Solicitor’s Office says Alex Murdaugh will no longer prosecute its cases as volunteer
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Alex Murdaugh Coverage
The Murdaugh family saga has dominated the news after another shooting, a resignation and criminal accusations — with Alex Murdaugh at the center of it all. Here are the latest updates on Alex Murdaugh.
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This story was first published Sept. 7, 2021.
The 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office says it plans to bar Alex Murdaugh, whose family ran the agency for nearly a century, from prosecuting cases on its behalf.
The office, which prosecutes cases for five counties, said it is drafting a letter to formally notify Murdaugh that he is no longer authorized to volunteer for the Solicitor’s Office, according to spokesperson Jeff Kidd.
Solicitor Duffie Stone came to the decision to send a letter after “this weekend (when) some of the accusations had taken place at the firm and he entered into rehab,” Kidd said.
The Hampton lawyer resigned from his family law firm on Friday amid allegations of misappropriated funds. Murdaugh called 911 the following day, reporting he had been shot on a rural Hampton County road. On Sunday, he announced his resignation and said he was entering drug treatment.
Murdaugh hasn’t prosecuted a case since 2019, Kidd said, but he often helped his father, the former solicitor, who died in June.
“The letter was simply a way to formalize the ending of a relationship that really has not been in effect since 2019,” according to Kidd.
The firm — Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick — said in a statement that Murdaugh resigned Friday after it discovered the missing money. The firm also told law enforcement and the S.C. Bar about that discovery.
Two sources in the S.C. legal community previously told The Island Packet and The State newspapers that the amount missing was substantial and in excess of $1 million.
Previously, the Solicitor’s Office said Alex Murdaugh was an authorized volunteer prosecutor.
His wife and son had been killed on June 7 in Colleton County, and questions had arisen about why Solicitor Stone was offering “investigative support” in the murder investigation and hadn’t recused himself, which he eventually did on Aug. 11.
The influential Murdaugh family ran the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office from 1920 to 2005, while the family law firm won millions in personal injury lawsuits over the years. The Murdaughs still prosecuted in Hampton County for the agency, even after Stone was elected.
No hours were recorded by the Solicitor’s Office to account for how much work they did for the agency. Kidd said that was because the relationship was informal.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Solicitor’s Office says Alex Murdaugh will no longer prosecute its cases as volunteer."
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