Murdaugh Murders Podcast - ‘He’s in Trouble’: What Happened At Alex Murdaugh’s Bond Hearing This Week? (S01E27)

Episode Date: January 12, 2022

For the fourth time in five months, Alex Murdaugh appeared before a judge for a bond hearing on Monday, January 10, 2022. In this episode, Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell will unpack every detail of the intense hearing.  You’ll hear from attorneys Justin Bamberg and Eric Bland speak on behalf of their clients, alleged victims of Alex Murdaugh,.  You’ll hear Alex’s attorney Dick Harpootlian dismiss the victims as “the same ole song.” You’ll hear powerful testimony from Lt. Thomas E. Moore, an injured police officer who Murdaugh allegedly stole from.  And Eric Bland gives us an exclusive interview on his thoughts about Monday’s hearing and what happens next. And a special thank you to our sponsors: Cerebral, Betera, Aura Frames, Hunt-A-Killer, Bannon Law Group, Nature's Highway CBD, and others. Pre-sales for Murdaugh Murders Podcast merch is now live at MurdaughMurdersPodcast.com/MERCH. All net proceeds from merchandise sales are donated to victim-focused charities like Hopeful Horizons and others on a regular rotation. Hopeful Horizons is a children's advocacy, domestic violence and rape crisis center.  The Murdaugh Murders Podcast is created by Mandy Matney and produced by Luna Shark Productions. Our Executive Writer 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/ As you know, we are a mission-driven podcast - we expose the truth wherever it leads.  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. 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

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I don't know if Elick Murdock will be let out of jail anytime soon. But on Monday, Judge Allison Lee heard shocking arguments and testimonies from both sides of this never ending saga. Monday's hearing was a roller coaster ride and we need to talk about what went down and why it's important. My name is Mandy Matney. I've been investigating the Murdock family for almost three years now. And this is the Murdock Murders podcast with David Moses and Liz Farrell. So we were going to do today's episode on the heartbreaking story of Hakim Pinkney, which I wrote about in Fitznews last week. Pinkney was a deaf man who suffered horrific injuries in a 2009 car accident that left him a quadriplegic dependent on a ventilator to survive.

He died mysteriously in 2011 after someone apparently unplugged his ventilator, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by PMPED. Murdock and his co-conspirators are accused of stealing approximately $1 million from Pinkney's family between 2011 and 2017, according to attorney Justin Bamberg. But that story deserves its own week and a lot of time dedicated to it. And we will get to that soon, I promise. This week we have to talk about everything that went down during Monday's bond hearing. The hearing was held in response to Elec's attorney's motion to reduce bond. That motion was filed last week. For a reminder, last month Judge Allison Lee, the presiding judge over the state grand jury, sent Elec Murdock's bond at $7 million, which is unusually high for non-capital charges.

During the last bond hearing, Lee did not allow media to record the proceeding and we had to have David reenact the entire thing. As much as we all loved hearing from David, we received special permission this time from the South Carolina court before the hearing to record it. And that is a big deal. My boss Will Fulks at Fitznews wrote a scathing piece last month calling out the Supreme Court for their decision to ban recordings in the last bond hearing. I believe that Will's piece pressured the Supreme Court to do the right thing on Monday and let us record the hearing. During this hearing, we heard a lot of information that we hadn't heard before from the prosecution. We watched Dick Harputlian fall on his face again as he attempted to argue on behalf of his client. And we heard from the state trooper whose powerful testimony about Elec's dealing from him absolutely stole the show.

There was so much to unpack. So I want to start at the beginning and take this thing blow by blow. The hearing kicked off with Murdock's attorney Dick Harputlian requesting that John T. Lee, Jr., who was a receiver appointed to control Murdock's assets, testify before the court. The judge approved and Harputlian started by asking simple questions about Murdock's finances. Have you uncovered any bank accounts that Mr. Murdock has? Yes. And how many does he have? He has at least three that we know of.

And do you know the total amount of money contained in those assets, in those accounts? He has, I mean, it's roughly $10,000. Okay, so $10,000 in the bank account. And does he have access to that bank account? He does not any longer. Okay, so he can't, he doesn't have access to that $10,000. Right. I'm going to talk to you about a retirement account in just a minute. But other than that retirement account, does he have any liquid?

By that mean, does he have any cash anywhere that you know of? By that definition, no. I mean, I know the retirement account and we know the $10,000. Okay. And I'm at a state bank account. Now, there are pieces of real estate in which he has an interest, correct? That's right. And is he in a position to liquidate those or with the receiver object and with the court, in your opinion, substantiate that objection?

I mean, the way that process works, no, he cannot liquidate. We can liquidate and then, you know, he would not be able to do that without court approval. He has control and judge Charles in charge of the process. Can he borrow on any of those assets? He cannot encumber his assets. He can't encumber him. He can't sell them. He can't borrow against him.

And so, and let's talk about, he does have a retirement account for about $2.1 million. Is that right? That's right. 2.2 maybe depends on what the market's doing right now, but that's roughly what it is. So we learned here that Ellic is not in Pecunius, as his lawyers have said. In fact, according to testimony, he has 2.2 million in a retirement account, plus the $10,000 in another account, plus $360,000 from Randolph's retirement account, plus other trusts left to him by Randolph that appear to be protected from his receivership, plus Maggie's estate, and plus several properties that are owned by Ellic and Ellic's LLCs.

That is not someone who is in Pecunius. Turns out Mr. Cant pay his phone bills with $10,000 in the bank. Can actually pay all of Hampton County's phone bills if he wanted to. We'll talk more about this in a bit. But the main thing to note here is that it's kind of strange that John T. Lay was called as a witness for the defense. Dick Harpoolian, in an effort to make Ellic out to be the little orphan Annie of Richland County Detention Center, was clearly using the very thinnest slice of the truth, which is that Ellic does have, in fact, a bank account, and it does, in fact, have less than $10,000 in it, without mentioning the parts about how Ellic is actually quite the daddy warbucks.

So again, we're seeing evidence that the good old boys continue to operate on the assumption that no one will have follow-up questions about what they're saying. Next up, prosecutor Creighton Waters with the South Carolina Attorney General's Office, cross-examined receiver John T. Lay. First of all, you mentioned some of the real estate in which he may have an interest. And can you very generally just describe that real estate for us, please? He has, I believe it's four parcels of land in Berkeley County. He's got an ownership interest in a beach house. He has some ownership in what are small islands entered around Buford County that are, I don't think there can be any improvements on those pieces of property. But we're trying to understand what the value is of those pieces of property. But that's not very significant, that portion of it.

But Berkeley County and the beach house are the primary real estate holdings that he has. All right. And just without getting into figures, is it fair to say that those assets have substantial value? We think so, yes. All right. And you mentioned before that he is currently the beneficiary of his wife Maggie's estate. Is that correct? Yes. And what would you say is from your review as the primary asset in Maggie's estate? Moselle. All right. And Moselle, that would be the family property of Moselle. That's in her name. Is that correct?

That's right. Is the value of Moselle significant in your judgment? Substantial? Yes. We don't have a precise appraisal yet because that is obviously part of her estate, but that will be something that we'll be working towards. But it appears to be a substantial asset. Yes. All right. And then you mentioned the beach property. Would that be the property at Edison? Yes. And currently half of that interest would be in Ellick Murdoch and the other half would be in the estate essentially of Maggie Murdoch. Is that correct? That's right.

And so if Mr. Murdoch will ultimately become the beneficiary of that estate, then he would have the entirety of that interest. Is that correct? Yes. So first, these uninhabited, basically undevelopable islands in Beaver County that are owned by Ellick and in some cases co-owned with an assumed drug trafficker who is now deceased. We're continuing to look into this as well as other complex real estate transactions and suspicious deals involving Ellick and some of his former law partners. Lay's testimony about how they're trying to understand the values of the islands. Well, sometimes the property's value isn't about money. Sometimes it's about what a shady boots attorney and his shady boots friends can do with that property. Like I said, more on this later. Another thing that's interesting here is that Dick's witness fully backfired on him.

He should have pulled my cousin Vinnie and asked to judge her permission to treat Mr. Lay like a hostile witness because Dick's star witness has just made it even more clear here that Ellick isn't broke. Dick's star witness has made it clear that Ellick's assets are substantial and his financial history is incredibly complex. Herputlian had a few follow-up questions for Lay. After clarifying that Ellick can't use any of the assets discussed due to the receivership, Dick asked one more question. You were asked about Paul and Maggie. There was no life insurance for either one of them, was there? Not that we've been able to identify, that's right. Okay. Raise your hand if you think Ellick, a greedy personal injury attorney who basically admitted to insurance fraud in September, didn't have a life insurance policy on his wife.

I just want to chime in real quick here and say that John T. Lay and Peter McCoy are still looking for any life insurance policies and that if there is a life insurance policy, well, Ellick and his crafty elves on the outside certainly wouldn't want that to be found. Given that he's a person of interest in two homicides and given that our sources have told us there's direct physical evidence that ties them to these double homicides and given that, quote, all life insurance policy is literally the motive of every murderous husband on the Oxygen channel. At the end of his turn, Dick doubled down yet again on his poor, poor Ellick strategy. Your honor, having developed those facts, I'd like to address a few more things, a few other things, if you will, in our motion for bond reduction. I would note that what you've heard is there's no liquid available assets for Mr. Murdoch to post for bond. If your honor sets a surety bond, he would be required to either post property, he has none, or to pay a bondsman who will require two things. One, approximately 10% of the face amount of the bond and then be able to secure it with assets, which again, he can't do.

So any significant surety bond will be the same as no bond. What Dick is getting at here, or trying to say, is that even if Ellick is rich by a lot of people's standards, his money is tied up by receivers and basically any amount of any bond would be unreasonable because he just can't pay it. But hold on, bond is not determined according to affordability. Otherwise, most jails in the United States wouldn't be full of poor people charged with petty crimes who can't pay bail money. Dick Harputlian should know this. And then after he made this point, things started to get really heated. I would also point out that, you know, the issues here aren't as a danger to the community. There's no evidence whatsoever that he poses a physical threat to anybody.

And we hear from the Attorney General that this victim feels threatened or this victim has been called a rat. I mean, he's in the position to indict people for obstruction of justice. In fact, that's going on. These unsubstantiated rumors are not enough. By the way, my client has been sitting in jail. He hadn't been in a position to threaten anybody. Every word he says on the phone is being recorded. And certainly if they heard some recording of him threatening somebody, we'd be hearing about it today.

Whoa. So Dick is basically throwing down the gauntlet here and challenging the South Carolina Attorney General's office to file more charges against his client, which is a really brazen move by a defense attorney potentially staring down hundreds of other financial charges for his client. And he's attacking and dismissing the victims in the meantime, which is not at all normal for a defense attorney. So I think that is bogus. I think this idea that he's a threat to the community, a threat to himself. We've heard from a professional that he's not suicidal, not a threat to himself, but he does need to be in rehab. Dick is hilarious. He is literally turning purple in his little frat room of an office, trying to tell us that Elick isn't a danger to the community.

As Elick sits there with his hair looking like he's in a Broadway musical about gangs in the 1950s with a big old fist mark under his eyes and busted up knuckles, which by the way is the elephant in the room. This man was clearly in a fight and not a word about this from Dick. No, your honor, as you can see, it's my client that is in danger. Please release him so he'll be safe. No, none of that. Why? Did Elick maybe cause the fight? Or did he, I don't know, beat the shower sandals right off another inmate?

At this point, you guys already know this, but it bears repeating. The Hampton County community is afraid of Elick Murdoch. It is that way by design. There is no Murdoch family empire without a community that fears them. And that's on a good day. Elick didn't get to this point because he was too honorable to live amongst the rest of us. He had plenty of space to commit his alleged crimes because of the manipulation. The plain and simple is that his alleged victims are worried enough even knowing he's behind bars.

And the ones who haven't been publicly identified yet are fearful of speaking up even now because of the exposure to potential backlash. In a few minutes, you'll hear from a state highway patrolman who testified to Judge Lee that he's worried about Elick showing up at his house to harm him. So I think we're safe in thinking Elick might be a danger to the community. Herpootlian continued singing the same old song that we heard during other bond hearings. That he is not a flight risk. That Eddie Smith was really the dangerous one during the Labor Day incident. And that the Labor Day shooting was also a son could collect insurance money. And then he made a really odd point comparing his client to Bernie Madoff.

Bernie Madoff stole $6 billion. $65 billion. Corrected. $65 billion. His bond was $10 million. And he made it. And he made it. Oh jeez.

He's playing the Bernie Madoff card. It's not a great look when your attorney is comparing you to the guiltiest of all guilty men and one of the worst humans in human history. I can't imagine this argument gave Judge Lee meaningful food for thought. Yes, she said Elick's bond higher than the amount of money he's accused of stealing so far. But I highly doubt that she's going to sit down to type up her order and think to herself, hmm, that Bernie Madoff point though. And then it got weirder after he said that. Dick started rambling and he seemed really, really angry. You know, we're going to hear from victims in a minute and there's no question that they, they lost money.

The question is, is Mr. Murdoch the soul? Does he bear sole responsibility for that? Those are some issues can be fleshed out at a later date and the appropriate proceeding. That's not what we're here to do today. I'm sure you're going to hear some bombastic comments about what a villain he is. There's no question he's accused of taking a large amount of money. But that doesn't mean, A, he's a flight risk or B, he's a threat to the community. Bombastic comments about what a villain Elick is?

I'm going to fix this for you, Dick. I think you meant to say emotional stories of people who were hurt and in pain, who needed Elick's help and instead got allegedly robbed by him. I'm throwing that allegedly in there, even though Dick can't be bothered to keep the quote innocent until proven guilty thing straight. Your Honor, I don't, you know, the problem with this case has been what I would call a paparazzi view. And speaking of, who is Dick calling paparazzi? Certainly not us, I'm a terrible photographer. I know this has got to be an act because Dick can't possibly believe that the media sits around concocting Murdoch stories. Elick Murdoch has literally handed the media a crazy story every day and we promise you, no one, no one can keep up with these twists and turns.

There has not been a break since June 7th. This thing has been ginned up so much in the press that it's denied Mr. Murdoch the same kind of treatment anybody else in his position would get for being accused of stealing this amount of money. If he were not from apparently the reputable, well-respected Afflewood family in Hampton County, he's being actually punished because of his position in the community. He shouldn't be rewarded for it. But I have to say, I actually agree with Dick here. Murdoch is definitely being treated differently from the average South Carolina defendant. For instance, the average South Carolina defendant most certainly wouldn't be given a bond reduction hearing when there are no changes in circumstance or fact. I also agree with Dick that Elick is being treated differently because of the position of power and affluence he held in Hampton County. But the Murdochs are the ones who told us they were special, so we're just working with what they gave us here.

And by the way, every one of these people who lost money, lost the money because he was their lawyer, he was in a position of trust. That not only cannot happen now, he can't repeat those offenses, it will never happen in the future. He's going to be disbarred. He's suspended, never to practice law again. So the ability to commit this crime again is no, can't happen. Back to my allegedly comment before, did you guys notice that Dick admitted that Elick's former clients lost money because Elick was their lawyer? We seriously cannot get over how many times this man's own high-priced attorneys have told us he's guilty. It's truly, truly wild. Also, I guess these attorneys are confirming that Elick is getting disbarred, so there's that. My favorite part of Dick's argument here, though, is that he's again saying, my client can't commit crimes anymore because they took his law license and his money, your honor.

Herputlian finally concluded his argument, asking for a bond amount significantly smaller than the $7 million that he got before. He asked for a five-figure bond and the ability to post just 10% of that. I understand that you're in a difficult position. This is a high-profile situation with lots of public concern. But I'd ask you to do what you've always done, and that is to look at the facts and make a decision based on the facts. And I don't know what else I can say. Thank you so much. Do what you've always done? Whoa. So remember a few episodes back when we told you about the shenanigans we thought were occurring after Judge Clifton Newman originally denied Elick bond, and we seemed to suddenly end up with Judge Lee? The reason that seems suspicious is because Judge Lee is known as a judge who hands out low bonds to defendants, and she has been criticized for and held back from career advancement because some of those defendants committed additional terrible crimes while out on one of her low bonds.

So do what you've always done? Surely Dick didn't just say that. After Harputlian's heated speech, prosecutor Creighton Waters was up next. Waters made the point that we made earlier, that the law does not factor in your ability of paying when determining what is an excessive bond. And again, Waters argued that Murdock meets the requirements of a high bond. We may have flight risk, but we have danger to the community. And the word I want to use that I've used before about Mr. Murdock is unique. And he poses a unique set of circumstances, Your Honor, that I think really justifies and supports the decision that you've already made and from which there's been no change in circumstance identified by the defendant here today. And again, Creighton Waters said that the Labor Day shooting incident when he allegedly hired Eddie Smith to shoot him for insurance money on the side of the road was a perfect example of why Murdock was and is still a danger to the community. But that scheme is just highlights what what we've been saying all along is that this unique case where we have a man from such a powerful family from the heights of power, the heights of success in the legal profession here in South Carolina, who has come to these particular circumstances in the spacing these allegations, that tends to make one in my experience more dangerous and more unhinged than perhaps someone who's got a lot more experience and has been in this position before.

And we actually saw that actually happened here with what happened on the side of the road. So his own actions have shown that he represents that danger to the community. And not only that, of course, he involved others in these acts, which adds to the danger that he is on top of that, we have to add his supposed opiate addiction and not just any drug addiction, but opiate addiction. And Your Honor, I know that your experience as much as mine is that opiate addiction is the most dangerous kind. It is the most powerful. And of course, anytime someone who's an opiate addict uses opiates, they are playing Russian roulette. And so just that particular addiction there is dangerous more so than the norm. And then when you add it into the surf circumstances that he finds himself in, that just how he is the danger. While Harputlian argued that Murdoch's influence has made him a target in the public square and the media, Waters again reminded the judge that the victims are feeling threatened, and we can't ignore that. But we also, again, come back to his unique circumstance, the unique position of where he was and his family power. And we cannot divorce that. We cannot pretend like it doesn't exist. We can't pretend like that influence in the community doesn't matter and that it's not there. And we've seen that over and over again. It's still very strong. It's very palpable for those who live there.

You know, Mr. Harputlian referred to him as rumors. They're not rumors. We've had people tell us that they faced a backlash. We've had a victim be called a snitch. We had another one who said over and over again that he's not worried as much about himself, but if he comes forward, what's going to happen to his wife and kids? That is a general thing that we have felt throughout this case, and it is indicative of the power that this man exercised. And a big part of that as well is what we also hear is that they still struggle with the fact that they thought he was their friend. They thought he was their friend and he used that to steal money from them. And when combined with the power and influence of this family, that danger to the community is very palpable. It's felt by all these victims. They all almost all have talked about it. And even to this day, it is still a process for some of these individuals to get them to participate with this investigation and look at and help us uncover what may have happened in this case. Like we keep saying, this has been the hurdle all along for folks. They've been too afraid to come forward because of what they feel the Murdochs are capable of doing to their lives in Hampton County, whether that's real or perceived. This is probably hard to understand from the outside because these same people also believe that Ellic was their friend. And that's because by all accounts, Ellic is a nice guy. He was friendly, generous and helpful until he wasn't because a person can be two opposite things at the same time. Ellic can be a very loving father who wanted the absolute best for his sons and still be a person of interest in one of his son's murders.

Ellic can be someone's financial salvation and also their financial demise. Then Waters briefly went over some numbers that he said also make Murdoch a threat. He is to date, to date, accused of stealing over 6.2 or misappropriating over $6.2 million. And of those amounts, just looking at the indicted offenses to date, about 2.5 million of that was cashed out, either cash direct to himself, or there was a check cashing place that was used, or checks to various associates. And the reality is, is that the investigation has uncovered that that money was not just gone, as Mr. Hoopat-Herpudlian said, but substantial portions of it were returned to Mr. Murdoch. Where is that cash? That's a good question. That's something the investigation is looking to develop. And then if we look beyond just the indicted offenses, and we look at the period from 2015 to 2021, we're talking about $3.7 million that was, quote, cashed out, converted to cash, whether by checks to himself, but whether by the check cashing place or checks to these various associates. I will also add that up until 2021, these checks almost uniformly would be under $10,000 and will clearly written to avoid that oversight right there. So all of that is a substantial and amazing amount of cash that was converted and is out in the world somewhere and was done at the instance and at the direction of Mr. Murdoch according to the investigation. Where is that money? That's the biggest question out of all of this. Where did it go? And what was he doing with it?

And in the middle of that argument, Waters dropped a bombshell that could come into play later on. Waters said that investigators have been listening to Murdoch's jailhouse calls and it sounds like he's trying to get his family members to move money around. And then on top of that, let's talk about the testimony that we just had with the receiver. We do have a $2.2 million retirement account that's being discussed. We have cited him the jail calls. He is talking about that retirement account all the time. He's talking about, oh, I can borrow against it, but I don't want to have more interest in the penalty and we've got to make sure that the creditors can't get to it. These were his own words. You know that part of your brain that kicks in when you're about to do something bad? The part that says, hmm, you might not want to do that because there could be consequences and also on being recorded. I don't think Ellic has that. Ellic has lived his entire life believing he was the prince of the country, Ginger's, and it is well established in low country lore that the Murdoch boys could get out of whatever nonsense they got themselves into. I know that Ellic isn't seen as a genius by his peers, but I don't believe he doesn't know that jailhouse calls get recorded.

I just think he's so used to having someone come behind him with wet wipes and a broom that he doesn't even notice what a mess he's making of things. During the hearing, Creighton waters through doubt on Ellic's drug problem by calling it a quote, supposed opiate addiction, which I think is the first time we're hearing someone part of the investigation publicly question that. I bring this up just to say, as we've said before in other iterations, that maybe Ellic's actual addiction is to taking money, or maybe even just to money. To say the things that he apparently said on a recorded phone call that he has to know investigators are listening to with baited breath, that's the sign of someone who can't help himself, right? Someone who is so consumed with the idea of keeping all the pennies to himself that he overlooks the fact that he's incriminating himself further. This man that Dick and Jim wanted us to believe in the last bond hearing is sorry for his actions and is making victims whole again, is actually devising more ways to keep money away from those victims. This is an individual that we listen to in the jail calls, and he does not at all when we listen to those jail calls seem to be one who is destitute, who has less than $10,000. It's very clear. He is telling relatives, go ahead and spend money. I've already worked it out. I'm going to pay you back.

Go play golf here. You need me to send you for $5,000. I don't want you to have to play golf without at least being able to get some drinks at the bar, and I assume you're sure. This is what we're hearing, and we've heard that even to a call today where he is talking about, go ahead and spend this, go ahead and spend this. I'm going to pay back this other relative that's learning you this money. So this is not a man who is that concerned about spending money. And we'll be right back. In his conclusion, prosecutor Creighton Waters reminded the judge that there has been no change in circumstance since the last bond hearing a month ago. The state asked that the conditions previously set during the last hearing remain. But then, Harputlian opened his mouth again.

Your Honor, could I address a couple of things so I don't have to go after the victims that Mr. Waters just said? You can, but I know you're going to have more to say once you hear the victims. Well, not really, because the victims are going to, I've heard them before. It's the same old song. I won't have anything to say after the victims. Um, excuse me. What did he just say? This was the comment heard around South Carolina Monday. I have talked to a lot of attorneys in the last two days. And no one could believe that even Dick Harputlian, who's known for being aggressive in the courtroom, would be so horrifically rude to victims. To a lot of us closely paying attention to this case, this was another clear indicator that Harputlian was losing it.

And then he would not stop talking. Your Honor, I think it's important to understand a couple of things. Mr. Waters, for instance, says there are families so influential in Hampton County, the family's not charged. The guy sitting in front of you in the jail with the mask on is the only one who's charged with anything. He's not Don Corleone. There's not some mafia family out there. If there is, then I challenge Mr. Waters to indict him. Oh jeez, he's playing the Don Corleone and mafia card. I wonder if Dick knows that this is actually what a lot of people think about the Murdoch family.

Hard to believe this bond hearing could get any more awkward and any more bizarre, but away we go. Also, in terms of opioid addiction, this gentleman's been opioid free for six months. He went to detox, successfully completed it, went to rehab, and was in the middle of rehab when he was arrested. So, yes, we know that there are opioid addicts who do all kinds of bad things, but he is not. I mean, he would always be an addict, but he's been drug free for six months. There's no evidence whatsoever that he's had any drugs in the last six months. Three separate times without correcting himself, Dick said that Elick had been sober for six months, which completely dismantles his whole Elick's addiction was out of control, leading to the Labor Day shooting theory.

This was one of many times on Monday where Dick contradicted himself about basic facts in his own case. It is very rare for attorneys who are charging as much as he is to screw up this badly. Either Harputlian, who is 72, is losing his memory or he's having trouble keeping his story straight. But guess what? He kept talking. And all this is about is Mr. Waters inability, inability to have law enforcement focus on the murders of Paul and Maggie. And they're attempting to distract from those murders. They're attempting to infer that somehow Alec Murdoch was involved and use that as a way to heavy up on him. He was not involved. He's indicated he wasn't involved, and this is a total distraction.

I apologize to the court for being somewhat emotional about this. But again, Mr. Waters will not be investigation indicates. Well, the investigation is not a person. Not only is it hearsay, I believe it's not true. Okay, so finally, more than an hour and 15 minutes into this thing, Judge Lee gave the victims and their attorneys the floor. Eric Bland was first up speaking on behalf of the Satterfield family. I take a little bit of umbrage with Mr. Reputely said that he knows what the victims are going to say and they've said it already and it was almost dismissive. These are victims that have been victimized by Mr. Murdoch as their attorney victims that have lost millions of dollars.

He then asked the judge to consider the safety of the victims when deciding bond. Attorney Justin Bamberg, who is representing eight victims in this case, some of whom have not been included in the indictments, was next to speak. These were not just financial crimes, Your Honor. The victims in this case, in all the cases, these are personal injury cases. These are people who suffered physical harm, some of which were subjected to serious surgeries. The money that was misappropriate and stolen from them wasn't just fun money. It wasn't just, I'm going to go to Las Vegas and gamble money.

This was money that was supposed to be used to compensate them for injuries so that they could afford medical care, so that they could afford to get to where they needed to get in terms of the doctor or get proper transportation, as well as for lifetime care, because we know that when someone who's injured has, for example, a back fusion, that's going to lead to problems down the line and the settlement money is intended to be used to help address their physical ailments. So to say and downplay that it was just a financial crime, that's not the case. And if the defendant has shown for years that when that money was taken, nobody cared about the impact it would have on the clients physically. Bamberg said, if anything, the judge should increase Murdoch's bond. As Bamberg was talking, by the way, Harputlian and his boys were literally cracking jokes on camera.

If you're willing to misappropriate the amount of money that we're talking about from the type of victims that we're talking about, what wouldn't you do? When there are victims who are worried about what happens to their safety if he is let out, those are legitimate fears from individuals who had their lawyer misappropriate the money that they could have spent, they could have spent that money on their own medical care. So yes, those victims do feel as though Mr. Murdoch didn't care about their physical well-being because that was the whole point of him representing them in the first place. So he is a danger to the community. What has changed from the court's prior decision on bond as it pertains to Mr. Murdoch then and now, nothing except additional information coming forth, additional, as some, I'm sure Mr. Harputlian would say, alleged victims being identified,

but nothing but more information that shows that this is a lot deeper than most people know. Finally, the star of the show, Lieutenant Thomas E. Moore, spoke at the hearing. Murdoch is accused of stealing more than $125,000 that Moore got from a settlement when he was injured while working for the highway patrol. Here's more. I know Mr. Murdoch as my attorney. I was asked to go to him because he was a good attorney. Very nice man, always very nice to me, very cordial. Never had any issues. Immediately we were on a regular basis.

Here's the problem. He treated me that nice and he stole every dime I had from the injury I incurred. I was working for the highway patrol and was struck by a car and had to have three levels of my neck repaired, two levels fused and one has artificial disc in it. There's permanent nerve damage. There's no question about that. The injury is only going to get worse. It's not going to get better. What is going to happen with me is I am going to have to leave and retire at some point. I'm not going to have a choice in whether I can stay or not because of my injury. We're talking about money.

We don't have to talk about all the money, but look, as $100,000 that came from my insurance company that I'm finding out now, I probably wasn't even required to deposit at that law firm and I was giving badly advice. That money was never even deposited in that law firm's account. The same day that I took a check there, it was taken to another bank and it was cashed shortly thereafter. Moore, speaking in uniform from his desk at the highway patrol, said that he didn't want to still be working, but he had to because Alec Murdoch stole from him. I don't think Alec and his attorney saw this coming. Lieutenant Moore's testimony was unbelievably strong and incredibly pointed. Not just because he's a law enforcement officer, but because he was the living, breathing example of what we've been talking about this whole time

and he wasn't afraid to go there with the truth. In his speech, Moore said something that a lot of us have been saying all along. So I guess my thing is if he didn't have money, like some people are saying, and there's so many questions about money, how does he have all these attorneys? These attorneys, I've seen on TV and in the newspaper, but I couldn't afford to hire him. So how can he, if he don't have any money? And then the veteran police officer said that he felt Murdoch was a threat, both financially and physically. And that is a big deal.

But clearly, he's a financial threat. He can get out here tomorrow. He may not find me or you or somebody else. He's got a way of getting money. He's not done. And, you know, as far as he's a financial threat in my opinion, physical threat as well. Would I be surprised if he or somebody related to him showed up in my house? Would he have gone? Absolutely not. I think there's enough questions that his bond does not need to be reduced because all of a sudden, Murdoch don't have no money.

Well, guess what? I don't need it. I can't pay my medical bills. And I'm going to be forced out of this job because of my injury. And frankly, I wouldn't even be here now if I didn't have bills I have to pay. And that has to be done because that money was blatantly stolen from me. Keep in mind, as the police officer was giving his powerful testimony, Dick was completely disregarding him and looking away from the camera. All I can say is there's only two things I think is going to happen if Mr. Murdoch leaks.

Number one, I'm going to see him again. He's either going to finish the job or die, or he's going to be gone out of this country. And number two, you're going to have more victims. Those are the two things that are absolutely going to happen if he's released. I think he's done enough harm as it is. I don't think we need to give him the opportunity to do any more until he goes to trial. And that's all I want to say, Your Honor. Dick could not help himself after this powerful speech.

He had to make one more comment before this nearly two-hour hearing ended. He really wanted to drive the point home that his client was poor, so he brought up Alex Underwear. And in terms of borrowing money from his family, I think the most graphic example of that is the snippet they enclose about him wanting a family member to write money to another inmate's canteen account. And the reason for that is this. All you have is $60 a week for a canteen account. That is, and you have to buy underwear, undershirts. It costs three bucks for a pack of salt and pepper, four bucks for mayonnaise, five bucks for ketchup.

So if he's asking them to write a check, he used his $60. That's all he gets for a week. He needs more because he'd like to get some more underwear. This is a guy who's rolling in the cash where he's asking his relatives to write checks to a canteen account so he can buy clean underwear. No, this is not, I mean, this is again, they're creating boogeymen. And this Highway Patrol officer, God knows, you know, my heart goes out to him. And God knows that he was victimized. And God knows I think he will be made whole, as many of these other victims have been made whole.

What I would suggest is that that has nothing to do with bond. If danger to the community is getting yourself shot in the head, then I challenge Mr. Waters why he hadn't alleged that Eddie Smith, who did the shooting in the head, isn't in danger to the community. And secondly, if there are assets out there, it's not speculation that he has access to to use to post a bond. Where are they? Thank you. We did a little fact checking here, because whenever a purported $750 an hour attorney starts talking about his client's need for clean underpants, you know things are getting a little loosey-goosey for everyone's own good.

Dick gives us some unsolicited insight here into the inside operations of Ellick's jail life. Looks like Ellick has been instructing family members to put money in other inmates' accounts. For more than a month now, we've been waiting on a FOIA request to come back from Richland County, in which we asked for a long list of items, including a list of who has been depositing money into Ellick's account. Could Ellick be asking for the money to go into another inmate's account to avoid scrutiny? Maybe. But the prevailing theory out there right now is that maybe this money was for protection. Dick told the court that the reason Ellick wanted money to be deposited into someone else's commissary account is because inmates are only allowed to have $60 a week deposited into their commissary accounts.

Dick is basically trying to tell us that this is cramping Ellick's style, so he devised a workaround to get himself clean underwear. This was a very strange rant. It was almost as if Dick forgot where he was and started giving us his Senate floor speech on the privatization of jail commissaries and the travesty of overpriced condiments. At any rate, on Tuesday we asked the Richland County Public Information Officer whether there was a limit on how much money can be deposited into commissary accounts each week at the Richland County Detention Center. She told us no, there is not, which means Dick appears to have made up an entire story about Ellick's drawers.

Maybe this is just the story he was told, or maybe it was fan fiction. Who can tell? Judge Lee, like the rest of us watching, appeared to be overwhelmed at the end of this hearing and she said she will issue a written order with her decision on bond. While none of us can predict the future in this story, we have asked a lot of sources what they think will happen here. And across the board, everyone agreed that it is highly unlikely that Lee would significantly lower Ellick's bond. So after the bond hearing, we spoke to Attorney Eric Bland, who busted this thing wide open back in September. I think the circumstances actually, you know, for them got worse because, one, I thought Dick's statement about that it's the same old, same old from the victims. I heard it. I don't need to respond.

It actually wasn't because they had not heard from Justin Bamberg and the people that he was speaking on behalf of and they certainly never heard of, you know, from Patrolman Moore and the circumstances that he felt that he was actually in danger. So I think the situation actually boomerang the opposite way for Dick and Murdoch. I think the situation got worse. Bland told me that he could not see Judge Lee changing Ellick's bond significantly or at all. And the reason is there hasn't been a change of circumstances. He didn't have money a month ago. He has the same not money this month. You know what I'm saying? He never had money. So what are the change circumstances? Is it just because he's been in jail 30 more days? You know, it's always going to get worse for him because I think what you saw is these victim impact statements. And when these victims testified his trial, I mean, he is, he's in trouble. There's no defense to this, to the crimes of these thefts.

Eric Bland, along with several of my sources, could not get over the fact that Dick was so disrespectful to the victims on Monday. I don't know where Dick's going with this. And then for Dick to cast doubt on whether people are, that their safety is in danger, how dare he say that? My clients get strange looks at the grocery store from people that used to be friends with them. Alex still enjoys a healthy percentage of people in Hampton County that like him. Sure, there's a lot of people now that don't like him. And there's a lot of people that are probably saying, oh, I'm so glad that, you know, he's finally getting what he deserves. But he's got friends there, people that he's really helped out. And, you know, my clients get eyes from people. Like, really, when are you going to stop? When are your lawyers going to stop? You know, we're suffering here in Hampton County. And, you know, even Petrolman Moore said that he doesn't feel safe at times. So those are very real things.

And so for Dick to say, well, these people need to come forward and bring their charges. No, people are afraid to come forward. That's the whole point of this. That, you know, it took a tremendous amount of courage for the Satterfields to come forward and do this. No, not everybody's willing to come forward and say, oh, this person, you know, cut me off. Or this person came at me with a shopping cart or yada, yada. No, it's not that easy. And then Dick to double down and say, you know, I stake my reputation or I'm telling you he had nothing to do with Maggie and Paul's murders. No lawyer makes those kinds of statements. Some of the things that Dick did yesterday were unusual. So there was a point in Monday's hearing when Harputlian flipped a switch and he got this look on his face and fire in his eyes.

Like this was very, very personal to him. Like maybe he was watching his whole reputation and career collapse and he was about to lose another bond hearing on an international stage. As Justin and Eric both said, Harputlian failed to even address the one thing required for bond reduction, which is a change of circumstances. Instead, he just gave the judge the same old song. In fact, it's ironic that Harputlian dismissed the victims and said that they were singing the same old song that he's heard over and over before. But really, the only one who sounded like a broken record in the bond hearing was Dick. To us and several of our sources, we were left wondering what the point was of Monday's bond hearing, especially when we're expecting more and more charges for Eric. The whole hearing, remember, was because of the defense's request and in the end, Harputlian and Murdoch managed to look like worse human beings than they did before. And that is saying something. Why waste taxpayer dollars on this circus? And how many more times are we going to do this? For the latest updates in this case, subscribe to fitsnews.com where we will report on Judge Lee's decision in Alex Bond.

A huge thanks to Karen and Georgia of My Favorite Murders for the shout out last week. Y'all rock! Lastly, big news, the 2020 Murdoch special airs this Friday where I will be featured. I chose to work with 2020 because I believed that they would do this story and all of the victims justice. We have a lot more to cover in this case. And as always, thank you for helping us expose the truth wherever it leads. Stay tuned. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me, Manny Matney, and my fiance, David Moses. Our executive editor is Liz Farrell. Produced by Luna Shark Productions.