Attorneys seek to question SC judge about millions meant for Murdaugh housekeeper’s sons | News

In an uncommon legal maneuver, attorneys for the loved ones of Alex Murdaugh’s deceased housekeeper are trying to find to query a circuit court judge beneath oath about a multimillion-dollar settlement she reportedly signed off on in relationship with the mysterious death in 2018.

Lawyers Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, who characterize Gloria Satterfield’s sons, submitted see on Oct. 5 that they intend to issue Decide Carmen Mullen in a videotaped deposition afterwards this month.

Making an attempt to depose a judge is particularly unusual. But Bland explained to The Publish and Courier Tuesday he wishes to give Mullen a likelihood to reveal that she handled the Satterfield settlement correctly and was not involved in a plan that allegedly misdirected thousands and thousands of dollars that was owed to the late housekeeper’s family members.

“I would think she desires to be deposed for the reason that she needs to very clear up the public document,” Bland reported.

Mullen had not responded to the deposition request by Tuesday afternoon and could not right away be arrived at for remark.

Judges generally get pleasure from immunity from depositions and lawsuits related to their formal get the job done. That blanket immunity is meant to help them deliver verdicts impartially and without the need of anxiety of retaliation.

A number of veteran S.C. attorneys informed The Article and Courier they experienced never read of an legal professional in search of to depose a choose. The shift is predicted to raise eyebrows in authorized circles in South Carolina.

“They are being intense below in carrying out this,” claimed former College of South Carolina College of Law Dean Robert Wilcox.

The observe came two times soon after the two lawyers introduced that Satterfield’s sons will be paid some of the $4.3 million in settlements that have been collected after their 57-calendar year-previous mother’s loss of life in February 2018. That dollars reportedly went missing immediately after the settlement paperwork was signed by Mullen in Could 2019. The lawyers have alleged that it was funneled to a pretend financial institution account, while the make any difference stays below investigation by the State Regulation Enforcement Division.

Cory Fleming and his regulation company, Moss, Kuhn and Fleming, have agreed to pay Satterfield’s sons all legal fees and costs the agency received from the settlements connected to her loss of life, according to a statement by the Bland Richter law agency. A lawsuit submitted on the sons’ behalf alleges that she died from accidents she acquired in a journey-and-tumble accident at Murdaugh’s Hampton house. 

The accommodate alleges that Alex Murdaugh launched a person of the sons to Fleming and inspired him to inquire Fleming to symbolize him and his brother in a lawsuit in opposition to Murdaugh. The brothers ended up unaware that Fleming was a previous higher education roommate of Murdaugh and the godfather to one particular of his sons, the lawsuit reported. It accused Murdaugh and Fleming of conspiring from the sons.

A a short while ago found court order showed that the sons ended up entitled to a far more than $2.7 million payout from the resulting settlement, records exhibit. When legal professional costs ended up factored in, the remaining settlement arrived in at $4.3 million. That figure was detailed in the Might 2019 buy that was never filed in court, and none of that money built its way to Gloria Satterfield’s sons, Richter and Bland have reported.

The unfiled purchase seems to bear Choose Mullen’s signature, Bland and Richter have said.

A month before the purchase was signed, the judge had recused herself from a further wrongful demise scenario involving Alex Murdaugh and his loved ones. That stemmed from a substantial-profile, deadly boat crash in Beaufort that yr in which Murdaugh’s son Paul later faced legal fees.

Mullen has not responded to former calls and email messages from The Post and Courier relating to her feasible involvement in the Satterfield situation. A spokeswoman for the Supreme Courtroom experienced no remark Tuesday afternoon.

Several attorneys reported Tuesday they would be stunned if Mullen participates in the deposition, scheduled for Oct. 20.

Judges have savored protections from such legal scrutiny considering that frequent-law England, when kings delegated their complete electricity to judges to settle neighborhood disputes. Judges retained a lot of that authority for hundreds of years, even soon after the United States split from England and formed its personal Constitution.

Attorneys are lessen than judges on the authorized totem pole and cannot compel them to do anything at all, veteran demo law firm Jake Moore instructed The Submit and Courier. Only a larger authority, like the state Supreme Court, could have to have Judge Mullen to participate in the deposition, the West Columbia legal professional mentioned.

“The choose in this scenario should really be immune from remaining expected to testify,” Moore claimed. “If she does not want to, and if she will not voluntarily testify, then she doesn’t have to. As a make any difference of simple fact, a judge is meant to be a really reserved individual and ought to decrease from testifying in any civil dispute unless requested to do so by the Supreme Court docket.”

Still, Moore stated, the authorized submitting itself has put Mullen “in a very untenable situation.”

“If she declines, it appears like she has some thing to disguise,” Moore mentioned. “If she goes ahead, she has basically performed a thing that a decide most likely should not do.”

Bland has alleged the money was funneled away from the Satterfield spouse and children through a plan that tried to mimic a authentic organization, Forge Consulting, that is generally employed by lawyers. Forge Consulting works by using annuities to break up massive lump-sum settlements into lesser payments and directs the dollars to insurance policies organizations, trusts and other money establishments.

In a Sept. 17 job interview on NewsNation, Bland stated the alleged plan needed several procedural checks to be overridden. In a Sept. 27 courtroom filing, Bland indicated he thinks Mullen was misled by the attorneys who negotiated the settlement. The submitting requested a “public evidentiary listening to” in which all parties in the circumstance would “seem in courtroom to be put less than oath for examination” about what actually happened.

Several attempts to attain Fleming and Chad Westendorf, a banker who was appointed the own agent of Satterfield’s estate, have been unsuccessful.

Forge Consulting introduced a assertion past month reiterating it was not included in the alleged scheme.

Satterfield’s demise, and the managing of her estate, is the subject of one of 6 recent condition felony investigations that have backlinks to the Murdaugh family. All those include probes linked to the June killings of Murdaugh’s wife and son Paul, along with allegations that Murdaugh embezzled cash from his family’s law firm. Alex Murdaugh, 53, also was arrested Sept. 16 on coverage fraud costs after he was accused of staging a unsuccessful suicide plot to obtain on a $10 million coverage plan.

The investigation relevant to Satterfield came in reaction to a ask for from Hampton County Coroner Angela Topper. The coroner stated her business was never ever notified of the dying of the Murdaugh family’s longtime housekeeper and that no autopsy was executed. Satterfield’s demise certificate suggests she succumbed to all-natural causes, which was inconsistent with the journey-and-slide injuries she reportedly sustained, Topper mentioned.

Paperwork filed with the courtroom in the scenario references a proposed $505,000 partial settlement to be compensated by Alex Murdaugh’s insurance company, Lloyd’s of London. It was filed in December 2018. The lately found buy, signed five months later on, involved an supplemental payout achieved with a independent coverage firm.