|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
An outgoing South Carolina lawmaker’s controversial appropriation has become the focus of a contentious civil action – although the scandal-scarred, soon to be ex-representative is not a party to the complaint.
Nonetheless, the legal drama his expenditure sparked could wind up initiating renewed scrutiny over a secretive spending process at the S.C. State House – one that routes hundreds of millions of tax dollars toward non-essential items without any oversight or accountability. At least that’s the hope of the defendant in the lawsuit, which was filed late last month in Dorchester County, S.C.
First, some background: a little over a year-and-a-half ago, it was revealed that state representative Chris Murphy – who recently announced his resignation amid a resurgence of his alleged substance abuse issues – secured $250,000 in the 2023-2024 South Carolina state budget for an ostensibly nonprofit fitness organization run by Maggie Talucci of Charleston, S.C.
The justification for this earmark – like so many of these non-transparent pork barrel appropriations – was decidedly thin. So too, for that matter, was the oversight as to how the money was spent.
***
***
Some of the funds were reportedly expended by the nonprofit in question – Iron Wolf Recovery – on a “bikini photoshoot,” per blogger Lee Granade, who published an article echoing concerns first raised by Lowcountry limited government activist Lynz Piper-Loomis.
Adding a layer of intrigue to the mix? Maggie Talucci was represented by Murphy when she was divorced by her husband, Charles Talucci, in 2018. Murphy – who once led the powerful S.C. House judiciary committee – has since been sued for divorce by his wife, S.C. circuit court judge (and former S.C. supreme court candidate) Maite Murphy.
According to Maggie Talucci’s lawsuit (.pdf), her ex-husband’s new wife – Summerville, S.C. businesswoman Jacklyn Talucci – made “false and defamatory statements about (Maggie Talucci) on various social media websites, including Facebook and Instagram, stating that money was diverted from Iron Wolf Recovery.”
Per the pleading, this was a “potentially untrue statement” – a curious choice of words in what is presumed to be a declarative filing.
***
Maggie Talucci further asserted Jacklyn Talucci accused her of having “embezzled money with the help of a politician, Chris Murphy,” implying she and Murphy “had a relationship.” Per the pleading, this was “again a potentially untrue statement.”
“Defendant falsely claimed that Plaintiff embezzled money and committed fraud,” the lawsuit alleged.
Additionally, Maggie Talucci accused Jacklyn Talucci of harassing employees at Iron Wolf Recovery and, on one occasion, of impersonating an employee in the office of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – falsely alleging her business had “committed financial impropriety.”
“The statements made by Defendant were intended to mock, defame, harass, and humiliate the Plaintiff and have caused Plaintiff great anxiety, fear, and damage to her reputation,” the lawsuit alleged.
Maggie Talucci’s lawsuit listed slander, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress as its causes of action, seeking “actual damages, punitive damages, legal fees” and other relief deemed “just and proper” by the court.
***
Reached for comment by FITSNews, Jacklyn Talucci said she hadn’t been served with paperwork related to the lawsuit yet – but insisted her criticisms were based on public records and rooted in a desire to protect taxpayers.
“At this time, I have not been served with any legal documents,” Jacklyn Talucci said. “Any questions I raised were based entirely on publicly available state records. My intention has always been transparency with taxpayer funds, not to harm anyone personally. I will respond through the proper legal channels once I have been formally served, and I will not be making further public comments until that process is complete.”
FITSNews will be following this case very closely given the potential it has to unwind the S.C. General Assembly’s secretive earmark process. For starters, representative Murphy is likely to be deposed at length about the appropriation he sought for Maggie Talucci’s nonprofit – and whether he applied the same lax oversight to the other $5 million worth of earmarks he sought. Other lawmakers who signed off on this dubious appropriation could also face questioning – leading to scrutiny of their earmark requests.
And how they managed to get them approved…
Bottom line? Depending on how far either side decides to take it, Talucci v. Talucci could wind up being a significant watershed moment in the battle for spending transparency in the Palmetto State.
***
THE PLEADING..
(S.C. Ninth Judicial Circuit)
***
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.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
7 comments
Since Will chose to omit this info I’ll let the readers know – Chris Murphy was a REPUBLICAN lawmaker. Rest assured if he was a Democrat Will would have mentioned it.
Its the SC statehouse, they are almost ALL R legislators. We already knew that. Welcome to the game
In Will’s defense, a lot of these articles are paid for by his customers. So if he crosses Trump or other “powerful” people he will go back to being a two-bit blogger. Which he is now, but probably a well paid one.
So morally, journalistically, politically, he is useless. But he is a good businessman. We should respect that. We just need to remember the vast majority of what he and his people write here is bullshit. Take it with a grain of salt because it’s likely as inaccurate as your crazy uncle’s Facebook page.
This is the exact kind of fraud, lack of transparency and corruption SC taxpayers and citizens are sick of. When will the general assembly stop. And they say they don’t do this but they will give a yes vote to the same bs budget every year.
Good luck with trying to get a deposition of a state legislator regarding his official conduct relating to budgeting and appropriations. Last I checked they are immune from being placed in deposition for those types of things – it’s in the constitution. The courts say the privilege also covers their staffers. Their personal papers are also exempt from disclosure both in FOIA and in litigation. They are also immune to lawsuits for slander and defamation, and our courts have interpreted their level of immunity to be even broader than that of members of Congress. Their staffers have no protection in the state’s whistleblower act if they should ever come forward to reveal dirty deeds of their bosses – so they know they can be driven out, blackballed, and pretty much ruined if they cross their bosses. In other words, it’s damned nigh impossible to bring a corrupt state legislator to heel in the court system or elsewhere. They can lie and defame people with impunity, maintain a sphere of secrecy around their internal machinations, and destroy anyone in their circle who would dare speak out. The only entity that can really do anything about it is their respective legislative body itself, and we all know how that works out. It seems like there are some in the House who see the problems with all this and perhaps are going to make some changes, but time will tell – and the status quo traces back well over a hundred years. So don’t hold your breath…..
Article is useless without pics of taxpayer funded photo shoot.
I haven’t yet stopped celebrating Murphy’s resignation. The party is likely to go into next year.
Who would think of hiring this guy as their attorney??