SLED Details Criminal Charges Against Disgraced Murdaugh Clerk

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Agents of the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) issued a news release on Wednesday afternoon (May 14, 2025) detailing the four criminal charges filed against disgraced former Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill this week.

Curiously, none of the charges filed against Hill were tied to her documented tampering with the Colleton County jury that convicted disbarred attorney and confessed fraudster Alex Murdaugh of murdering his wife and son on a warm spring evening nearly four years ago. One of the charges, a perjury rap, did deal with Hill’s testimony during a hearing related to Murdaugh’s increasingly promising bid for a new trial.

The omission of any tampering-related charges is likely to continue to stoke scrutiny – and criticism – of the investigation into Hill, which many believe is deliberately ignoring clear evidence in the hopes of preserving the high-profile verdicts entered against Murdaugh.

“How are they going to prosecute the perjury and not prosecute the underlying issue she perjured herself about?” one South Carolina attorney mused.

News of Hill’s impending arrest was first reported yesterday by FITSNews.

According to SLED’s release (.pdf), Hill was charged with obstruction of justice and two counts of official misconduct in Colleton County. After being booked and arraigned at the Colleton County detention center – where Murdaugh resided during the six-week trial in 2023 – Hill was transported in a SLED sport utility vehicle to the Alvin S. Glenn detention center in Richland County, S.C., another former home of Murdaugh’s. There, she was booked and arraigned on a single count of perjury.

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Hill resigned from office last year as she found herself implicated in multiple ethics and criminal inquiries in the aftermath of Murdaugh’s 2023 double homicide trial – a six-week spectacle which drew an international audience and exposed all manner of institutional corruption within the Palmetto State.

According to the first of four probable cause affidavits accompanying the warrants for Hill’s arrest, on or about February 28, 2023 the former clerk “did release or make available ‘sealed evidence’ photographs to a third party or parties… in violation of a written court order issued to protect the ‘sealed evidence’ photographs.”

This alleged disclosure took place less than forty-eight hours before the jury Hill tampered with (a jury some insist was rigged) found Murdaugh guilty of the murders of his wife and son.

In the second affidavit, Hill stands accused by SLED of “using her public office” to promote her book, ‘Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders.’ Hill has subsequently admitted to plagiarizing certain portions of this volume.

In the third affidavit, Hill stands accused of requesting and receiving nearly $10,000 in federal Title IV-D incentive funds between September 2021 and March of 2024 – funds which were used to pay “financial bonuses for herself.”

“Such funds were obtained by Hill and utilized for her own financial gain,” investigators alleged.

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RELATED | FORMER CLERK ARRESTED

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Additionally, Hill is alleged to have received a financial gift in the amount of $2,000 paid by a check from her office, which she is also accused of utilizing “for her own financial gain.”

This charge appears to stem from an ethics investigation into Hill – several components of which were referred for criminal investigation a year ago. Details of this ethics probe were extensively covered by FITSNews back in December 2023.

As for the perjury rap, Hill stands accused of “willfully and unlawfully” providing “false, misleading or incomplete testimony while under oath” during a January 2024 evidentiary hearing into the jury tampering allegations.

Specifically, investigators alleged that Hill gave such “false and misleading testimony” when she was asked by former S.C. chief justice Jean Toal whether she allowed “anyone from the press to view the sealed exhibits.”

“This statement was inconsistent with the events of February 28, 2023 when former clerk Hill did release or make available ‘sealed evidence’ photographs to a third party or parties,” the probable cause affidavit noted.

According to SLED, Hill’s case will be prosecuted by the office of S.C. eleventh circuit solicitor Rick Hubbard – whose office received a limited designation to assist the office of attorney general Alan Wilson in this matter last summer.

Murdaugh’s two lead attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, issued a statement shortly after Hill’s initial arrest on Wednesday.

“We are aware of the charges filed against Becky Hill and while these developments are serious, they are not surprising,” the statement noted. “We have long raised our concerns about her conduct during and after the trial and this arrest further underscores the need to protect the integrity of the judicial process. Every defendant is entitled to a fair and impartial trial and we look forward to Alex Murdaugh finally getting that fair treatment.”

Meanwhile, Columbia, S.C. attorney Joe McCulloch – who represents two of the Murdaugh jurors – reiterated his concerns about the SLED investigation.

“As counsel for two jurors in the Murdaugh murder trial, today’s indictment is yet another disturbing turn in a case defined by misconduct,” McCulloch said. “The perjury charge against the former Colleton County Clerk of Court stems from her false denial — during a jury tampering hearing — that she allowed improper access to trial exhibits. SLED’s investigation now shows that denial was untrue. She also denied having improper contact with jurors, despite sworn affidavits and testimony from two jurors—including my client, Ms. Crosby—confirming that she did. Ms. Crosby, removed on the first day of deliberations, believes she was deliberately targeted to deny Mr. Murdaugh a fair trial.”

“This case demands accountability,” McCulloch added. “The public deserves answers.”

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THE RELEASE…

(SLED)

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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. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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