide discovery materials to the defense in July 2023 — a directive reinforced by Judge Morgan this summer — they have yet to fully comply with that order.
Judge Morgan was assigned to this case in February 2024 after former 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.
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As for the alleged conflict involving Morgan, “the issue arises out of the employment of a law clerk who recently became employed with this court in August 2024 after graduating from law school.”
“On the clerk’s first day of work, the court learned that the clerk had worked as a summer intern during the summer of 2023 for an attorney for one of the defendants,” Morgan stated.
Morgan immediately notified both parties upon learning of the clerk’s former employment. Plaintiffs’ attorneys demanded the judge’s recusal, while Parker’s attorneys argued it was unnecessary. During the hearing process, the clerk was removed from any involvement in the case.
Despite finding no impropriety in his continuing to preside over the case, Morgan said he was standing down to avoid any appearance of bias.
“The court does not know and has never met any of the plaintiffs in the case nor has it met or know any of the defendants,” he wrote. “The court has no close personal relationships with any of the plaintiffs’ attorneys nor any of the defendants’ attorneys, other than as acquaintances through either law school or the legal profession. As a judge, the court is called on daily to make decisions which affect the parties who appear before it, and invariably one side wins and one side loses. Importantly, these decisions must be based solely on the facts and the law and not based on any bias or prejudice. The court would do that in this case. However, after having thoughtfully and thoroughly considered all of the arguments of the parties, the court has, in the interest of justice and in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety, decided to recuse itself from this case.”
A new judge will be appointed to preside over the case moving forward…
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THE ORDER…
(S.C. Judicial Branch)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Callie Lyons is a relentless investigative journalist, researcher, and author known for exposing hard truths with heart and precision. As a journalist for FITSNews, she dives into high-profile and murky cases—like that of Mica Francis Miller— with fearless resolve and a sharp eye for detail, whether it’s tracking white-collar crime, uncovering religious abuse, or examining the often-bizarre behavior of those who believe they’re above the law.
Callie made waves with her groundbreaking 2007 book Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof and Lethal, the first to reveal the dangers of forever chemicals, a story that helped inspire the film Dark Waters and influenced global scientific dialogue. Her work has appeared in numerous documentaries, including Toxic Soup, National Geographic’s Parched: Toxic Waters, and more recently Citizen Sleuth, which examines the complexities of true crime podcasting.
Whether she’s navigating environmental disasters or the darker corners of society, Lyons operates with one guiding belief: “Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
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12 comments
This is bullshit. Morgan is as impartial as they come. He would absolutely have handled this case properly.
It will take much longer than the one term the former Judge Bentley Price sat on the bench to cleanse the stink from the damage he caused.
Callie Lyons, after your ground-breaking work on forever chemicals, why do you do interviews pushing coercive-control law?
Here is what I wrote on your interview which my self-respect preventing me from watching after detecting the tenor and purpose from the first few minutes of that interview with a Master’s of Social Work STUDENT whom you painted as an expert:
Ladies, have you considered this before you nag South Carolina to pass an unconstitutional and family-destroying law THEN “invest” in “educating” police and prosecutors “on how to use” it?
Have you considered that South Carolina should first “invest” in “educating” its coroners “on how to use” a THERMOMETER to objectively narrow the time of death in a murder case where the alibi of the suspect is a fundamental defense?
I have repeatedly advised your boss to go coercive-control himself. For gender equality, I hereby give you the same advice.
Callie Lyons, after your ground-breaking work on forever chemicals, why do you do interviews pushing coercive-control law?
Here is what I wrote on your interview which my self-respect preventing me from watching after detecting the tenor and purpose from the first few minutes of that interview with a Master’s of Social Work STUDENT whom you painted as an expert:
Ladies, have you considered this before you nag South Carolina to pass an unconstitutional and family-destroying law THEN “invest” in “educating” police and prosecutors “on how to use” it?
Have you considered that South Carolina should first “invest” in “educating” its coroners “on how to use” a THERMOMETER to objectively narrow the time of death in a murder case where the alibi of the suspect is a fundamental defense?
I have repeatedly advised your boss to go coercive-control himself. For gender equality, I hereby give you the same advice.
Callie Lyons, I have been accused of being Buster Murdaugh, Dick Harpootlian, other people, and now JP Miller on your interview with two artificial-eyelashes women. Here is my reply to my latest false accusers:
? @FrugalGal , in ALL civilized societies, marriage is between consenting ADULTS. Adults should make their choices carefully then bear their consequences with courage and wisdom.
In the TRUE Christian view, a married couple is no longer two persons but ONE. Each is the other’s body and loves the other as him/herself. The Holy Scriptures say much about that.
I am NOT JP but am VERY different from him. For starters, I do not believe in divorce or tattoos, two things I know JP Miller did.
But I DO believe, among other things, in the First Amendment, which is interpreted by courts set up by the U.S. Constitution to prohibit CRIMINAL punishment for mere words, specially words spoken or read in the privacy of one’s home.
That STUPID proposed “coercive control” law imposes criminal penalties for, among other things, words spoken in the privacy of one’s home. If wordless CONDUCT, such as battery and endangering lives, is criminal in itself, then separate laws should target that CONDUCT or such laws already exist and there is no need to duplicate them.
I am wary of fluffy, ambiguous, or overbroad laws because they open the door wide to tyranny of police, prosecutors, and sometimes even judges. none of whom are absolute saints.
It is also further shame that Will Folks, who touts himself as “a libertarian,” is LITERALLY selling his microphone to THE OPPOSITE of liberty.
Callie Lyons, author of “Non-stick, Waterproof, and Lethal,” why are you cheapening yourself pushing this STUPID CRIMINAL “Coercive-control Law”?
Micah Miller’s OWN story proves that intra-family strife instead of love, patience and science, IS “lethal.”
For the convenience of other readers, here is my response to a comment on your YouTube push of “coercive control law” and I hope it doubles here as a word to the divorced and re-married Mark Tinsley that money buys you neither love nor happiness, only more covetousness:
? @coriemmett1363 , what REALLY helpful and smart people should be doing is PREVENTING people from entering into abusive relationships in the first place.
I have written it previously but will repeat it here: THE CULTURE should be changed so that people OF BOTH GENDERS have enough (1) self-respect to know that CELIBACY is better than bad relationships entered into SOLELY to avoid being mocked as “x-year-old virgins,” (2) moral authority to change a person BEFORE entering into a relationship with them, AND (3) “the wisdom to know the difference” between a potential mate who is willing to change and one who is not.
This after-the-fact, TOO LATE after-the-fact, false advocacy for “victims” is little more than click-bait for failed journalists who, while ironically having strong families of their own, care nothing about destroying other families with all this strife.
Celibacy outside marriage and monogamy within marriage is, not only God’s law, but also NATURE’s law with the most successful birds and mammals being those who mate for life.
By now, I have ridden a tiger and cannot, for my own life, get off.
So, the more I disclose the more, God willing and FITS permitting, I get protected.
And here is an update in light of another voice for Alex’s innocence emerges:
SubZeroIQ has written extensively, thank God and due chapeau to FITS for letting most of it through, OBJECTIVE medical and scientific evidence of Richard Alexander Murdaugh’s (“RAM”) innocence.
It bears quick summarizing here that the Prosecution’s time of death is WRONG based on the victims’ stomachs’ contents of food that was too digested and too little for the deaths to have occurred ONLY 22 MINUTES after their known last, large and relatively fatty, meal.
RAM’s white T-shirt is THE one he wore to the kennels BECAUSE it has some blood from that chicken Bubba the dog killed. Because that shirt has NOT A SPECK of Paul’s blood or brain matter, RAM could NOT be the or a shooter.
Paul did not send his video of Cash the dog’s tail, NOT BECAUSE Paul was killed right after he made the video, BUT BECAUSE the video did NOT show “a pone” on Cash’s tail; and you see IN THAT VIDEO that Paul looks at his own hand after having slid Cash’s tail through it; and THERE IS NO PONE on Paul’s hand either. Therefore, Paul did not send the video because the video was USELESS and UNNECESSARY, and THE BATTERY, not Paul, DIED.
But there is MORE evidence which I noticed additionally, AND PROBABLY Alexander Blain, the present owner of Moselle noticed too.
The first two NONE LETHAL shots to Maggie are downward. Why?
My initial thought is the shooter is a short-statured FEMALE with experience AND MUSCLE MEMORY of shooting animals; she thus instinctively aims at the level of an average animal’s, not human’s, head.
NOTHING refuted that theory of SubZeroIQ’s.
But another theory is not mutually exclusive and emerges from the angles.
The shooters went to Moselle to SCARE Paul and Maggie out of disclosing that NO DOGS were involved in Gloria Satterfield’s death.
REMEMBER: by that time, Mandy Matney, Mark Tinsley, Eric Bland, AND the Satterfield heirs KNEW from court records there had been a settlement and that RAM had kept the loot for himself. But they were playing dumb about it.
They LIKELY tried to extort RAM but he responded that, if they do not buzz off, RAM will tell the truth (supported by Paul and Maggie) and no one gets anything.
So, Mandy Matney’s agents went to scare Paul and Maggie into silence about Gloria Satterfield’s NATURAL death (as opposed to death by dogs) but things got out of hand and the scarers had to silence Paul and Maggie forever.
So, Alex Blair COULD have the new evidence based on the angles of the first shots.
Now a new observation which Alex Blair COULD have gathered from the STRUCTURE of the henhouse which Alan Wilson suggest was as flimsy as a cardboard shipping box. SC’s AG had one in his arms while examining Kenny Kinsey, Ph D, in the Prosecution’s rebuttal.
First, a hen house could NEVER be constructed out of cardboard. The hens would have pecked through it in no time.
Second, cardboard COULD NOT hold the henhouse’s wood door and its metal hinges. These would have torn through the cardboard and fallen in not time.
So, there is much Alex Blair could have discovered in Moselle upon cool reflection.
But always ask who profits from what.
My reply to “Be Kind Anyway” on the Jean Toal story is too good to not be also post here. So, here it is:
I like your nom de plume, Be Kind Anyway, and hope you commented out of kindness.
I also hope you, and Dick and Jim, AND U.S. District Judge Gergel, AND SC Associate Justice Verdin, AND Retired/Active SC Circuit Judge Clifton Newman, and Retired/Active SC Chief Justice Jean Toal, take this comment of mine in the same kindness in which it was meant.
ALL of you have NOT been loved enough to allow you to be creative. The judicial system accepted you AND ELEVATED YOU only ON CONDITION that you worship it with all its flaws, which, in many instances amount to crimes and to misprision of felons, such as the prosecutors who suborn perjury.
Another commenter accused ME of “trying to impress with [my] insights.” Not in self-righteousness, but in desire to share the joy as while I have the duty to share the knowledge: You have NO IDEA how liberating it is to be concerned ONLY with what God thinks of me, not what other human beings think of me. As such, I do not need to put appearances because I have faith that God sees what is in my heart.
Going back to the SC lawyers and jurists I mentioned; but first stopping at SC Associate Justice Verdin. In the recently-released (but undated) video of her investiture, she acknowledged her parents’ disappointment that she went into law instead of Medicine BUT made belated amends to her parents by proudly introducing her twin sons as beginning medical students. Best to them and to all medical students.
I will not hide that I believe that Medicine is far superior to law, not because it is my profession, but because we study, and bow to, NATURE, not our predecessors.
Nature is never wrong. Lawyers’ predecessors MORE OFTEN THAN NOT are wrong. Yet “respected” jurists are expected to parrot their predecessors verbatim and glorify that mindlessness with Latin “stare decisis” or English “respect for precedent” or “rule of law” which is really rule of lawyers and bowing to emperors without clothes.
This is a long but necessary introduction to this bold but compelling statement: Once, God willing, Alex Murdaugh’s convictions or the murders are vacated, ALL his guilty pleas to “financial crimes” should be withdrawn as made by a DEPRESSED widower and bereft father STILL in the shock of having the death of his loved ones FALSELY pinned on him.
Judge Clifton Newman and Judge Gergel asked Richard Alexander Murdaugh (“RAM”) every question PRESCRIBED BY THEIR PREDESSORS IN LAW to determine if his guilty pleas were “knowing and intelligent.”
But they did NOT ask him the essential question: was he too depressed to make a “knowing and intelligent” decision?
And even if they had asked, how could RAM possibly know the correct answer?
To this day, Joe Biden is unaware of his age-and-repeated-CoViD-19-infections intellectual decline and insists on speaking in what TO HIS INTERNAL EAR sound like complete sentences but to the outside world are confusing ambiguous statements.
Had RAM not been depressed, he would have CORRECTLY seen what were called his “victims” AND THEIR LAWYERS for what they are: his greedy accomplices in the crime of exaggerated (if not outright fabricated) insurance claims. None of RAM’s so-called “victims” would have gotten a penny had any other lawyer represented them. These “tire separations,” (if these, not drunk driving, are the real cause of the auto accidents of RAM’s so-called “victims”) hardly get compensated in any other counties outside SC’s 14th Judicial District.
And I am still trying to figure out what that Moore’s and that J.J.’s injuries were that they so b—-ed at RAM for retaining part of the compensation for. Both Moore and J.J. look as strong as oxen and both continued gainful employment.
And of course, Gloria Satterfield’s heirs always knew, or should by now know, that there were no dogs but that Gloria dies of TERMINAL renal failure associated with chronic, poorly-managed diabetes.
And everyone plays dumb about “where the money is.” Everyone knows “the money” went BACK to insurance adjustors and lawyers who rolled over and paid OBVIOUSLY fraudulent (or, at the most charitable, wildly exaggerated) insurance claims.
And those who fawn over those “victims'” new lawyers are really dreaming that said lawyers would get new millions for any and every one willing to insult RAM.
In sum, the law should be advanced to include, before accepting a guilty plea, an OBJECTIVE examination of the criminal defendant’s PSYCHOLOGICAL ability to make a correct decision. After all, isn’t that where MOST false confessions come from? Psychological collapse.
FITS shall, God willing, win an award in courage if he lets this comment through.
If Mark Tinsley thinks of (one way or another) causing my death as he (one way or another) caused the deaths of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, the tiger should know that I will not take what I know to my grave but shall, God willing, put it out as widely as possible and as soon as possible.
And here is part of what I know and wrote in another reply to “Be Kind Anyway” on another comment thread on FITSNews, for which I am complimenting FITS for letting through; and here it is again:
Thank you, Be Kind Anyway, for your civilized response.
I, too, wish to be clear: there are NO financial crimes by Richard Alexander Murdaugh (“RAM”) which have been proven beyond reasonable doubt in either state or federal court to a jury of RAM’s peers OR admitted to by a defendant TRULY capable of making a knowing and intelligent decision about a guilty plea.
It matters not that RAM is himself a trained lawyer.
Trained lawyers can be so depressed as to make the ULTIMATE self-destructive decision of suicide. A most recent sad example is the prominent lawyer, Andrew Theodore Fiffick, IV, who was a key member who screened all candidates for state-wide judgeships from Master-in-Equity to Chief Justice.
Andy Fiffick suddenly took his own life this July, leaving behind an earthly-fatherless 8-year old girl and an earthly-fatherless 10-year-old boy. Yet no one, NOT ONE JUDGE among the many Andy Fiffick had eased into their seats, had the medical awareness and courage to say out loud that the law AS CURRENTLY PRACTICED saps people of the courage to confront and REMEDY problems.
Because, thank God, my training in the law is ENTIRELY self-tuition and unpolluted by the “a good lawyer knows the law, a great lawyer knows the judge” mentality, I have the courage to repeat here that RAM’s so-called “victims” of “financial crimes” are really his partners in the financial crimes of fraudulent (or wildly exaggerated) insurance claims. The essential partners for those “financial crimes” are the local insurance adjustors and insurance defense lawyers who roll over and pay huge settlements for dubious claims in return for kickbacks from the plaintiffs’ lawyers of RAM’s ilk.
Judges and prosecutors are playing dumb about that reality because, once they leave their state jobs and join private practice, they benefit from that corrupt system whether as plaintiffs’ lawyers or insurance defense lawyers.
The REAL victims are those of us immaculate drives who nonetheless see our mandatory insurance rates rise month after month because insurance companies pay huge settlements for invalid claims.
And now something that will enrage the tiger more than my insight that at least one of the REAL killers of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh is/was a short-statured female with experience in shooting animals but no military or police experience in shooting human beings.
What is that “outrage” the tiger rages about in his SECOND lawsuit against Gregg Parker and for which the tiger wants $20M more from Gregg Parker?
Gregg Parker admitted, even bragged, that he hired people to follow Paul and Buster Murdaugh around and ruin their reputations as gay playboys.
HOW DID THAT INJURE THE TIGER’S CLIENTS?
The REAL victims here are Richard Alexander Murdaugh (“RAM”) and Paul and Maggie’s other survivors, not Mallory Beach’s survivors whose injuries were complete with Mallory’s death.
The tiger claims IN HIS SECOND LAWSUIT that Mallory’s survivors suffered immensely by Gregg Parker’s release of photos (videos?) of Mallory’s dead body.
No one needs to support Gregg Parker to ask this obvious question: How could Mallory’s survivors possibly been affected by OTHERS seeing photos (videos?) of Mallory’s dead body?
Had Mallory’s survivors themselves not ALREADY seen those photos (videos?) of Mallory’s dead body?
And if Mallory’s survivors had no desire to those photos (videos?) of Mallory’s dead body, they were NEVER forced to look.
The law gives few rights to the deceased themselves, including no liability for defaming the deceased. Mallory’s survivors may sue for THEIR own loss of her consortium; but they have no cause of action for the privacy of photos of HER dead body being ALLEGEDLY breached, assuming it was IN FACT breached.
My insight that insurance defense lawyers roll over and pay huge settlements for invalid insurance claims in return for kick backs from plaintiffs’ lawyers is supported by Gregg Parker’s CURRENT defense lawyers’ failure/refusal to seek dismissal of that baseless SECOND lawsuit.
And my insight will be further supported when we hear of ANOTHER huge settlement for Mallory’s survivors with the tiger and his team getting 40% of it and spending it on God knows what.
That art of the kickback, not “art of the BS” was RAM’s secret, a secret the tiger learned and is practicing to a vengeance.
But vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
Allow to bring sense everywhere I, God willing and FITS permitting, can. Even though all politics is local (and apparently all “justice” is local) I cannot allow all SCIENCE to be local.
I am a physician and Biostatistician-Epidemiologist. So, PURELY SCIENTIFICALLY, I was offended by Dylan Nolan’s interpretation of a chart; and I posted this comment on FITS’ YouTube and, God willing and FITS permitting, paste here hoping it goes through both places, and hoping Will Folks mends his ways.
Here it is:
Absolutely NO POLITICS in this comment BUT pure STATISTICAL observation, EVEN ASSUMING the numbers are correct:
If, as you say, 14 million Democrat voters were fraudulently created in 2020 and vanished in 2024 because there was better poll-watching, HOW DO YOU EXLAIN the EXTRA 22 million REPUBLICAN voters who magically appeared between 2016 and 2020, and of whom 8 million vanished between 2020 and 2024? How? How? How?
Either you chart is totally wrong or there was simply a higher voter turnout in 2020 due to CoViD-19 making it easier to vote without actually having to wait in line on election day.
That simple! And NO conspiracy theories! And no Haitians eating cats and dogs in Ohio!
Everything in South Carolina is now related (or can be related) to Richard Alex Murdaugh (“RAM”); and I see John Paul Miller (“JPM”) as the new RAM and Buster Murdaugh rolled into one. None of the three is a wonderful person; but none killed his wife or lover or friend; YET, there was for RAM and now is for JPM a media-lawyer push to get the man incarcerated rightly or wrongly.
So-so-Lawyer Regina Ward made no secret of her wish and gloating over seeing JPM incarcerated. And Jen Wood issued her own WRONG definition of assault as she had issued her WRONG definition of “family annihilator.”
Because my comments and replies on FITS’ YouTube videos are too good to remain only there, I hereunder paste my most reply to a reply on FITS’ 9 November 2024 Week-in-Review:
? @imho7250 , no one needs to be a lawyer (or to play one anywhere) to read the plain English of the South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 16 (Crimes and Offenses), Chapter 3 (Offenses Against the Person), Article 7 (Assault and Criminal Sexual Conduct), in which third degree is FULLY defined thus:
“(E)(1) A person commits the offense of assault and battery in the third degree if the person unlawfully injures another person, or offers or attempts to injure another person with the present ability to do so.
(2) A person who violates this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned for not more than thirty days, or both.
(3) Assault and battery in the third degree is a lesser-included offense of assault and battery in the second degree, as defined in subsection (D)(1), assault and battery in the first degree, as defined in subsection (C)(1), assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, as defined in subsection (B)(1), and attempted murder, as defined in Section 16-3-29.
HISTORY: 2010 Act No. 273, Section 6.B, eff June 2, 2010; 2011 Act No. 39, Sections 1, 2, eff June 7, 2011; 2015 Act No. 58 (S.3), Pt II, Section 3, eff June 4, 2015.
Effect of Amendment[:] 2015 Act No. 58, Section 3, rewrote (A)(2).”
As you can see, it says nothing about making someone (reasonably or not) afraid. Reasonable fear is not mentioned in the statute; and criminal laws must be strictly construed. That means you can not invent a crime the legislature did not make a crime; and if a statute is ambiguous (meaning not clear) the lack of clarity is interpreted in favor of the defendant. That is called the rule of lenity.
My reading of the statute (and I am NOT a lawyer either, only better than most) is that a person is guilty of assault in the third degree if he “offers to injure another person with the present ability to do so” EVEN IF the other person was not frightened by the offer (or took it as a joke or mere bragging). The joking defense may plausibly be used to say that it was not an actual “offer” to injure.
I wish people would read the actual source before making pronouncements on what they think the law is or should be. And I reiterate my wish that police be better trained in the law and be held accountable for not applying it evenly.