No conflict defending store owner sued in Murdaugh boat crash, SC lawmaker says

This story has been updated to show that 16th Circuit Court Judge Daniel Hall denied Greg Parker’s motion to transfer the court proceedings to Beaufort County from its current location in Hampton County.

An influential South Carolina lawmaker said Wednesday that there is no conflict of interest in his representation of Greg Parker’s convenience store, which is being sued by Mallory Beach’s mother in a wrongful death suit.

State Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, is the chairman of the Legislature’s Judicial Merit Selection Commission, a panel of attorneys who vet judicial candidates for the bench.

Presiding over the wrongful death case is 16th Circuit Court Judge Daniel Hall, whose six-year term will expire next year. Hall already has a challenger for his more than $196,000-a-year post, York County Master-in-Equity Teasa Weaver.

If Hall runs for reelection, he will have to go before the powerful legislative panel and Smith. Smith also chairs the House’s budget-writing committee, which is responsible for getting the first crack at setting spending priorities.

The lawsuit — and criminal charges against the boat’s alleged driver, Paul Murdaugh — resulted from the crash on Feb. 24, 2019. The boat, carrying six passengers, all ages 18 to 20, crashed into the RC Berkeley Bridge near Beaufort after a night of drinking.

Paul, who was shot to death by an unknown assailant in June, is the son of Alex Murdaugh and Buster’s younger brother. Allegations in the lawsuit said that Paul used Buster’s driver’s license to buy alcohol from the Parker store hours before the boat crash that killed Beach.

After Paul’s death, criminal charges against him were dropped. He was alleged to have been the intoxicated driver on the boat that struck a piling under a bridge on Archer’s Creek, just outside a main entrance to the U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island base.

When the boat hit the bridge piling, Beach was ejected, and her body was found a week later in a marshy area about 5 miles away.

The civil lawsuit, filed just more than a month after the crash by Beach’s mother, Renee Beach, contends that the responsibility for her daughter’s death rests with Parkers 55 store, Paul’s father and owner of the boat, Alex Murdaugh, and brother Richard Alexander Murdaugh Jr.

Smith told reporters at the Lexington County courthouse Wednesday that he was retained by Parker because he’s an able lawyer — “not a potted plant,” he said — with a track record of being successful in representing defendants. As a lawyer, Smith has a reputation for being well-prepared and his law firm website lists numerous awards and legal accomplishments.

“That’s what I do,” Smith told reporters who questioned his joining the case. “I handle complex and difficult cases, especially in rural areas of the state. I’ve done that throughout the last 10 years, and I have a track record of being able to get defense verdicts in areas of this state that presumably don’t see defense verdicts. They were looking to add to the team, so they called and added me.”

Smith said most judges are up for contested elections at one time or another and to use that standard as a disqualifier, “I would not be able to appear before any judge. I’m up here doing my job.,” he said. “I’m not here as a legislator. I’m here as an attorney.”

Under South Carolina’s system of choosing judges, judicial candidates first go before Smith’s judicial selection commission. If approved, they are then voted on by the 170-member General Assembly.

Court records show Smith became an attorney of record Tuesday afternoon, but Smith said he’s been working several weeks to prepare the motion he argued Wednesday before Hall.

Smith’s appearance, and questions about possible undue influence by a lawyer and legislator, opened up yet another legal issue in an expanding series of court-related matters involving the Murdaugh family.

Events have included murders, untimely deaths, embezzlement and drugs, to name a few — all under state investigation.

In his first appearance before Hall, Smith spoke for some 20 minutes, arguing for the need to transfer the court proceedings to Beaufort County from its current location in Hampton County.

The plaintiff in the case, Beach’s mother, lives in Hampton County as do two defendants, Alex Murdaugh and Buster. The lawsuit alleges that an employee at the Parker convenience store negligently sold alcohol to a minor and asserts that illegal sale ultimately resulted in Beach’s death in the 2019 nighttime boat crash.

The lawsuit seek punitive as well as actual damages, which means that Parker could be on the hook for millions of dollars if a jury were to rule against him.

In his arguments to Hall, Smith said that most of the 60-plus potential witnesses in the case live in or near Beaufort County and it will “promote the ends of justice” to make it easier for them to get to court in the event of a trial. Moreover, in a time of COVID, the Beaufort County courthouse is a safer place to be than the Hampton County courthouse.

“We trust the court will make the appropriate decision,” Smith told the judge.

Beach’s attorney, Mark Tinsley, countered, arguing that many witnesses cited by Smith aren’t essential to the trial of the case. As for COVID-19, the Hampton County courthouse has a large courtroom and is empty most days, making it safer, Tinsley said.

Tinsley also made motions to get:

▪ More information on Alex’s financial status and whether he’d transferred any power of attorney authority to his surviving son, Buster

▪ A supplemental deposition (formal questioning under oath) of Buster concerning assets he has control over and may have recently spent

▪ Medical records of Alex, who claimed he was injured in a Labor Day weekend shooting incident. Tinsley subpoenaed hospital records from the Savannah hospital where Alex was taken after the shooting.

John Tiller, Alex’s lawyer, told the judge that his client is in a Georgia facility undergoing treatment and likely will not be available for at least a month. Elliot Condon, another Alex lawyer, told the judge that the medical records are confidential and considered private under federal health laws.

Hall later denied Parker’s request to change the venue, according to an order filed in Hampton County Friday.

In his order, Hall said that Parker’s attorneys failed to present evidence that changing the venue to Beaufort County from Hampton County “would promote convenience of witnesses and ends of justice.”

Longtime legislative watchdog John Crangle, an attorney, said Wednesday as a matter of law, Smith’s representation is “technically legal.”

But, he added, “it might have the appearance of a conflict of interest. So it might be prudent for Mr. Smith to recuse himself from the case.”

Island Packet report Lana Ferguson contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 11:36 AM with the headline "No conflict defending store owner sued in Murdaugh boat crash, SC lawmaker says."