Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Alex Murdaugh's Bond Set at $7 Million (S01E23)

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

On Monday, December 13, Alex Murdaugh appeared in virtual court for a bond hearing. The disgraced South Carolina attorney stood before Judge Alison Lee to learn his bond requirements for his 48 state Grand Jury charges.  Despite some press restrictions, which we will discuss in this episode, Liz Farrell and Mandy Matney covered the hearing.  Hear what happened from two reporters who have following the Murdaughs since 2019. In this episode, we walk you through every highlight — and detail — of Monday’s bond hearing. What happened to his previous bond charges? What happened with Alex’s lawyers? Why did Alex speak at the bond hearing? Could Alex actually post bond? What happens next? Learn the whole story on the $7 million bond and what the public wasn't told. The Murdaugh Murders Podcast is created by Mandy Matney and produced by Luna Shark Productions. Our Executive Editor is Liz Farrell. Advertising is curated by the talented team at AdLarge Media.. Find us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/MurdaughPod/ https://www.instagram.com/murdaughmurderspod/ In 2022 we plan to commission up to 5 different stories for deep-dive investigations. We're seeking investigators, journalists, arm-chair detectives and others to tell a story they've always wanted to share in order to expose the truth wherever it leads. Cold cases, active investigations, crimes and corruption is our aim and we want to help you blow the lid off of the next big story. We fund your project, you tell the story - we just help you along. Visit MurdaughMurdersPodcast.com/truth for more details. And a special thank you to our sponsors: Cerebral, Aura Frames, Hunt-A-Killer, Ghostwriter, Bannon Law Group, Nature's Highway CBD, and others. For current and accurate updates: Twitter.com/mandymatney Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't know if Ellic Murdock will be let out of jail anytime soon. But on Monday Judge Allison Lee gave Ellic Murdock a $7 million bond which would have to be paid in full. And that is a big deal. My name is Mandy Matney and I've been investigating the Murdock family for nearly 3 years now. And this is the Murdock Murders podcast with David Moses and Liz Farrell. In the last episode we warned you of shenanigans taking place at Monday's bond hearing and it turns out we were right to a certain extent.

On Monday Ellic Murdock appeared in court for the third time in three months for the 48 recent state grand jury charges. Judge Allison Lee, the presiding judge over the state grand jury, set Ellic Murdock's bond at $7 million which is unusually high for non-capital charges. However, this is an extremely unusual case as we have said over and over in this podcast. At the beginning of the virtual bond hearing Judge Lee made a statement banning the use of recording devices and screen capturing for all participants including media. She told journalists to take notes the old fashioned way.

There were a lot of things that were problematic about this but I want to start positively and say a few good things about Judge Lee and the way she conducted the hearing. This was the first time either of us have attended one of her hearings and there were a lot of things that we both found impressive. Judge Lee seemed very prepared and informed. She was very present and connected despite the literal distance between all the parties and she was authoritative and dispassionate. She was not up for any nonsense from either side.

And importantly she took time during the hearing to address the questions the public had been asking about why she was suddenly presiding over Ellic's hearing when another judge had been assigned to the case. She thoroughly explained her role as the presiding judge of the state grand jury and we appreciated the way she handled this head on. We can't say it enough though. If corruption were a monster it would be a vampire. It cannot survive in the sunlight.

It needs the darkness to suck the life out of its victims and as it turns out to suck the settlements out of their clients pockets. The South Carolina Supreme Court issued an order in response to COVID that leaves it up to the judge's discretion whether they will allow recordings of their virtual courtrooms. So the decision to ban recording devices was completely on Judge Lee. Here's why this is a problem. To start with, when Ellic allegedly committed these crimes he was a badge-carrying member of the 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office.

He had the power to prosecute cases and the influence to get charges dropped. In other words, regardless of who he is as a member of the powerful Murdoch family and the broad interest in his case, he is a public official and as such the public has an absolute right to know how he was representing them. The next issue with the recording ban is that he's a member of the powerful Murdoch family and by now you should all know what that means. The simple fact is that they're known around here for being able to make things work out in their favor.

Because of this and their long history of wielding great influence over law enforcement, legislators, and government officials, South Carolina's criminal justice system is also on trial here. Without transparency in court proceedings, the public does not have an opportunity to make their own informed assessment about whether the system is working the way it should. Without transparency, it allows for alternative narratives to emerge from the proceedings, which brings me to our next point. Under the hearing, there were several headlines in mainstream media that focused on this alleged

apology that Ellick made to the Satterfield family. To be clear, the quote-unquote apology that Dick sort of gave on Ellick's behalf, which let's pause for a second here, Ellick gave an 8 minute monologue on his extremely pitiful state of affairs. He could have cut that speech down to two minutes and used the other six to actually say he was sorry to the family himself. So the apology that Dick gave, let's just put it this way. If we could submit it for a DNA test, it would come back 100% robot.

But you would not know this from the headlines mainstream media put forth. Because the public was, for the most part, unable to listen to or watch the hearing. They have to rely on interpretations, including our own skeptical one. And it gives the Bulldog attorneys, our Bulldogs, and all Bulldogs, a huge opportunity to spin this however they want, with no checks and balances on it. And lastly, speaking of checks and balances, by not allowing recording, Judge Lee made it more difficult for reporters to do their jobs, which I get it, I'm really not trying to whine because our typing skills are pretty amazing.

But journalists are avatars for the public. We help make sense out of the complex situations, and barring recordings, even if Judge Lee had stipulated that the recordings could not be posted online, only hurts accuracy. So the question we have is this. Who is Judge Lee protecting in her ban on recording? Was it herself? Was she afraid her words would be used against her? Was she protecting the defendant, Ellick, from Public Scrutiny?

Or was she helping the Bulldog attorneys by eliminating the possibility that Dick would be caught saying something horrible on a hot mic again? Or maybe she was protecting the public from seeing what it looks like when Dick and Jim take up an entire frame, sitting one inch from each other, and yucking it up like the two old men in the balcony on the Muppet Show. Lucky for all of us, we have excellent note takers at the Murdock Murders podcast, and we were able to transcribe all of the important parts of the bond hearing. There was a lot to unpack in this bond hearing that was over an hour long, and we want to

take you through it step by step to understand why Judge Lee decided to set such a high bond for Ellick and what that means. At the beginning of the hearing, Prosecutor Creighton Waters with the South Carolina Attorney General's office gave a brief summary of each of the 12 indictments handed down by the state grand jury since November. For a reminder, suspended attorney Ellick Murdock is accused of stealing and laundering over $6.2 million dollars from a number of clients, including a longtime family friend, a law enforcement officer who was injured in the line of duty, and Gloria Satterfield,

the woman who raised his children. Waters said that with these charges alone, Murdock faces 506 years in prison and about 3.5 million in potential fines. And we'll be back after this. Ellick Murdock's bombastic attorney Dick Harputlian came out of the gates arguing, again, that his client is entitled to bond. So since we don't have recordings, David is going to read excerpts from our notes the old fashioned way.

Your honor, let me at the outset say that we would reiterate and we've done this in the memo, but I'm just going to reiterate the South Carolina Constitution and the statutes indicate that Mr. Murdock is entitled to a bond. Secondly, the attorney general in their memo, I believe, conceded that he gets a bond. The question is how much bond? So this isn't a no bond situation. This is a situation where we should be determining what's appropriate to do to assure his appearance and protect the public.

Harputlian then addressed what his idea of protect the public really meant. The only victims, the only victims are victims, those alleged victims, that he is accused of perlearning money in his role as an attorney. He is no longer, he's suspended from the practice, he's no longer a member of the firm, he has no access to any clients to steal any money. So his continued, if in fact he committed these crimes, his continued commission of crime has been blocked by his inability to have clients to steal from. That's number one.

Number two, when you hear from the victims in a moment, I think each of them will indicate that the law firm or others have stepped up to pay the amount that Mr. Murdock is accused of stealing. Basically, I think what Harputlian is trying to say here is that the public is safe because Alec Murdock mostly steals from clients, well allegedly. And because the South Carolina bar suspended Alec's license, he can't do that anymore. So the public should be safe, according to him. So the strangest thing kept happening to Dick during the hearing.

He repeatedly forgot to at least pretend that his client is innocent before proven guilty. He stumbled his way through almost every sentence containing references to Alec's alleged crimes. It seemed very difficult for him to keep things straight. Which of the crimes Alec is accused of are ones that Dick and Jim have already admitted he committed, and which are the ones that they're actually defending? It's a really weird scenario when the prosecution uses the word allegedly more than the defendant's own high priced attorneys. Harputlian then conveniently announced that Alec Murdock confessed judgment in the Satterfield

case. A confession of judgment is essentially agreeing to the amount owed in the lawsuit. But hold on, wait a minute. Did Dick and Jim just completely reverse course in the Satterfield case? Don't forget, on November 17, Harputlian and Griffin filed a shocking motion asking the court to dismiss the Satterfield lawsuit against Alec Murdock because Murdock's alleged co-conspirators have already paid the Satterfield family. The motion honestly claimed that Alec Murdock quote is entitled to a credit for more than

the $6 million paid by all other settling tort visas. And that motion was filed after Alec Murdock confessed judgment in lawsuits against his own brother Randy Murdock and former law partner John E. Parker. These actions essentially prioritize Alec's buddy's debt to him over the victims. So now, after re-victimizing the Satterfields in that shocking motion in November, the Murdock camp suddenly wants to reverse course and play nice? Huh. Also, I thought that Alec had no money according to his own lawyers.

How could he pay the Satterfields $4.3 million? Does a confession of judgment mean anything if you don't have any money? Or is it just another empty promise to save face? And then Dick read an apology, sort of, from his client to the Satterfield family. I want to indicate that Mr. Murdock has agreed to confessing a judgment of $4.3 million to the Satterfields. It has to be approved by the receiver, but we've offered to do that. And also that he apologizes, and I'm reading from a statement from him to the entire Satterfield

and Heriot families for his financial transgressions, committed in connection with a wrongful death settlement fund, recovered in connection with the death of Gloria Satterfield and the pain it has caused. So everyone, as I understand it, except the two of the 12 they're talking about, have been compensated for the amounts contained in the indictment. Those two, one, the firm is currently looking for and can't find them. And the second, they're waiting for approval by the court. And I think there's a medical lien waiting to be legitimately resolved.

So when Alex Freedom is on the line, he suddenly wants to apologize to the Satterfield family, who trusted him like a family member. And he doesn't do that apology directly. He does it through his lawyer. Got it. Dick continued his argument with reasons of why he believed his client was entitled to bond. And yes, he used the word entitled many times.

Now, once you get past the no bond, then you've got to look at a person's criminal history under the statute. He doesn't have any. These charges all arose after he was, well, the charges, not the conduct, arose after he was charged with insurance fraud in Hampton County, where he attempted to have himself killed by an associate in an attempt to collect insurance money for his son. Those charges are pending. And he had a $20,000 unsecured bond on that.

So what it sounds like Dick is saying here is that Alex's criminal history isn't really that violent or dangerous if you don't count the whole suicide for hire plot, where he allegedly handed Eddie Smith a gun and told him to shoot him in a fit of rage so his son could collect a $10 million insurance policy. Got it. Dick kept going and argued that his client isn't a flight risk. Is he a flight risk? I would point out that on those Hampton County charges, he was in a facility being treated

for drug addiction. He surrendered himself on the second set of charges for which he's been held in jail. He was in an Orlando treatment facility. He offered to surrender himself, but for some reason, sled and the attorney general decided it was appropriate for them to go down and arrest him at the facility again. He offered to return to the state of South Carolina without any expense to the state of South Carolina and voluntarily surrender himself. They didn't do that.

He has surrendered his passport. He has no passport. So Harpulian seems really sour about the fact that his client was treated like everybody else when he was arrested in Orlando, Florida in October and they weren't warned about it. Dick brought this up at the last bond hearing and he brought it up again this week. Dick needs to realize that while he's an expensive defense attorney and a powerful lawmaker in South Carolina, neither law enforcement nor prosecutors are obligated to give him

or any other fancy attorneys a heads up so their client gets a cushy arrest. When he speaks about this, he acts like he's entitled to getting special treatment and he isn't and he needs to get that. When Dick brought up taxpayer money being wasted, well, that was very LOL. Sled could have saved taxpayer money by not going to Florida to get electric. Sure, that's true. Another thing that's true, Sled is devoting a lot of taxpayer resources to these investigations. Seems like another way to save taxpayers money is to not have four dozen charges against

you with more coming. But back to Dick's speech. Dick, sticking true to the PR plan that has failed him from the beginning, attempted to garner sympathy for his client who is an alleged recovering opioid addict. He summarized a psychiatric evaluation that was ordered by Judge Newman in October. She indicates that he was severely depressed. His wife, his son were murdered. He had a severe oxycontin addiction.

He was depressed. But I think you're going to hear from him in just a minute that since he's gone through rehab and been in jail now for 60 or 90 days without access to any drugs, he's a far different person in terms of his mental status and not a danger to himself and certainly not a danger to the community. So before Dick wrapped up, he made some odd comments about the media, blogging and the blogosphere. Yes, he said the word blogosphere.

This case has got a lot of notoriety and your honor, you'd have to be living in a different world to not know that this has been written about, blogged about, and it's got its intrigue. This case has intrigued a number of people out there in the blogosphere, but the notoriety of the case does not, your honor, in any way, and I know it won't with you, indicate what kind of bond which is defined by our statutes. If somebody's got a problem with the statute, they can come up to the legislature and try to change it. If they've got a problem with the constitution, they can go through that process.

But right now, under this constitution and this statute, he's, I believe, entitled to a PR bond to be released on his own recognizance. So a PR bond means that Elec would have to pay no money to get out. I am not aware of any state statutes that says that somebody who is accused of the crimes that Elec Murdoch is accused of is entitled to such a low bond. But anyways, at the end of his speech, Dick made one last odd comment that I want to talk about. I would finally point this out.

There are those who would indicate because he has fallen so far from grace that that somehow indicates he should be punished by a high bond and kept in jail. We'd ask you to release him on a reasonable bond with house arrest. We have no problem with the electronic monitoring, with the provision that should he be accepted and this is going to take a while because insurance has to be applied for into a treatment facility. He continues to need that treatment. Is anyone saying that Elec Murdoch deserves to be punished because he fell far from grace?

What people are saying is that Elec Murdoch is dangerous because just in September, he allegedly paid a guy to shoot him in the head. People are saying he's dangerous because there are a lot of bodies surrounding this man and millions of dollars are missing. People are saying he's dangerous because he has a history of manipulating vulnerable people. They don't care about his fall from grace. At the conclusion of his argument, Dick suggested that Elec should be placed on house arrest

with electronic monitoring and they'd be cool with that. Also, they said that they would apply for insurance for the treatment center they want to get Elec into. Even with insurance, rehab centers are expensive. Would he really afford it? Which brings us back to the million dollar question, where is all of Elec's money? And we'll be right back. Elec Murdoch was next to speak at the virtual bond hearing on Monday.

This was the first time that Elec has spoken in front of any camera since his wife and son were murdered in June. This was a big deal that Elec was speaking at the bond hearing and an even bigger deal that he was speaking at a time when media couldn't record it. I wonder if that was planned. Thank you for letting me speak to you this morning, Judge Lee. Your honor, please understand that there may be concern over whether I'm a danger to myself based upon my actions on Saturday, September the 4th.

What I'd like for you to know about that day, when that occurred, I had just within the past 24 hours met with my brother and another partner to discuss my actions. I've divulged to them that I had an opioid addiction that I had concealed for 20 years. Things were moving really quickly and really negatively. A world was caving in much as it had three months prior to that particular day. I was in the throes of withdrawals as I had not taken opiates as I had for so long. So Elec was saying here that on the day before the Labor Day alleged shooting, he had met with his brother and another law partner at his now former law firm PMPED to discuss his

actions. Notice, he didn't specify what those actions really were, however PMPED partners have said that the firm found out that day that Elec was stealing millions of dollars from them and that Elec admitted to the fraud. And also this part is really important. Elec said here that his world was caving in on that day, the day that his fraud scheme was allegedly exposed, just as much as his world was caving in three months prior, which was when his wife Maggie and his son Paul were brutally murdered.

That says a lot about him. In his bond hearing speech, Elec continued by naming a long list of people he said he disappointed by his alleged actions. I was grieving, Judge. I knew this news was going to deeply, deeply hurt every single person that I cared about. Maggie's family, my family, which is a designation with no distinction as I love them all dearly. My partners too are not coworkers, but our family and knew nothing and did nothing. My clients, who I do care about, my friends, two of my oldest and dearest friends, Chris

Wilson and Corey Fleming, you didn't know anything and didn't do anything wrong. Okay, so Elec dropped a big bomb here. He publicly absolved his two attorney buddies who have been roped into his mess, Corey Fleming and Chris Wilson. For a reminder, Fleming was a Satterfields family attorney while Elec allegedly stole millions of dollars from Satterfields' wrongful death settlement. His law license has been suspended by the South Carolina Supreme Court, and Fleming has publicly stated that he was duped by Elec.

And Wilson was the Bamberg County attorney who was mentioned in one of the November indictments. He recently made a public statement saying that he was the one who alerted law enforcement of Elec's alleged scheme. So basically both of these friends have publicly thrown Elec under the bus, and it's a big deal that Elec is going on the record here and saying that his buddies had nothing to do with the fraudulent activity. And then he continued on with a list of very specific people who would be disappointed in these alleged actions of his.

I knew that this news was going to humiliate me, humiliate my son, who's trying to be a lawyer, who's one of the best young men I've ever known and deserved none of what he's gotten. His very serious girlfriend, who's like a daughter to me, and who is a young lawyer. And again, Judge, I knew it would humiliate mine and Maggie's family, who was very proud of me, who's proud of my family's legacy, which I know have tarnished badly. Judge, I have tried very hard in the three months leading up to this to keep a close relationship with my son, Paul's friends.

I fear that this was going to alienate them. Now, we don't know this, but we're assuming that this speech was approved by Dick, Jim, and the PR team. And we're wondering why he wants to go on the record about Paul's friends. And why it would news of him defrauding his law firm alienate his son's friends. Elec kept going and detailed his alleged addiction. All of this was crushing to me. I was in a very bad place due to the withdrawals.

I made a terrible decision that I regret, that I'm sorry about, and frankly that I'm embarrassed about. I'm not in that place now. I quickly realized that I made a terrible mistake, that I needed to be there for my son. Judge, I've had 38 days of inpatient treatment, where I work very hard despite being very sick for several weeks. By my count, I have 98 days opiate free, which I'm proud of, and which is the longest stretch in 20 years.

My head is on straighter, I'm thinking clearer than I have in a long, long time. I've been exercising, what started out as just trying to break the monotony has turned into several hours a day of exercising, and I feel good. I feel better than I have in a long time. I've been humbled and surprised by the outpouring of love and support that I have received. When we talk about how offensive the statement is to victims, how does Elik feel better than he's felt in a long time, knowing that there are at least over a dozen people out there who have recently found out that Elik scammed them?

While I'm sure he's pointing out his new exercise routine to demonstrate a new healthy man who isn't a danger to society, it comes off as super offensive. But who are these people he's speaking about, who have shown him an outpouring of support and love recently, and where were they during the last bond hearing when it appeared that nobody showed up for him? I want to be there for my son. I want to deal with everything that I have to deal with, which is a lot. I want to deal with these charges appropriately and head on.

I want to repair as much of the damage that I have done as I can. I want to repair as many of the relationships as I can. Judge Lee, I do need more treatment, as Mr. Harpoolian said. Should you decide to grant me a bond, I will get that treatment. Whether you order it or not, I was on my way to the next step in the recovery process after inpatient treatment called PHP when I was detained on these charges. Judge, I know I need to be my best self. To deal with everything that I have to deal with and to avoid relapse, I'm committed to

doing that. And hopefully we can figure out a way to make the people who care about me do so again in some small way. I guess in conclusion, Judge, you know I have a clear head. As I said, I will obey any order you issued to the letter. I will appear whenever and wherever I'm asked to. Your Honor, I'm not a danger to myself and I look forward to the opportunity to hopefully try to begin working to put all this behind me.

Thank you again for letting me speak with you. Does it strike anyone else as odd that Alec barely talked about what I would say is probably the most significant part of his whole 2021 journey and that's the murders of his wife and son? To be clear, when Alec talks about regret and being sorry, he's specifically referring to his decision to engage in the Labor Day shooting incident, not the crimes he's been accused of committing. This speech seems to have floored a lot of attorneys out there because of how unusual

it is to allow your client to speak on his own behalf at a bond hearing, especially for that long. Dick and Jim and Alec really seemed sure that they had this one in the bag and that he'd be going home that day. Based on what our sources were saying before the hearing, we were also pretty sure he'd be going home. But something changed when Alec spoke. All the arrogance and self-pity and narcissism and the absolute lack of awareness he had

while extolling all his Nido achievements in jail, absence of a meaningful apology to the Satterfields and the fact that he failed to mention the harm he has done to his fellow attorneys in South Carolina, I think that got to Judge Lee. Alec couldn't have fixed everything with this speech, but he could have made things slightly better for himself by showing just a little remorse and some humanity. What we wouldn't give for the ability to hear Dick's and Jim's inside voices during Alec's statement. The Satterfield family attorneys were next to speak.

Attorney Ronald Richter read a statement that said that the Satterfield family is pleased that Mr. Murdock has finally expressed his apologies and that the family believes in forgiveness as devout Christians. After the Satterfield family spoke, prosecutor Creighton Waters made his final argument and responded to Dick and Alec's comments. One of the more significant parts of Waters' final arguments was his mention of what happened during Alec's first hearing. If you'll remember, the conditions of Alec's bond were posted online before his hearing,

which was so unsurprising it's not even funny. It was gratifying to hear Waters acknowledge this because after this happened, there were a number of people outside the state who commented about how this is a normal thing. I spoke to attorneys at the time and asked them about Hampton County's procedures and no, this is not how it usually works. It was encouraging to see that the prosecution thought this was bananas too, but it also made us wonder whether the Attorney General's office was sending a very pointed message to Dick, Jim, Alec, and maybe even Judge Lee at that moment.

Don't even try it. Creighton Waters argued for a high bond for Alec Murdock and called him particularly unhinged in a stark danger to the community, considering both his fall from grace and his drug addiction. He argued that Murdock is a flight risk considering the large amount of money he allegedly had access to. So this is an individual that we believe, based on the investigation, has significant personal family assets, who has engaged in efforts to protect assets from liability. And I think that given the severity of the charges over 500 years to date, I should add

that adds to the flight risk that we see here. And then Waters dropped another bomb, this time about victims in this case. Some of the victims have claimed a backlash. Their one victim was called a snitch. People are afraid to come forward. And indeed for others to come forward, they need, I believe, to see a strong message about how serious that the system is taking these particular charges, regardless of the name that this man carries and the family prestige that he carries.

Wow. So they're saying here that victims in this case have claimed a face backlash. And one was allegedly called a snitch. That is a powerful statement considering that Alec Murdock's family influence is at the center of this case. Murdock's father, grandfather, and great grandfather all served as elected officials in the DA position, overseeing the prosecution of a five county region. We have been hearing for years that people are terrified of speaking out against the

Murdochs because of the family's influence in the courts and in law enforcement. Here Creighton is saying that it is important that the judges make it clear that the Hampton County court shenanigans are not going to fly here and that the judge is taking this case very seriously. And then again, Creighton makes another powerful statement about the victims that Alec chose. When we look at who he preyed upon, allegedly, they were either people with long standing family or personal contact with him, or they were people who were particularly trusting and vulnerable because their unfamiliarity with the system, or both.

And so it was the most trusting and the most vulnerable that the allegations show that this man preyed upon. And because of that, because he still retains that influence and that power in the community, regardless of all these allegations, that danger to the community is heightened. Creighton Waters concluded his argument asking for a bond of 4.7 million with serious conditions attached. And before she made her decision, Judge Lee asked about the receivership and how much power the receivers had over Alec's money.

Dick and Jim didn't do any favors for Alec's attorney in the boat crash case or his motion to unfree some of the Murdoch's assets so Buster can quote unquote buy some groceries. At Monday's hearing, they actually seem to be using the receivership, which they clearly have no love for, to help make Alec's case for bond. Jim even told the judge that all of Alec's money had been accounted for, something the prosecutor highly disagreed with. And then Waters stressed just how much of a flight risk he thinks Murdoch is given the amount of money he's accused of stealing recently.

I would add though that while there is a very robust receivership out there, I would agree. I would also point out that particularly when we look at the money that was allegedly stolen, in this case over 6 million dollars, much of that was cashed out through cash to associates. And so that money is out there somewhere. So to say everything's all accounted for and all of the rest of it, that's just simply not accurate. And then things started to go a little off course. Eric Blanchined in and commented about the 2.8 million dollars that was allegedly cashed

out to Eddie Smith. Where was that money? Dick Arputlian did not want people to talk about all of the missing money though. He quickly changed his subject and accused the AG's office of stacking charges. Dick described Alec's charges of money laundering and wire fraud and computer crimes with such disdain. As if these charges were superfluous and nothing more than a nuisance to his client, no offense to Dick but the last person I want to hear complaining about computer crimes, which

are felonies by the way, is a guy who calls the internet the blogosphere. The reason Dick might have been so disgusted by Alec's 48 charges is because of the metric the AG's office was using, which was $100,000 in bond for every felony Alec was charged with, which would have put Alec's bond at nearly $5 million. Another slice of absolute nonsense from Dick at this point was that he expressed out loud the idea that between Alec's October hearing when he faced a total of 5 charges and now, when he faces 4 dozen, that his client quote, got no more dangerous. And this is when Judge Lee snapped back at Arputlian for the first time.

She said that she disagreed with the notion that Alec is no more dangerous than he was in October, considering that he was facing 5 total charges then and he's facing over 50 now. And then, Judge Lee appeared to shock the good ol' boys when she set Murdoch's bond at $7 million. She immediately said with no 10%, which means that Alec has to pay the amount in full if he wants to get out of jail. Dick and Jim, not realizing that they were unmuted, couldn't help a comment here.

Dick literally said no 10%. And then, repeating you said no 10%, that's $7 million. She had to remind him that he was not muted and then she said yes, I said 7 million with no 10%. She then gave the conditions for the bond, which included house arrest with location being provided to the court, mental health and substance abuse counseling, no contact with any victims, his passport stays surrendered, and GPS monitoring. Dick seemed floored by the $7 million figure.

It looked like the walls closed in on him and he suddenly realized his super lawyer legislator powers were no longer working. He immediately started arguing with the judge and said the AG's office didn't ask for anything close to that. And then, he added, not that he can make that, he's impecunious. He's locked down. He's got no money. This is tantamount to no bond.

At this point, Dick appeared to be throwing a fit about how his client is so poor that he can't post a bond that high. Lee was not having it though and told Dick to file a motion if he had issues with her bond. It's really important to note that Judge Lee said she was reluctant to set bond but felt obligated due to the state's constitution. And what's also important, she said that she set the amount so high because she was concerned about contacts within the community and in those individuals who may want to support

in assisting him financially outside of the receivership. This begs the question, will anyone show up for Ellick and post his bond? And if they do, what will happen? And that brings us to probably the biggest story of this week that no one's talking about. Can Ellick actually get out of jail if he posts bond considering Newman revoked his bond on two previous charges? Despite what sources told us over and over last week, that Newman's decision to deny

Murdoch's initial bond on the two original charges would stick, it turns out that isn't really the case. That switcheroo we told you all about in our bonus episode, it was real. Judge Lee never said a word about this during the hearing. Neither did Dick or Jim, neither did Creighton Waters, but the two charges on which Ellick is being held without bond got absorbed into the 12 indictments that were handed down by the grand jury in November and December. This means that if Ellick Murdoch finds the money to post the $7 million bond, he could

be let out of jail. And that is a big deal. We have a really great episode about Steven Smith coming soon. Subscribe to fitsnews.com and the Murdoch Murders podcast on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates in the case. The saga is just beginning, so stay tuned. If you believe like I do that Mandy is the best in the business, and I'm a little biased, visit MurdochMurdersPodcast.com and click the support the show link to learn how you can

help. Leave a five-star review to offset the haters, refer an advertiser and get a finder street, or advertise your company, product or service. We can geotarget across the globe and find the right audience to suit your needs. Help us get Luna some treats so she doesn't interrupt the show as much. And absolutely subscribe to fitsnews.com. Mandy and Will are revolutionizing journalism, and your subscriptions are invaluable to that mission.

Plus, you get awesome content every day. And don't forget to leave a five-star review, unless you're going to be nasty and talk about my vocal fry. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me, Mandy Matney, and my fiance, David Moses. Produced by Luna Shuck Productions.