Murdaugh Murders Podcast - "Dear Cory": Letters, Lies And The Law (S01E37)

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

There is A LOT to unpack about Cory Fleming. So much, that it doesn’t all fit into one episode. But this week, we received a shocking document showing Fleming’s apparent defense — and it includes a letter and text messages between Alex and Cory as Alex sat in both a Florida rehab facility and a SC jail respectively. In episode 37, Mandy, Liz and Eric Bland unpack both Cory Fleming’s bond hearing and his shocking defense in a plea to the Georgia Bar. It seems like Cory isn’t going down without a fight, even after a hard fall from grace. A special thank you to our sponsors: Cerebral, Hunt-A-Killer, Priceline, Embark Vet, VOURI, Hello Fresh, Babbel, Article, and others. 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. A special audio track for this episode was produced by Jevon Daly. Find us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/MurdaughPod/ https://www.instagram.com/murdaughmurderspod/ 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 Corey Fleming will be able to convince a jury that he is just another one of Ellic Murdoch's victims. But even after the former Buford attorney has taken a fall from Grace recently, it seems like he's not going down without a hard and embarrassing fight. My name is Mandy Matney. I have been investigating the Murdoch family for more than three years now. This is the Murdoch Murders podcast with David Moses and Liz Farrell. Last week, huge news broke about Corey Fleming, who's Ellic Murdoch's BFF and alleged co-conspirator

in multiple schemes including the Gloria Satterfield case. But the thing is, we've barely scraped the surface with Corey Fleming. And a deep dive into his history shows that, despite his decent reputation in Buford, South Carolina, he seems to pop up in a lot of shady places. Only two weeks ago, Corey was indicted on 18 felony charges related to the Gloria Satterfield case. He was booked at the same detention center where Ellic has been behind bars since October. On Thursday morning, Corey Fleming appeared before Judge Allison Lee for his bond hearing.

Fleming's bond hearing was so different from Ellic's other three bond hearings that we've watched in this case. First of all, the big difference was that Corey didn't hire a good ol' boy. He hired a legitimate defense attorney named Deborah Barbier. Unlike Ellic's defense team who managed to insult victims and the judges while arguing baseless claim after baseless claim, Barbier stuck to the task at hand, arguing that her client Fleming deserved bond. In fact, one of Barbier's main tactics was drawing a distinct line between her client

and Ellic Murdoch. In her argument, Barbier made it very apparent what the big difference between the two men was that Corey would have family support. Even though the hearing was virtual, Corey's wife, parents, and step-parents were all positioned so they could be seen on camera behind Barbier. It was a stark contrast between all three of Ellic's hearings where he had no one show up to support him. And Your Honor, I submit to you, if we were not having this hearing virtually, there would

be a courtroom full of people supporting Corey in the courtroom today. I do have, with me, behind me, you might be able to see many members of Corey's family. They are here today to support him. His wife, Eve Fleming, is here today. They've been married for 24 years this May. She is also a member of the South Carolina Bar. She serves as a public defender in the Low Country, representing juveniles. She is accompanied by Corey's mother and his stepfather, who are also residents of Buford.

His father and his stepmother are here. They live in Georgia, and he has a cousin who's here, who's also a resident of South Carolina. Your Honor, Corey has two children, age 19 and 20. They're both outstanding students in college. He is an involved and devoted father. He has coached teens. He has attended cross-country meets, swim meets, basketball games, theater productions,

Cub Scout meetings. This is important because in a bond hearing, a defense attorney needs to show the court two things. That their client is not a flight risk, and that they're not a danger to the community. Seeing that a defendant has deep community ties and a loving family that supports them is a big deal. It shows the court that there are people who will be watching out after them when they're set free awaiting trial.

It shows the court that they are a lot less likely to drop everything and run because they have people at home who care for them. Your Honor, I tell you this because he has led an exemplary life. He has no history of drug or alcohol use. He has no criminal history. He has helped in the practice of his law a tremendous number of people throughout his lifetime. He's been very active in his community.

He's served on the board of the YMCA. He volunteers his time and his skills to many charitable organizations. As you can see, Your Honor, he has extensive ties to his community and to the state. He is in no way or shape or form a flight risk. Barbier went on to say that Fleming actually turned himself in, which he did, and Barbier said something really interesting in court. She made a point to show that a variety of people supported her client, including law enforcement, which surprised us.

And one of the reasons, Your Honor, that he's been able to persevere during this situation is because he has the overwhelming support from his colleagues in South Carolina Bar. I can't tell you how many people approach me every week to offer their support, a quarry, and that is throughout the state. He has friends who have been extremely supportive, neighbors, the Beaver community, law enforcement community. They know he's not a criminal, and they have been very supportive. As I said, Your Honor, he's known about this investigation for more than six months.

He's cooperated in the production of documents. He resolved the case with the Satterfields, the civil case, within less than a month. They have been made whole in terms of what it was alleged that was taken from them. And that was at his great personal expense, but he reached a settlement with him immediately. Creighton Waters, prosecutor for the South Carolina Attorney General's Office, responded to this and said something very crucial to this case. Your Honor, if I could very quickly respond. Yes, ma'am.

Yes, sir. A couple of things I feel compelled to address. Now, first of all, I want to make clear that Mr. Fleming has not in any way cooperated with this investigation, and as much as I may have been implied. Secondly, and as much as it's been implied that the victims have made whole, Mr. Fleming did distort the fee that he did take from this alleged scheme. And that, of course, only was after everything came to light and the writing was on the wall. However, Mr. Fleming, Mr. Alec Murdoch, could not have gotten nearly three and a half million

dollars that he was able to misappropriate allegedly from this settlement without the express assistance of Corey Fleming in furtherance of their alleged scheme. And so, too, I think to imply that he has fully made restitution at this point would be inaccurate from the state's perspective. Now, the fact that Corey has not in any way cooperated with the investigation, that is a big deal. If Corey was truly duped by Alec Murdoch as he claims, why wouldn't he cooperate? Why wouldn't he tell Sled and the FBI every single detail of the Satterfield case?

We get that he's a defense attorney who is used to telling clients, don't talk to law enforcement, you could accidentally implicate yourself even if you're innocent. But this is about as bad as it could get for Corey right now. This is his entire career. His way of earning money for his family, his reputation, all of that is on the line. If ever there was a time to help law enforcement to save yourself, it would be now. That's why, to some people, the fact that Corey Fleming isn't cooperating seems to show that the rot in this case goes so much deeper than Alec.

Creighton spoke about this during the hearing. What I want to say this for the benefit of everyone here is that it is important that every individual have their presumption of innocence that they get a fair trial. And the reason why I say that is because I believe very much in the system and that system provides those benefits to every defendant. It's important that they're tried and resolved in the courtroom, not in the media. But because of that belief in the system is why these allegations here are so important because they go to the heart of the system and of course people entrusted with power

to act in any system can abuse it and that's allegedly what we have here, a correction of the system. I'll say it again. The Corey Fleming charges are important because they go to the heart of the system in a case where vulnerable people grieving the death of their mother went to a lawyer for help and they were grossly taken advantage of and stolen from. Corey Fleming was the lawyer who was supposed to protect the satter fields from that devastation. That's what makes his alleged role in this so much worse than Alec.

He's even facing more charges than Alec. In seeing him in a jail jumpsuit on Thursday in court, absolutely send a message to the other attorneys in the state that this behavior from lawyers will not be tolerated, at least not anymore, that no good ol' boys are protected, that the law applies to everyone, including those who seem to think that they are above it. Attorney Eric Bland also spoke at the bond hearing. Waters asked for a bond of 25,000 per felony charge which would have added up to about 450,000 and he also asked for the standard conditions such as relinquishing his passport and being barred

from leaving the state. Judge Allison Lee ultimately decided on a $100,000 surety bond for Corey Fleming With the ability to pay 10%, Fleming must surrender his passport to the state and is barred from leaving South Carolina without permission from the court. Fleming was released from jail a few hours after the hearing and we'll be right back. So one month before he was indicted, Corey Fleming made a last-ditch effort to save his law license in the state of Georgia. A 50-page single-space letter from Fleming's civil attorney Thomas Pendarvis to the state

bar of Georgia was recently obtained by Fitznews. It paints a detailed picture of Fleming's defense in both the Satterfield case and the Connor Cook case. Considering the fact that the prosecution said this week that Fleming has not been cooperative in this investigation, this letter is significant and perplexing that Fleming would be willing to put his side of the story on the record in Georgia, especially in such detail. The response also included a stunning handwritten letter from Murdoch to Fleming, as well as a screenshot of two back-to-back text messages Elik sent hoping that Corey

would respond. Fleming's response to the bar was written on February 10th, which was a few weeks before Chad Westendorf sat for his deposition with Eric Bland. The theme of the letter is this. Corey made a few tiny mistakes. This is everyone else's fault and Corey was simply another victim of the fraud and other professional misconduct by Elik Murdoch. These excuses are just excuses and they don't make sense.

They just don't make sense. They don't pass this melt test. It just gives you a queasy feeling in your stomach after you read that letter. Pindarvis argued that while there may have been, quote, minor technical violations of some of the South Carolina rules of professional conduct, Mr. Fleming's conduct was, quote, consistent with the objectives of the rules of professional conduct. So this letter needs to be bound and printed and distributed to every debate club in America. It's like one of those TikTok videos of cats delicately maneuvering their way through a cobweb

of string. It is so epic that it reads like satire. You guys know how worked up Eric Bland gets when he's talking about what Corey allegedly did. That's because what Corey allegedly did in this case is so obviously and egregiously wrong and against the rules of professional conduct. Corey's lawyer trying to claim that here in South Carolina, this was basically cool to do, is as ridiculous as trying to return a box of Cheez-Its to Bloomingdale's. We know you didn't buy that here.

You know you didn't buy that here. Plus, you ate all the Cheez-Its. So what are you doing? Corey's response letter details his relationship with Elik dating back to the 1990s when they became close friends in law school at the University of South Carolina. Here is David reading the letter. During their 25 plus years of friendship, Mr. Fleming developed a strong, trusting relationship with Mr. Murdoch, never doubting for a moment Mr. Murdoch's honesty, trustworthiness, and fitness

not only as a lawyer but also as a friend. But according to Fleming, their friendship was, quote, destroyed on September 3rd, 2021 when he allegedly first learned of Elik Murdoch's misdeeds. That is the same date when Elik allegedly told his partners about the fraud at PMPED, which is what he said led him to the alleged suicide for hires situation the next day. According to this letter, Corey was contacted by Lee Cope, who is one of the PMPED attorneys. Even though Fleming says he first learned of the fraud in early September, he did not report any of this to law enforcement, nor did he contact the Satterfield family,

which prosecutor Creighton Waters noted during the bond hearing. According to Eric Bland, he also never reported this to the bar either, which is a huge problem. In early September, Eric Bland contacted Fleming twice, asking him to produce documents on the Satterfield case. Fleming didn't respond to either request, which prompted Eric Bland to file a lawsuit on behalf of the Satterfield family. Corey claims that he didn't have to give the Satterfield family documents because technically, at that point, he says his client was Chad Westendorf, which Eric Bland says is preposterous. Not only did Corey use the strictest definition of who he was representing as a reason to keep

the client file away from Eric, his definition of who his clients were is at the heart of his defense in the letter to the Georgia bar. Pendarvis notes in the letter that Corey never represented Gloria's sons. No, no, he represented Gloria's son Tony as the personal representative of her estate. He's sticking to this definition because it changes the duties he had. But like Eric said, Corey's ultimate responsibility, whether Tony or Chad was the representative, was to Gloria's beneficiaries and not Ellick. It's just hard not to notice that Corey is accused of breaking a lot of rules and a lot of laws, but handing over the Satterfield case to the Satterfields at the Satterfields request was just a bridge too far for him.

The letter outlines Corey's involvement in the Satterfield case starting at day one. Well, sort of. Corey claims he doesn't recall when exactly he was first contacted by Ellick Murdoch. He says he doesn't remember if it was before or after she died. And considering the fact that Gloria's death is still under investigation, that is a big deal that he doesn't remember that. The Satterfield family was told that Gloria had tripped on the steps of the Murdoch's property on February 2nd, 2018. They were told that the Murdoch's dogs caused her to trip, leading to a fall that resulted in her sustaining a traumatic brain injury. However, Fleming's attorney said in the letter that Murdoch told him a dog had jumped on Ms.

Satterfield, causing her to fall off the porch steps at Mr. Murdoch's house in Hitterhead. This is a slightly different version from the story we've heard so far, but that's relevant again because her death is still a mystery that's being investigated, specifically due to inconsistencies discovered by the Hampton County Coroner last fall. Pandarvis' letter seems to say that by the time Corey became involved in the case, Ellick had already been trying to get money from his insurance carriers, but needed Corey's help. He apparently asked Corey to send a demand letter to him and allegedly told Corey that he'd let him know how it went. He apparently also told Corey that he might need him to represent Gloria,

or if she died her estate. It's clear that Pandarvis is depicting Corey as a pal who was doing a favor for a friend rather than an attorney who was hired by a client. They also seem to be showing that Ellick was the one with a fire in his belly, and that Corey was simply brought in to do a task or two. At Gloria's funeral, Ellick allegedly started railroading Gloria's sons and convinced them to hire Fleming to get money for their mother's death. However, Corey maintains in the letter that he believed he and Ellick were essentially, and astoundingly, co-counsel with each other in pursuit of the same goal of getting big money from the insurance company for the satterfields. Why would an attorney working for the plaintiffs believe

that he was co-counsel with the defendant? I mean, I think some of those justifications, explanations, rationale, whatever you want to call it, were preposterous, the co-counsel thing. You have to get permission from your client. More importantly, if you're acting as co-counsel with Ellick, you're committing a fraud on the insurance company. In the letter, Fleming claims that he told Tony Satterfield about his friendship with Murdoch. However, Tony says that this did not happen, and there was no written consent document outlining any potential conflict of interest in the satterfield file. This is why the rules of professional conduct exist. Plain and simple. This is why lawyers and judges are supposed to be explicit and transparent about

even the appearance of conflicts of interest. Let's say Pendarvis's letter is 100% correct, and that Corey is just another of Ellick's alleged victims. If Corey had abided by the most basic of rules, one that is meant to protect the client and him, he could have avoided this whole thing. And this is important because it's a key component of the good ol' boy system, doing favors, bending the rules, doing things differently in this case for this person, and not asking too many questions. I'm not saying that Corey is a victim, to be clear. I'm saying that if what he and his attorney say is true, no matter who he tries to blame in this, he is the one who made the decision not to formalize the arrangements. So, according to Fleming's account,

former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Lafitte told Fleming that he didn't want to serve as a satterfield's personal representative, a role that he appears to have taken in several other sketchy cases involving Murdoch. But the bank's vice president, Chad Westendorf, said he was up for the job. Corey's letter claimed that, quote, the proposal sounded reasonable given Mr. Satterfield was in his early 20s and seemed to Mr. Fleming to be unsophisticated on financial matters. I asked Eric Bland about this statement. He was 27 and a half years old at the time. He doesn't know how sophisticated or unsophisticated Tony is because he never talked to Tony except for 15 minutes. He didn't realize because Alex never told him that Tony was badgering Alex with tons

of questions about medical bills, paying creditors, what should I file with the probate court. He took it from Alex that Alex allegedly told him, hey, there's going to be a lot of these business issues. I think we should get a banker. It was up to Corey to actually interview Chad Westendorf just because Chad's a banker didn't imbue him with this sophistication. Obviously, everybody watched his deposition and he told the world that he's a dunce by his answers. I mean, there isn't a banker in the world who doesn't know what a fiduciary is or a fiduciary douche. I mean, that's going to haunt him forever. But it wasn't Alex's obligation or right to interview a prospective personal representative. It was Corey. Corey should have sat down with Chad and said,

Chad, do you understand what your obligations are? Chad, do you understand what your duties are to the boys, the satterfield? And he had a duty to satisfy himself that this substitute personal representative was competent. He was no more competent than my dog. Tony was more competent than him. And there was really no reason to substitute Tony for anybody or Chad for Tony because there were no business issues. And then the 50 page document gets even more absurd. Fleming maintains that he did the satterfields a good deed by reducing his attorney fee that Judge Carmen Mullen approved. He actually called it a $758,000 gift to quote benefit the satterfield but there is a huge problem with that statement. The satterfields never received a dime of the

$4.3 million settlement and they never knew about it until they hired Eric Bland. That's like saying you gifted someone else a car but you never actually gave it to them or told them about it. Another issue Fleming doesn't appear to have informed the satterfields of this fee reduction, a fact that Waters noted in the bond hearing saying that it's highly unusual for an attorney to do something like this without making sure he's getting credited for such an act of kindness. And then the letter gets crazier when Pendarvis wrote quote Mr. Fleming's generosity should be recognized and rewarded not criticized and condemned. Generosity is not going to be recognized because he didn't give the fee to the satterfield. If he wanted to give the fee to the satterfield

he would have given it to Chad Westendorf to distribute as required by Judge Mullen's order. Remember he didn't even give Chad the $50,000 survival fee that had to go to the probate court. If he wanted to be generous and give that money to the satterfields then he could have given it, he should have given it to him directly and written him a check but to say well I gave it to them because I was giving it to Alex because Alex supposedly had this account at Forge. One of the things that that was interesting is he actually believed that Alex opened up an account at Forge in the fall of 2018 before there was any settlement. Now how do you open up an account at Forge at anywhere when there hadn't even been a settlement reached yet? So he supposedly

believed that Alex opened up this account at Forge. Again no particulars, no nothing in his file that would indicate Forge, no account numbers, one for Tony, one for Brian, no allocations. It's just all after the fact coming up with an excuse. In another odd defense Fleming claimed that he was having quote disagreements with his law partners at Moss, Coon and Fleming, now Moss and Coon and that is why he misappropriated more than $26,000 from the law firm's trust that he claimed was supposed to go to an expert witness for the satterfield case. According to the indictments, Fleming spent most of his money on video game entertainment and used it to pay for his large credit card debt which sounds a lot like he's stealing from his law partners and why would he

admit to doing that while trying to get his law license back? And then this justification, well I'm feuding with my partners and so I didn't want them to get a piece of my fee so I lied about some of my fee and made it in the false expenses so that they couldn't get any of my fee but that didn't hurt the clients because I had a $750,000 cushion. That doesn't help him at one bit and one it's not true but two, now he's stealing from his partners and he's misrepresenting cost to a court of law. Remember I told you that one of our cannons is candor to tribunals and candor to third parties. You can't lie. I know everybody thinks that it's just part of the lawyer's everyday routine that we lie. No, we're not allowed to do that. According to Westendor's

recent deposition, Fleming was the one who asked Mullen to sign off on the settlement while taking Alex's name, who was the defendant, off of the case to keep the Murdock name out of the press because of the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach. When Mandy and I read documents like this, we take a lot of notes obviously. For the Pandarvis letter, I did something a little different. I took notes but I isolated some points like a lawyer does in a complaint or a motion. At the end, there were 115 points. 115 different times that I was like whoa. Most of those points were where I marked that Corey was blaming someone else for something that was ultimately on him and it's truly artful how that's done in this letter. Pandarvis doesn't ever say this is person

It's way more subtle than that. He uses phrases like commonly known or should have been known to explain the times Corey wasn't being as formal or explicit as a lawyer might be expected to be about details. With Judge Mullen, Pandarvis refers to the hearing as a quote informal hearing, which puts it on Mullen for allowing such a thing to occur. He says Corey never lied to Mullen, that Corey answered every question she asked of him. But when it comes to the kinds of questions that might have produced answers that would have given her pause, well Corey doesn't recall her asking those. He notes that Corey doesn't remember Mullen telling him to file the order and thought it was better handled by Elec's attorney given the publicity with the boat crash.

But it was always Corey's responsibility to file the order, always. In Elec's attorney, there's an email in which he told Corey he couldn't disperse the money until the order was signed and filed, which as we all know by now was never done. Also, with the publicity about the boat crash, Pandarvis squarely puts that on the lawyer Elec's insurance company hired, John Grantland. He indicates that Corey made the decisions he did based on quote, Mr. Grantland's concerns about publicity. Why would an insurance company's attorney care about his clients' clients' fear of publicity over a boat crash case? A case from which Mullen had recused herself because of her connection to the Murdochs.

Fleming didn't really provide a defense for this in the document. He claimed that he believed Murdoch's attorney, again for the defense, was supposed to file the order and he remembered, quote, discussions about the publicity surrounding Paul Murdoch's indictment. In the 50-page manifesto, Pandarvis failed to offer a justification as to why Fleming, the plaintiff, would write three checks and deliver them to Elec Murdoch, the defendant, totaling in millions of dollars, while the Satterfields, his clients, received zero dollars. Yet, he maintains that Fleming is a victim of Elec Murdoch. But you can't lie and he lied to Judge Mullen on those petitions when he said he had 11,500

expenses and then 105,000. So, none of it helped him and then you highlighted the one just ridiculous thing where he said he helped held the principles of South Carolina laws required under our rules. I mean, it's just even a third grader knows he didn't do that. And we'll be right back. In September, Connor Cook, a survivor of the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach, filed a lawsuit claiming that Elec Murdoch conspired with others, including Fleming, to frame him as the driver. Connor Cook's lawsuit alleges that Elec Murdoch, quote, encouraged and instructed him to retain Fleming as a defense lawyer without disclosing the

relationship. Fleming represented Cook briefly after the crash and immediately after the crash, Connor Cook and Paul Murdoch were the two main suspects in a chaotic and muddled initial investigation. Connor Cook was asked to take a field sobriety test at the hospital that night while Paul Murdoch, who was ultimately charged as the driver, was not. In Fleming's report to the Georgia bar, he claims that Connor's father was already aware of Fleming's close ties with the Murdoch family because he remembered meeting him at one of Randolph Murdoch's, quote, men's barbecues. Fleming claims there was no significant risk that Mr. Cook's representation by him would have been limited by Fleming's personal and professional relationship with the

Murdoch family. There are three important things to note about Corey's Connor Cook defense. The first is that the letter repeatedly points out that Connor did not include Corey as a defendant in his personal injury case connected to the boat crash. Why would he? Corey didn't play a role in Paul driving the boat into a bridge. What Pandarvis is likely referring to is the petition that Connor Cook's attorney, Joe McCullough, filed for pre-trial discovery, alleging that the Murdochs and others had conspired to set him up for the crash. That petition was filed at a time when there was a real fear that Sled and the AG's office were slowly backing away from the obstruction of justice investigation related to the boat crash that pre-existed the murders of Maggie and Paul

and the subsequent revelations of Alex's alleged financial schemes. Yes, Corey wasn't included in that, but also from what we understand, Corey wasn't under investigation for attempting to set up Connor, which sure, one point in Corey's column. The second thing to note is that as Pandarvis also notes, Corey's only advice to Connor was not to talk to law enforcement. He charged $200 for that advice by the way. Corey met with Connor's parents and Connor and took notes. His notes were basically, Connor says he wasn't driving the boat, but his story is inconsistent and wouldn't hold up to law enforcement questioning. I'm sure you have a question here, which is, yeah, but did Corey tell Ellic anything that Connor told him in that meeting? Pandarvis says no, and not only did

Corey not share that with Ellic, Corey told no one about what he and Connor had discussed. So two points for Corey, I guess, but now I'm about to erase all his points. The third important thing to note about Corey's Connor Cook defense is that Pandarvis maintains that Corey didn't have to disclose his close relationship with Ellic in a formal conflict of interest letter because Connor's parents should have known he and Ellic were tight because one time Corey and Connor's dad were at one of Randolph Murdochs, quote, men's barbecues together. What's a men's barbecue, you ask? You wouldn't believe where our minds went on this one, but it turns out it was likely a potluck get-together that Randolph hosted once a month with an assortment of invitees,

like a French salon of intellects, except probably the exact opposite of that. Pandarvis's rationale here is that because Corey and Connor's dad met each other once at a men's barbecue, that Connor's dad and mom and Connor should have known that Ellic and Corey were so close that they'd take care of each other's children should something happen to one of them. In an attempt to prove that Fleming was a victim of Ellic Murdoch, Pandarvis included a screenshot from a text message in a handwritten letter between Ellic and Corey. It was Mr. Murdoch's disciplinary misconduct, tortuous acts, and criminal conduct alone in intercepting and converting the settlement proceeds that defeated the objectives of the

representation, Pandarvis wrote. Pandarvis showed a text message from Ellic Murdoch to Corey Fleming sent supposedly on September 28th, 2021, while Ellic was supposed to be in rehab for his alleged opioid addiction. But what's weird is that the screenshot said it was sent on a Wednesday and September 28th is a Tuesday, but what's weirder is what the text said. Corey, this is Ellic, finally feeling a little better each day, not sick anymore, just really weak. I know you weren't ready to talk to me yet, but wanted you to have my number. The worst part about getting better and thinking clearly is I know how bad I hurt the people I love the most. I cannot rationalize the justifications I used

to do the things I did. I know how much trouble I've caused you and I'm willing to do absolutely anything to try to make it right. All my love. The next day. Hey, Bo, just wanted you to know I think about you every day. Let me know if you decide you're willing to talk. At this point, Fleming's name was plastered all over the media for his role in the Satterfield case and his relationship to Ellic Murdoch. And he was days away from losing his law license and job. Corey apparently didn't respond. Also, we notice that Ellic apparently got a new number in September after his little suicide for hire incident and after a few months after the double homicide of his wife and son, which is interesting. And finally Fleming's attorney shared a shocking

handwritten letter that Ellic sent Corey on November 22nd, 2021 while Ellic was in jail. I hope you are doing as good as you can under the circumstances. Let Jim know if I can do anything at all to help you in any way. Love and apologies to Eve and the children as well. Just wanted to say hello. I hope I get to see you or talk to you soon. I miss Maggs and Paul so bad, but I am more proud of Bust than ever. He has been so strong. Not sure how he does it, given all I've put on him. Check on him if you get time and feel like it. All my love, Ellic. As we all learned from the jailhouse calls, we can always count on Ellic Murdoch to end all his conversations by asking for a favor. But the question is, could this entire letter written

by Corey's attorney end up hurting not only Corey's slim chance of practicing law ever again, but could it affect his criminal case? We always cancel our clients. One, let us do the talking. Now, when we talk in court, that becomes binding to our clients because we're their agent. But we say never say anything except to your lawyers because it's an admission that can be used against you. This is even further than an admission because he under oaths verified the accuracy and the truthfulness and the completeness of Mr. Pindarvis's statement that was notarized. And that's to a governmental entity. So there's a high likelihood that Georgia may do something. This could be additional charges if they find what he said in there was false.

The Murdoch Learners podcast is created by me, Mandy Matney, and my fiance, David Moses. Our executive editor is Liz Farrell, produced by Luna Shark Productions.