Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #126 - Final chapter of the Boat Crash Case? Attorneys Launch “Lawfare” Campaign Against Journalists Who Exposed Alex Murdaugh

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

Investigative journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell have endured a lot during the nearly seven years they’ve covered the Murdaugh family but NOTHING like what they’re experiencing now.  Shortly after Mallory Beach's death, Mallory’s family filed a lawsuit in search of justice and accountability and an assurance that Parker’s Kitchen would shore up the training of their cashiers when it comes to the sale of alcohol to minors.  Instead of seeking to settle the case, Parker’s Kitchen, Greg Parker and their legal team appear to have embarked down a very dark path, engaging two political operatives — one known for “mischief-making” and the other known for harassment campaigns against individuals — to help lessen their liability in the case.  Which brings us to the past six months, during which Greg Parker’s attorneys have used mischaracterizations and unsupported theories to turn their focus on Mandy and Liz in an effort to silence them and their coverage of the case(s)… So much to cover, so let’s dive in! 🥽🦈 Episode References Meet Meredith Bannon and Becky Lindahl ⭐️ Rules for Professional Conduct - Rule 41.2 ⚖️ “Kobe Bryant family settles the helicopter crash photos lawsuit for $28.5 million” - NPR, March 1, 2023 📰 “Marco Rubio’s ‘Knife Fighters’” - Buzzfeed News, Oct 25, 2015 📰 “A Convenience-Store Magnate, Teen Drinking and a Fatal Boat Crash: The Legal Case Shaking South Carolina” - WSJ, Aug 13, 2022 📰 Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Learn more about Premium Membership at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lunashark.supercast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get bonus episodes like our Premium Dives, Corruption Watchlist, Girl Talk, and Soundbites that help you Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight ⁠⁠⁠Support Our Show, Sponsors and Mission: https://lunasharkmedia.com/support/⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Quince⁠⁠⁠ - ⁠⁠⁠Hungry Root⁠⁠⁠ - ⁠⁠⁠Bombas⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lunashark.supercast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram.com/mandy_matney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   |   ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram.com/elizfarrell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TrueSunlight.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My name is Manny Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption, previously known as the Murdoch Murders podcast, which was the inspiration for Hulu's original series, Murdoch Death in the Family, and the Murdoch Death in the Family official podcast, now both streaming on Hulu and audio episodes wherever you listen. True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. A special message before we get started. Thank you to Judge R. Keith Kelly for signing our Rule 605 Media Coverage, Form 1, allowing us to record and publish the hearing last week. We appreciate your service to South Carolina and dedication to transparency. It fosters trust in the justice system. when bad actors intentionally degrade that trust for personal gain.

Forgive me, y'all, for I am unhinged today, and I want to tell you why. I know I've been vague about what's been going on with me in the past few weeks, so I want to explain. Let's go back to November 12th when I was interviewing the amazing Johnny McCoy about the fake Ory County sex scandal, And my sweet husband informed me that we were being sued again by the same former professor who sued me in 2022 and cost me over $30,000 in legal fees before I was dismissed with prejudice. Yeah, y'all, former University of South Carolina professor David Voros and his girlfriend, Alexander Stasco, are suing me, my husband, and my company for, get this, they are big mad that I stated my opinion about them on COJ, calling them pathetic and other things.

But the lawsuit felt like another flick to the forehead, telling me that the system is broken, that these people can just file a meritless lawsuit that could take years to dismiss. And y'all, that annoying lawsuit was not even close to the worst thing that happened to me in the last few weeks. The next morning, I found out my best friend's husband unexpectedly and tragically died. My sweet, selfless best friends since 2007 didn't want to tell me at first because she didn't want to ruin the hype of the Hulu series release for me. That gutted me. So everything in my world shifted away from lawsuits work in the release of Murdoch, death in the family, which I definitely didn't get to fully embrace to supporting my best friend.

Long story short, I took several planes to multiple cities so I could see her and be with her and do what I could to help her pick up the pieces. If you are religious or spiritual, please pray for my best friend. I can't even begin to describe the kind of pain she is enduring right now. During that awful week away, as I tried my best to push all work matters to the side, a certain team of attorneys working for a billionaire buffoon decided for some reason to ramp up their harassment campaign against me, my colleagues, my business, and my supporters. Every day felt like a new nightmare. We were discovering a new targeted list of subpoenas and depositions that had everything to do with those who support Lunashark and nothing to do with the Beach family first Greg Parker civil conspiracy lawsuit. which they were doing this harassment campaign in the name of.

We are going to tell you everything that is happening in that lawsuit, but I want to tell you all to remember the names of two attorneys who are behind this. Two attorneys who have agreed to do what appears to be a billionaire's dirty work by deploying intimidation tactics supported by their status as officers of the court. Those two attorneys are Mark Seymour and Deborah B. Barbier. Sound familiar? Mark Moore and Deborah Barbier share one thing in common. Their most infamous clients were both conspirators of Ehrlich Murdoch, who were both brought down largely by the journalism done on this podcast. Yes, yes, Mark Moore represented Russell Lafitte and Deborah

Barbier represented Corey Fleming. Coincidence? I don't think so, but you can decide that. It's just rich, like really rich. The two attorneys who are wreaking the most havoc on our business at a time when business has never been better and the future has never been brighter are also two attorneys who defended the only men convicted of conspiring with Elic Murdoch to steal millions of dollars. South Carolina is small, but it ain't that small. The timing of when they decided to unleash this judicial tear on Lunashark was incredibly rich. This lawsuit was filed in 2021, about events that occurred in 2020 and 2021. And they decided to wait until October 20th, 2025, five days after Murdoch Death in the Family was released on Hulu to subpoena me. They waited

until the absolute peak of my career thus far to use their power as lawyers to scare me into silence. Thankfully, we hired two badass attorneys, Becky Lindhall and Meredith Bannon, who are not only fans of this show, but friends of mine, to fight this subpoena and file a beautiful motion to quash. So while I was out west supporting my best friend who was dealing with unimaginable grief, we found out that these two scummy attorneys, appear to be working with someone who we will call the felon, but whose name and alias I will only say once on this podcast. Jim Seidel of Crime and Cask. We're going to tell you more about this foolish felon in a minute, and I only said his name so that listeners of this podcast will

immediately stop engaging with any of his true crime content on social media and start calling him out for who he is, a felon and a fraud. He published an article that claimed a former employee was going to release thousands of text messages between Liz and me in relation to the Greg Parker conspiracy case. So yeah, that was great. And things did not get better on the week of Thanksgiving like I hoped. It actually got worse. Greg Parker's attorneys, Mark Moore, Deborah Barbier, Jim Bannister, and Rhett Ricard filed an unhinged 15. 15-page response to our motion to quash their subpoenas of me, which I will talk about

in a minute. That motion to quash in the insane accompanying motion for a gag order confirmed everything that I feared, in my opinion, that Markmore in company were using this lawsuit as a mechanism to scare Liz and me into silence, and they did not care how many rules of professional conduct that they broke in the process of doing this. Why do I think that? Because in their public motion, these attorneys made sure that they mentioned private information about Liz that they got by forcing her to sit for a deposition earlier in the month, which is the exact reason why I would rather get a cold sore than sit for a deposition with Mark Moore. Hence why I'm spending a ton of money.

fighting it. They decided to release our personal information and our private work product text messages and also in their motion. These disgusting criminal defenders released our phone numbers to the public. Yes, y'all, they released my phone number and Liz Farrell's phone number for the whole world to see. And again, at the absolute peak of our careers as journalist, which looks like a major violation. of the Rules of Professional Conduct, specifically Rule 41.2. Here is David with an excerpt. Rule 41.2. Privacy protection for filings. Parties should exercise caution and refrain from including any unnecessary personal identifying information in court filings so as to limit the necessity of redacting documents. Furthermore, parties should exercise caution in including other sensitive

personal data in filings, such as medical records, employment history, individual financial information, proprietary, or trade secret information, information regarding an individual's cooperation with the government, information regarding the victim of any criminal activity, or National Security Information. So as a result of this cowardly and despicable move to harass the same journalist who just so happened to expose their most infamous clients, i.e. Corey Fleming and Russell Lefeet, Liz and I have been subjected to more harassment. Countless unwanted text and phone calls in the last week. We were signed up for services that they thought would offend us, such as speech therapy and weight loss texting services. It was enough harassment for me to get a new number,

which I've never had to do, and I cannot wait for Greg Parker to pay for. All of this madness came to a head on Wednesday when lawyers were finally able to fight these motions in person in front of Judge R. Keith Kelly. We will talk more about that hearing later in this episode, But I just want to say that I thought that my world was crumbling until I saw Becky Lindhall, Meredith Bannon, and Mark Tensley stand before the judge and expose the legal terrorism that we have faced in the last month. I choose to believe that good ultimately overcomes evil, and I saw that on our side in court last week. I just hope that Judge Kelly sees that too. I'm not sharing all of this with you for sympathy.

I'm sharing because I know that so many of you care, like really care, about us, and you believe in the future of our company, and you want us to succeed. If you are wondering how you can help us in this fight, please start by sharing this episode that will serve as the go-to episode for what is actually going on behind Greg Parker's harassment campaign. We are telling you this because we believe in the power of sunlight, and truth prevailing in the face of evil. We believe in the power of this audience we built from nothing

to stand up and support us when we need you the most. So here we go. So before we get into the thick of things today, we need to do a bit of a rewind and open some boxes together because the story we're about to tell you might seem complex, but it really isn't. And that is the most important thing to understand in all of what we're about to share. Let's start with the outside of this first box.

It's small and wrapped in paper. That paper has Alec Murdoch's face on it. I know. Vomit. But stick with me here. That wrapping paper is showing you the person who killed Maggie Murdoch and Paul Murdoch. Under the wrapping paper is the box itself. And that box is covered with pictures of Paul Murdoch.

This box is showing you the person who killed. Mallory Beach. Now we're going to open that box and find out who is inside of it, because that person is responsible for knocking over the very first domino in the Murdoch murder's story. This domino fell around 5.30 p.m. February 23, 2019, when Paul Murdoch, a teenager at the time, went into a convenience store in Okie, South Carolina and used the driver's license of his much larger and much more ginger brother to buy beer and alcoholic celtzers for the boat ride he was about to embark on with his friends. Okay, I'm lifting the top to the box. Is everybody ready? Oh, God. I graduated at the University of Georgia in 1975 and started the construction of my first convenience

store that I opened on January 1st, 1976. It's Greg Parker, the wannabe billionaire owner of the Parker's kitchen chain of convenience stores and gas stations. This is a story starts with him, and the improper sale of alcohol his cashier made to Paul Murdoch the night of the boat crash, which set off a chain of events that resulted in the deaths of three people. This man, Greg Parker, continues to hurt people to this day because of that moment, that one decision on the part of his cashier, who did not appear to have been trained on how to scrutinize the IDs of young-looking customers purchasing alcohol, especially ones using their mom's credit cards to buy it. Shortly after the boat crash in February 2019, the Beach family,

as you know, hired attorney Mark Tinsley and filed a wrongful death complaint on Mallory's behalf. It didn't take long for three of the defendants to settle. Randolph Murdoch III settled on behalf of his family trust, which owned the property where Paul, his grandson, had launched the boat from that night, where the kids hadn't even been drinking yet. Luther's rare and well done where Paul and his friend Connor Cook, again, both under the age of 21, stopped for two shots each before getting back on the boat. And the Wood family, who hosted the oyster roast where Paul was drinking the beers he had purchased earlier and had stored on the boat. Those settlements totaled $2.1 million from those three parties. The holdouts in the case were those who, in our opinions, bore much more responsibility for Paul's Crash and Mallory's death,

Ehrlich and Buster Murdoch and Parker's Kitchen. Shortly before Ehrlich's murder trial in 2023, Buster Murdoch settled with the Beach family. And that left just Ehrlich Murdoch and Parker's Kitchen. Parker's Kitchen settled with Mallory's family and the other boat crash victims for $18.5 million in July, 23, after a protracted fight. Ehrlich, well, it took him another 15 months to settle the case, but let's face it, the boat crash case went from being Ehrlich's biggest problem before June 7th, to being the very least of his problems after June 7th, 2021.

But this isn't about Elek Murdoch for once. This is about Greg Parker, the owner of Parker's Kitchen, who, in our opinions, makes Elyke Murdoch look like a well-meaning goofball. For the past almost seven years, Greg Parker and his attorneys have turned a seemingly clear-cut case of liability into a trash pile of utter chaos made worse by an army of dark and malevolent spirits whose souls feed off the mayhem they manufacture themselves. And in our opinions, Greg Parker and his attorneys did that to confuse judges, distract from the truth, and exhaust the plaintiffs in the boat crash case. Because that case, like I said, was really simple. It was a matter

of two questions. Does Parker's Kitchen have liability in the death of a teenager who was killed by an intoxicated teenager whose purchase of alcoholic Parker's Kitchen contributed to his inability to safely drive his boat that night. And if so, what percentage of liability does Parker's have compared with everyone else who contributed to Mallory's death that night? But nothing is simple when megalomania is involved. And yes, Mark Moore. In our opinions, Greg Parker has displayed some serious megalomaniac behavior over the past seven years when it comes to this case, and you know it. To be fair, the issue Greg Parker had with the case was also simple. His store denied liability in the crash, and because this was a fatality involving

an intoxicated teenager, Parker was eminently aware that his business could be on the hook for the entirety of whatever a jury decided Mallory's estate was owed in damages. This is why, according to the Beach family's second lawsuit, filed in December 2021, Greg Parker and his team had employed political operatives, the kind you hired to build and sell a counter-narrative, and influence the public's opinion. And in service of that, had leaked confidential court materials to include photos of Mallory Beach's body after it was found that ended up in the public sphere, all in an alleged effort to emotionally harm and weaken the resolve of the Beach family in the original boat crash case. So they would either drop the case altogether or be willing to settle for a lower amount to end

the onslaught. Now, again, Greg Parker's legal team has really outdone its own very low bar of deceptiveness in muddying up this second case and making it seem chaotic. And I'll be honest, there are a few times we almost fell for it by labeling this case as complicated or complex in past episodes. So let's open up a second box together now because I want to show you all how simple this is. This box is slightly bigger than the first one. There's no wrapping paper. The box is plain. And when you take off the lid, you'll see that there's an open laptop and it's frozen in time, to a date in late November 2021. On the screen is a publicly accessible video on Vimeo. Now, before we metaphorically press play on that video, let's talk about what Vimeo is.

David, can you read who Vimeo says they are on their website? Vimeo is on a mission to simplify what it takes to make, manage, and share video, all in a single easy-to-use platform. Vimeo has grown from a place where creatives show off their work to a platform to create, edit, and share videos. It's for beginners and pros. It's for marketers and CEOs. Though our tools have evolved, our goal to help people create and share stunning videos hasn't changed.

Trusted by 287 million plus creatives, marketers and businesses. Okay. So it's a place where video. get shared so other people can watch them. Do users have the ability to make the videos they share private so only a prescribed group of people can see them? Control exactly who sees your videos with industry-leading privacy features

that are simple to implement and use. Choose exactly who watches your videos with password protection, unlisted links, and granular viewer permissions. Viewer permissions. Set viewing permissions before upload and add secure user roles for enterprise-grade protection. Private video sharing for all kinds of teams.

Build secure projects where teams can share password-protected videos. Review confidential videos for research or collaborate on sensitive projects. Specify exactly which websites can embed your video. protecting your content from appearing on unauthorized sites while maintaining professional presentation. Protect important videos with video encryption and secure video hosting with Vimeo Enterprise. Advanced security features include SSO Access, SCIM, provisioning, and digital rights management. Interesting. Okay, so the video that we're able to watch, the one in the this metaphorical box does not have any such privacy protections given that we, who are

mere members of the public, can press play on it and watch it. So what's on this video in the box? It's a sizzle reel, a trailer for a potential documentary about the Murdoch family by Blackfin Production Company. It's a trailer that was made to cultivate interest in investors and others who could financially back the production of this project. So what's the issue here? Issue is that the trailer used assets, these distressing photos and video clips of the family expressing their grief, that were never released to the media or the public in any way, nor were they ever intended to be released. The photos are of Mallory Beach's dead body.

The clips are from a video that was made by the Beach family for the exclusive purpose of showing Parker's Kitchen and its legal team during mediation, who the beaches were, what they lost, how their lives have been impacted, and how they might. appear to a jury. The defendants in that case were barred from sharing that video outside the mediation process, and the plaintiffs owned the video, meaning they could show it to whoever they wanted to. There were only two parties who had these materials, the attorneys for the estate of Mallory Beach and the attorneys for Parker's Kitchen. What's the big deal about this? Well, one, if it's true that Greg Parker and his team or the reason these materials ended up in a sizzle reel,

then the Beach family says he and his team committed an act of civil conspiracy. Or, more specifically, that they, quote, conspired with each other and others to engage in actions through surreptitious activities, the abuse of process, and violations of the SCADR, with the intent to harm the plaintiffs and inflict extreme emotional distress upon them. SCADR, by the way, is a reference to the mediation process. And two, if Greg Parker and his team did leak these materials,

then the Beach family says Greg Parker and his team engaged in outrageous conduct that, quote, exceeded all bounds of decency and were atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized society. Conduct, quote, no reasonable person could be expected to endure. Again, this is simple. The question is, did Greg Parker and his team conspire to make these photos and video clips public? And again, Greg Parker and his deceptive team of attorneys deny that Greg Parker conspired with any to do anything. More on this after a quick break.

Now let's talk about something seemingly random, but actually not so random at all. The 2020 death of basketball player Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. Shortly after, Kobe and Gianna died in a helicopter crash outside of Los Angeles. Kobe's wife and Gianna's mother, Vanessa Bryant, learned that Los Angeles County fire personnel

and sheriff's deputies had taken photos of her husbands and daughters' bodies, and a deputy had shown those photos to patrons at a bar. Those photos were never made public in the wider sense, though. And Vanessa never saw them herself. They were not released to the media or posted on social media. A deputy showed the photos to people at a bar. Vanessa Bryant sued the county for invasion

of privacy and negligence. In trial, she testified that she lived in fear of her surviving daughters going online one day and being confronted with those photos. That is the same fear that the beaches have about the photos of Mallory's body. And they have a right to feel that way, because if we've learned anything over the past seven years, it's that there are some very cruel wackos out there. Back to Vanessa.

In August 2023, a jury awarded her $16 million. But Los Angeles County ended up paying her the jury award and settling for another $12.85 million to prevent Vanessa's surviving three daughters from filing their own claims. Meaning, she got nearly $30 million to make up for the heartless act of sharing her loved one's death photos without her permission and against her will. I'm telling you all this so you can understand that the Beach family's civil conspiracy case is no frivolous thing. This isn't a let bygones be bygone situation.

And based on Greg Parker and his deceptive team of attorney's actions over the past four years, it would seem like they are very aware of that. Which brings us to the dishonest and very nasty ways Greg Parker and his attorneys have been fighting this case. But let's first talk about the cast of characters and the important names to take note of here. Remember when we said that Greg Parker and his team hired political operatives to assist them in the boat crash case? One of those would be social media knife fighter, West Donahue, of the Lawrence Group. That nickname, by the way, came from a 2015 BuzzFade story about Marco Rubio's campaign team, which included digital marketing strategist, West Donoghue.

Here's David with an excerpt from the story that I think is important. Quote, South Carolina is known for its viper pit political culture, dirty tricks, and all that stuff, end quote, said journalist Corey Hutchins, who covered the state for many years. But he said the strategy. now working for Rubio always seemed especially mesmerized by the local mythology around mud-slinging and mischief-making. Quote, Terry Sullivan and Wesley Donahue worked together at one point in a consulting firm in downtown Columbia, and I'm pretty sure I remember a Lee Atwater poster on the wall in Wesley's office. I bet there were a lot of political consultants there who mistook it

for a mirror, end quote. Greg Parker's attorneys repeatedly and dishonestly have attributed that moniker of knife fighter as something Mark Tinsley made up to add drama to his case. But no, that nickname not only came attached to West Donahue via BuzzFeed, it's one he appears to have relished because he described himself as a knife fighter on his own website. Why is this important? Because Greg Parker's team hired that guy. a guy known for mudslinging and mischief-making to help them defend Parker's Kitchen in the boat crash case,

and they now want us all to believe that no mud-slinging or mischief-making occurred. Oh, you might remember Wes's name because it came up recently. Wes sat for a deposition with Attorney Barrett Brewer, who represents Patrick Bryant, aka Congresswoman Nancy Mace's former fiancé, whom she and a Jane Doe have accused of rape. The deposition was for a fake inchoate lawsuit filed by a shell company that was created by Patrick Bryan after Mace made her accusations against him on the House floor in February of this year, meaning it appeared that the lawsuit was created for the sole purpose of deposing West Donahue, who had once served as Mace's campaign manager, so he could put allegations of salacious and damaging details of Mace's life on the public record. The deposition was almost immediately shared with the press. This past fall, a judge fined Brewer, $48,500 for conducting that deposition for this fictitious lawsuit. Here's David with what Congresswoman Mace had to say about that.

This was an outrage case of lawfare by individuals trying to weaponize the courts against a sitting member of Congress and rape victim Jane Doe. We stood our ground. fought back and justice was served cold. They earned all of it and then some. They will get everything coming to them and I will not feel an ounce of pity or pain for what they've done. So that's West Donoghue and stick a pin in Brewer's deposition tactic there because abuse of process in our opinions also applies to Greg Parker and his team of attorneys. Okay, let's talk about the other political operative Greg Parker and his team hired.

Greg Roman. David, will you read Greg Roman's bio from his website? Greg Roman is the executive director of the Middle East Forum, previously directing the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. In 2014, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency named him one of the, quote, 10 most inspiring global Jewish leaders, end quote. And he previously served as the political advisor to the deputy foreign minister of Israel and worked for the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

A frequent speaker on Middle East Affairs, Mr. Roman appears on international news channels such as Fox News, I-24 News, Al Jazeera, BBC World News, and Israel channels 12 and 13. He studied national security and political communications at American University and the Interdisciplinary Center in Hertzlia and has contributed to the Hill, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, and the Jerusalem Post. After the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdoch in the summer of 2021, a strange blog post appeared on Greg Roman's site, in the link, was posted on social media, particularly in the comments of both of our pages and in pages about the murders, and, well, it was really weird. Because how was it that this Middle East expert who didn't seem to ever write about true crime ever, how did he have all of these details about the investigation that were never made public? It was hard to imagine that this outsider

from Pennsylvania could have sauntered into Hampton County as he made it seem. So soon after the murders and successfully gained the trust of Hampton County residents, who then shared information that no one else seemed to know about the boat crash case and the Murdoch family. And the reason why this was hard to believe was because it was a lie, but stick a pin in that. Also, I should mention, he has since deleted this special blog, but thank God for PDFs. The blog seemed to be aimed at putting the blame for Mallory's death solely on Paul and the Murdox, almost like it was piggybacking off of Paul's and Maggie's murders,

and the way those murders seem to take Ehrlich and Buster out of the running as co-defendants, leaving old Greg Parker by his lonesome. It's like that one scene in the Titanic, when that one rich guy hops into a rescue boat, as it's about to be lowered and tries to blend in with the woman and the children. Greg Roman's blog was the lifeboat. Here's David, with the standout passages from that blog that seemed suspicious to us even back in July 2021 when this was first published. But Paul's blood alcohol concentration, BAC, was four times the legal limit at the time of the accident,

and his friend Connor Cook's BAC was two and one half times the legal limit. There is no way that the alcohol purchased at Barkers could solely have caused these two boys to get so drunk. Inaccurate, but okay. Also, what an interesting opinion to share. One more, David. A quick review of the events clearly shows that there are many others that are culpable in Mallory's death, who are currently being let off the hook. Oh, so not just Parker's kitchen. Got it. So who is this Greg Roman, right? Well, Greg Parker hired him and later admitted to it in an August 2022 story in the Wall Street Journal, where Roman was referred to as an investigative

journalist and their work Roman had done for Greg Parker as journalism, which, and this part is rich, would mean that Roman would be protected by the reporter's shield law in South Carolina, which Greg Parker and his attorneys don't seem to think applies to us to actual journalists who only do journalism, a word that Greg Parker's attorneys and their band of merry trolls, which we'll talk about, take special care not to use when describing what we do. We are instead bloggers, though neither of us has a blog, or podcasters. If we want Greg Parker and his attorneys to ever call as journalists, I guess we would have to become four higher political operatives. But alas, that's not us.

Anyway, after learning about the sizzle reel, after the documentary sends the photos of Mallory's body premiered, we learned something else about Greg Roman, the other operative slash journalist Greg Parker hired. Greg Roman is one of the executive producers of the documentary, along with journalist Vicki Ward, whose sizzle reel contained the leaked materials. Vicki Ward, by the way, is the reporter who claims she tried to expose Jeffrey Epstein as a pedophile in Vanity Fair as early as 2003, but her story was killed by her editor to protect Epstein, which her editor has since denied. And I should say, Greg Roman was also identified as an investigative journalist in the documentary, which, fine, he can call himself what he wants. But I call him a political operative because the Middle East Forum of which he is the executive director was very,

once called out by the Center for American Progress as one of the top five think tanks for spreading misinformation about Islamic countries, as well as anti-Islam messages. Here's David with what the Charity and Security Network wrote about the Middle East Forum, as well as another group, in 2020. In recent years, two U.S. organizations have conducted smear campaigns against charities and human rights groups that appear intended to shut down or limit human. humanitarian assistance, peace building, and human rights advocacy by or on behalf of Muslim communities. They target groups working in places with large Muslim populations, including Palestine and South Asia. Their work has been used to fuel, quote, lawfare attacks in the U.S. and abroad by groups such

as the Zionist Advocacy Center. Uh, did you just say lawfare? The same word, Nancy Mace, used to describe something West Donahue, the other person hired by Greg Parker had allegedly engaged with her? So Greg Parker hired two political operatives associated with the word lawfare, who are associated with aggressive tactics when it comes to winning over public opinion. Interesting. What else does it say, David? One Middle East Forum target, academic Juan Cole of the University of Michigan, described his experience

quote, first they harass you and try to have you spied on, then they threaten, bully, and try to intimidate you, and if that fails, and you show some spine, then they simply lie about you. In this case, the lies are produced by quoting half a passage, or denuding it of its context, or adopting a tone of pained indignation when quoting a perfectly obvious observation. Well, doesn't that sound familiar? And yet, Greg Parker and his attorneys act like anyone who believes the Beach family's assertions that Greg Parker and his team hired people to emotionally harm them, to get them to settle for less or drop the boat crash case altogether. They must be working for Mark Tinsley, because why else would anyone think that otherwise? Again, this is all very simple.

So let's go back to the boxes. Let's open that third one, which is bigger than the first two. This one is robbed in Greg Parker's face, which I know. The box itself is covered with photos of Greg Roman. And inside the box is the documentary Greg Roman executive produced, Murdoch Murder's Deadly Dynasty, that used materials that either he got from the Beach family, which defies all reason,

or from Parker's Kitchen, the team that hired him to write that strange blog about the Murdox. As an executive producer, Roman provided assets to Blackfin production company, which included the photos of Mallory's dead body and the mediation video The Beach has paid to have made to show Greg Parker who they were and how his cashier's action that night affected them. It also included other materials that only the plaintiffs and the defendants had in the boat crash case. According to Mark Tinsley in a hearing for the civil conspiracy case last week, Greg Roman signed a release form for those assets, meaning he represented himself as the owner of the assets

and gave permission to the production company to use them in the documentary. Obviously, the documentary did not use photos of Mallory's body, but they did in their sizzle rail. So it's not out of line to think that had the beaches not filed this lawsuit, the documentary would have had those photos. Now let's talk about those tactics. Oh, I keep forgetting to tell you all this. Greg Parker's attorneys, the ones representing him in this civil conspiracy case,

are criminal defense attorneys. That feels significant. So, okay, the first thing Greg Parker's team seemed to do after the beaches filed this civil conspiracy case in 2021 was damage control. They did whatever they could to stop their co-defendants and others, like West Donahue and Greg Roman, from sharing information about what they were hired to do and what they actually did for Greg Parker. That was messy, and because I want you all to understand this case is simple, I'm not going to get into the details of what all the attorneys did,

but let's just say they're still fighting that battle. The next thing they did was try to get Mark Tinsley and Tabor Vox removed from both the boat crash case and the civil conspiracy case accusing Mark and Tabor of using the civil conspiracy case to gain advantage in the boat crash case. Needless to say, that tactic did not. work, but it did delay things, which ordinarily, I'd say, is a winning tactic for defense attorneys, but what these attorneys don't realize is this. The longer Greg Parker is exposed in this case,

the worse he and the worse they, Mark Moore and Debbie Barbier in particular, come off. The other thing Greg Parker and these attorneys did and are doing is blame shifting, but not really blame shifting. more like spotlight shifting, spotlight shifting and engaging useful idiots to legitimize their lies. Sorry, I promise to keep this simple. So back to the boxes after a quick commercial. This next box is our last one, and it's a nesting box. It's bigger than all the rest. This is the metaphorical box that Greg Parker,

and his attorneys have given to Judge R. Keith Kelly and to the useful idiots they have either enlisted on Greg Parker's behalf to spread their propaganda or who are actually such profoundly idiotic idiots that they enlisted themselves. And that includes the man Mandy talked about in the intro, who we will only refer to as the felon, who suffers in obscurity, hoping for the day someone finds him relevant. Spoiler alert, that will never happen. Then there's a woman in Cali Lions who did contract work with Luna Shark from November 22 through July 2023 and who then went to work for Fitz News from July 23 through September of this past year. And then there's the same old loser group of trolls whose kink is hating Mandy. So this nesting box is wrapped in Mark Tinsley

wrapping paper. He's wearing star-shaped sunglasses and a suit that has dollar signs all over it. When you unwrap that, the box itself is covered in photos of Mandy and me, both wearing I-heart Mark Tinsley T-shirts with thought bubbles over our heads saying, I hope Mark tells us what to think and say today. Inside that box are all the other boxes. The box wrapped in Greg Parker paper in a Greg Roman box with the documentary assets inside of it. The plane box with the laptop at the link to the sizzle reel showing Mallory's dead body. And the box wrapped in Ehrlich Murdoch wrapping paper, showing him as the killer of Maggie and Paul.

Wrapped around the box with pictures of Paul on it as the killer of Mallory Beach. And inside that box is... I graduated for the University of Georgia in 1975 and started the construction of my first convenience store that I opened on January 1, 1976. Again, it's simple. That metaphorical nesting box right there is the intent. murder story, the entire boat crash case, the entire civil conspiracy case, and the disgusting and professionally harmful tactics that Greg Parker and his attorneys have taken over the past six months are not in that box. They can wrap that nesting box in Mark Tinsley paper, and they

can put those boxes inside a box with us on it, but you all know what's really on the inside. Remember, in the Vanessa Bryant case, the one that ended with the county paying her nearly $30 million, those photos weren't even published. That's probably very scary to Greg Parker. And while we would generally be a fan of anyone who can get a wannabe billionaire to self-sabotage by exploiting his deepest personality flaws and emotional weaknesses so that he'll bleed money long term, were absolutely against what Greg Parker and his attorneys have been doing. and not just because it's us that they are targeting. So now, we're ready to talk about what happened last week. First, some facts for you.

Around November 14th, Callie Lyons, who, as we said, briefly worked with Lunashark as a research contractor from November 2022 through July 2023, but left for Fitz News in July 2020 and worked there until September of this past year, responded to a subpoena from Greg Parker and his attorneys. It's not clear when Callie was so. subpoenaed though? Or why? How did Greg Parker and his attorneys come to know that Callie had information that they wanted? It was a curious choice on the part of Greg Parker and his

attorneys because Callie Lyons, who lives in Ohio, had very little contact with Mandy and me while she contracted with Luna Shark. And more than that, wasn't around us or if it's news during the time period in question. So what could she possibly be considered a witness to? On November 18th, just a few days after Callie responded to her mysterious subpoena, the felon posted a robot story about how Callie was going to expose thousands of text messages between Mandy and me. Which again is curious because any texts we sent to Callie were generally related to FOIA requests in other cases. She was not in the inner sanctum. So what texts?

Any texts between Mandy and me, not involving Callie, would be stopped. because neither I nor Mandy would have given her access to them. On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Callie produced text messages between me, Mandy, and Fitz News researcher Jen Wood, none of which included Callie, because Callie did not exist to us then. I think it's important that you understand

some of the background on things Greg Parker and his attorneys are trying to exploit in service of mucking up this case with unrelated side stories. In late December 2023, A group of social media users publicly outed Fitznews researcher Jen Wood as allegedly being behind a nasty Reddit page that was dedicated to bullying Mandy, David, Luna Shark, and me. One that included a group of commenters who did not go by their real names,

who used every opportunity to make fun of our appearances, the way we spoke, who made incorrect assumptions about the dynamics in our group, and motivations, but stated their assertions as fact, and who straight up lied about who, who we are and what our motives are. Oh, and repeatedly accused us of crimes. Jen has denied being behind the page, but the page was immediately shut down after her name became publicly associated with it.

On January 5, 24, Callie posted a 12-part tweet in defense of Jen, which she hashtagged with the word truth. Callie appeared to believe that Mandy and I were behind this group of women who had outed Jen. While we appreciated their help in finding out who the trolls were, that were so creepily focused on Mandy, that it felt unsafe, we had nothing to do with the outing of Jen. After Jen's denial and Callie's making the situation worse, a woman who was apparently friends with Jen during the Murdoch trial

began posting screenshots of texts between the two, in which Jen appears to disclose a Fitznews source to this other outsider in apparent violation of Fitznews policy, as well as private information about Fitznews founder Will Fulks. Again, we had nothing to do with those posts. though, I'm not going to lie, it was healing for us to finally know the alleged sources of this misery. On January 8th, 2024, Fitznews posted appointed notice of manufactured mayhem saying it had just been made aware of an inappropriate relationship between a former Fitznews reporter and an attorney and that they were analyzing stories this reporter wrote between two dates. And anyone interested could look up those dates and see the stories were written by me. And the attorney in question

was Mark Tinsley, which was not only horrifying and damaging professionally, but also completely and utterly manufactured, clearly in retaliation for them believing that Mandy and I were behind the outing of Jen. Now here's the thing that's important. I disclosed my friendship with Mark to Willfolks in October 2021 before accepting the job with Fitz News. Relationships are assets and journalism. The fact that I was friends with Mark would have been seen as potentially good thing. So what was the issue. Oh, I didn't tell Will that in May 2020, when I was working as a public information officer for Beaufort County, Mark Tinsley asked me if I knew anyone who might want to take part in a mock jury about the boat crash case. I said I might, and I sent out a few inquiries to people

directing them to contact a paralegal at the law firm organizing the mock jury. I was also lucky because Mark allowed me to sit and watch the Zoom of this mock jury. It was really interesting and really fun to watch. But of course, Greg Parker and his attorneys have tried to twist that into something nefarious. Sometime after that, Mandy, who worked for Fitznews at the time, asked Mark Tinsley if she could get a quote from his client for her story. Mark gave her a quote from Renee in that video that Renee and her family paid for, meaning the video was the beach's property. It was a short quote, and I referred to how she wanted to hold Parker's accountable for the sale of alcohol to minors. that no other family would have to go through what they did.

Okay, another thing to know. Mandy and I both believe that convenience stores shouldn't sell alcohol to minors, and that when they do, they should be held accountable. Again, simple. We also are very much on the record as saying we don't think powerful men with money should be able to lie, harass, bully, play tricks with the legal system and generally burn down everyone's village in an effort to win their case. Argue the facts and the facts alone.

And if the facts aren't on your side, then face the country. consequences. So when Greg Parker and his attorneys spin the narrative so it's Liz and Mandy just do whatever Mark Tinsley tells them, or when that group lies and says that Liz and Mandy are paid by the plaintiff's attorney to say what they say and write what they write, they could not be more wrong. No one tells us what to do. We follow the facts and we honor the context that Mandy Mark Tinsley and I appear to be on the same side is because we all share a strong belief. in justice and fairness and consequence and the truth. And we are not paid by any attorney or on behalf of any attorney,

nor have we ever been paid by anyone to write a single thing about this or any other case. Also, and this is very important, at no point has anything from the mock jury that I observed or anything from the draft of the beach video that I offered my thoughts on ended up getting published. Everything contained in my stories and Mandy's story, about Greg Parker's cases has been attributed, whether to public records, courtroom observations,

quotes, and statements, and past reporting. And we write from a point of view, which we have also been very transparent about. The only instance of confidential courtroom materials ever being published is in the sizzle reel and the documentary Greg Roman and Vicki Ward executive produced. And according to Wednesday's hearing, Greg Parker and his attorneys actually have

conceded that fact and I'm going to say that fact one more time so everyone can hear clearly the only people to have published any of the content at issue in this civil conspiracy case are Greg Roman and Vicki Ward who worked with Greg Roman and Greg Roman was hired by who Greg Parker last fact on November 3rd I sat for a deposition with Greg Parker's attorneys Mark Moore Debbie Barbier Jada Wilson and Blah Lake Greco, who is also a defendant in the case. They were all present in Baltimore for this. On laptops were Greg Parker's other attorney, some of whom were co-defendants in this case

and Greg Parker himself, along with attorneys for two private investigators hired by Greg Roman to help with the Bowcrash case for some reason. There, those are the facts. Now, let's talk about what went down at the hearing the day before. Thanksgiving in Spartanburg County with Judge R. Keith Kelly, who impressively rules from a standing desk at his bench. So, the day before the hearing, Greg Parker and his attorneys, Mark Moore and Deborah Barbier and Jim Bannister, a Spartanburg attorney who Greg Parker hired after Spartanburg-based Judge Kelly was assigned to the case, flooded the court with lies. Well,

with motions. But motions, in our opinion, filled with lies. We're not going to get into those motions because we would just be spreading the propaganda, but we will tell you a little about them along the way. Let's start with Callie Lyons. Here is Mark Tensley, dropping bombs in court. But the real point, Your Honor, is that we sent discovery and asked them for any evidence that those images had ever been publicly displayed other than in the documentary and Vicki Ward Sizzle Reel. They don't have any. There is done. That's what our case is about, Your Honor. Not all this other stuff that they're so viciously going after all these people who had nothing to do with any of these things. They weren't even in the picture. These text messages where

they now have, and they're calling me and accusing me of all kinds of things, including crimes that they attribute to Cali Lions. These were stolen. These were stolen. And we had verified John Alfin and John Alfin told me that he told David Barbier yesterday that these are stolen. And they're going to file a lawsuit. Cali Lions is not in these text messages. They were stolen. Who they stole them from? I have no idea. But they don't show anything either. This is not a complicated case on it. And I think when you see the images side by side, you will understand it's not complicated. Maybe they need to see him again because I don't know if it's intentional at this point, but they seem to be confused most of the time.

So, according to Mark Tensley in the hearing, Fitz News considers Callie's release of these text messages to Parker's attorneys to be stolen from them, which means, surprise, surprise, the felon appears to have been in receipt of stolen property, which he published. See, what were those words about Greg Roman and how the Middle East Forum operated from the guy who said he was targeted by them? First they harass you and try to have you spied on, then they threaten, bully, and try to intimidate you. And if that fails and you show some spine, then they simply lie about you. In this case, the lies are produced by quoting half a passage, or denuding it of its context,

or adopting a tone of pained indignation when quoting a perfectly obvious observation. By the way, the felon is especially good at leaving out context and key information. Also discussed at Wednesday's hearing was my motion to stop Greg Parker and his attorneys from forcing me to sit down for a deposition that we all know, based on what they did to Liz, was designed to harass, bully, professionally damage me. My attorney, Becky Lindhall, rose up like a phoenix from the ashes of Greg Parker's harassment. Once again, I learned that not all heroes wear capes. Last week, my hero wore a beautiful black silk shirt dress from Quince. Promocode Mandy, by the way. Becky

called out Greg Parker's attorneys in their misrepresentation of why they say they need to depose me. And Your Honor, I think it's critical to consider that these subpoenas were served on Ms. Matney in 2025, and they primarily seek information related to events and publications that either occurred or were published in 2019, 2020, and 2021. And that's evident if you look at the exhibits to the opposition to the motion to quash. There are several Fitz News publications that either Ms. Farrell or Ms. Matney published. Those are dated 2020 and 2021. So they are asking Ms. Matney to go back and find documents and give testimony about events that occurred several years ago, more than several years ago.

Yet they waited in this 2021 lawsuit to subpoena Ms. Matney until 2025. And, Your Honor, just to run through the request that are in the subpoena, so the first subpoena was issued on October 20th, and it sought six categories of documents. See, lawyers can't just subpoena journalist without being able to articulate information of what information they believe that the journalist has, why it's critical to the case at hand, and why the journalist is the only way the lawyers can get that information, Which is why what Greg Parker and his attorneys did with Callie Lyons is a problem, even beyond the accusation of these texts being stolen.

Also, funny, how they are just now subpoenaing me after all their other shady tactics seem to fail, like trying to prevent witnesses against Greg Parker from talking or sharing information, or like trying to have Mark and Tabor removed from the case. If they wanted facts, they would have done this much sooner when our memories were fresh. But they don't want facts. They never wanted our fresh memories. Because I think they know we haven't done anything wrong, and neither has Mark Tensley. They just want things that they can mischaracterize and exploit to confuse the judge and rile up the useful idiots.

Also, not for nothing, but Greg Parker and his attorneys are asking me for just about every communication I've ever had, every note I've taken, every story I've written, every podcast I've written and produced since 2019. It is insane and unnecessary, and they know it. More on that in a minute. We'll be right back. in the Beach versus Parker hearing on November 26th. There's also an argument about privileged information that the defendants claim, first of all, they claim she's not entitled to invoke

the reporter's privilege. And when they make that argument, I think, and this sort of goes both to privilege and also to harassment. You'll notice in their opposition, they refuse to refer to Ms. Matney as a journalist. They only refer to her as a podcast. that is intended to be pejorative of Ms. Matney. And that, in our view, is a preview of what

the deposition will be like, which was corroborated by the tone and tenor of Ms. Farrell's deposition. We've set out the 1911-100 test and the reason why it applies in our brief. It's our contention that the burden is on them. I'm not going to reiterate that here because I know Your Honor knows that standard quite well. One of the arguments made in their opposition is that Ms. Matney cannot flatly assert reporters' privilege over anything that she's ever worked on. To be clear, that's not our argument. If the question is just, did you receive a link? And her answer is no, that likely would not be covered under 1911, 100.

But we don't know what they're going to ask in the deposition. So if they start asking questions like, who were your sources for news stories in 2003, 2004, 2005, That is covered, and that's what we're worried about, is that we're going to sit down for a full day deposition, and they're going to start asking her about sources, and then we're going to have to run right back to this court and have to fight this again. And so what we're asking for today is just a reasonable limitation that they can ask questions about the specific topics that they've said over and over and over again today are the issues that they want to depose these 13. parties about. Did you receive these links? Did you participate in a focus group? And then appropriate follow-up from there. And they have not agreed to that limitation. With respect to harassment, Your Honor, I think the deposition of Liz Farrell was conducted on Monday, November 3rd. This, and I'll get to the index, so not including the index, this is Ms. Farrell's

deposition. This is how long they spent deposing her. They deposition. They deposition. They deposition. They posed her from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. It's a 527-page deposition transcript. So this is where I got teary-eyed watching the hearing. It's one thing to sit for almost eight hours in a predatory deposition and know it's all for show and all just harassment and all for nothing because there is nothing. But it's a whole other thing to hear a lawyer tell a judge that it really was bad and needlessly invasive. Imagine hearing this voice for almost eight hours. Or if they were served in the boat crash case, that's immaterial here.

They serve subpoenas in this case, okay? And we're talking about this case, and we did file motions to quash. And those motions to quash are what led us before Judge Price on this privilege issue. Mark Moore's voice sounds like something Jason Clark's character in Zero Dark 30, would use to torture information out of suspected terrorists. Okay, so back to Becky. Here's another heroic moment of hers when she told the court about just how clear it is

that these depositions of Mandy and me are for nothing more than to harass us and damage our professional reputations simply because Greg Parker doesn't like the fact that we do not agree with him. And frankly, we really don't like him because of what we believe he's done to the Beach family, Mark Tinsley, Tabor Vox, and us.

There is no reason that a deposition about the topics that they're looking for should take a full day. I've taken hundreds of depositions, Your Honor. It could easily be done in three hours. They also, in Liz's in Ms. Farrell's deposition, delved into topics that there is no reason in our view that they could ever be relevant. They asked Ms. Farrell about her specific compensation at almost every job she's held since she's graduated from college. They asked her about her divorce. They asked her where her husband is now. They asked her the last time she saw her husband, her ex-husband.

They asked about Luna Sharke's ownership and how much it made on the Hulu show. And at one point, they asked Ms. Farrell to give them her phone so that they could look at it. And if you read their opposition, Your Honor, it reads like an opposition of why they should be allowed to depose Ms. Farrell, which they've already done. not why they should depose Ms. Matney. In fact, if you look at the excerpts to the deposition that they included as an exhibit to their opposition, Mandy's name is mentioned once in those excerpts. And the excerpts that they include, Your Honor, do not fully capture the tone of that deposition. Even in black and white, it is obvious that Ms. Farrell was being badgered,

which goes to our harassment claim. addressing another issue that they make in their opposition, Your Honor, they bring up the fact that Ms. Matney moved to quash a subpoena in a totally different case, a case in Richland County called Vorus v. Donovan. In that case, Ms. Matney was formerly a party, and she was dismissed. So the facts are completely different. And just because this one subpoena in a different case was found to be asking for relevant information or not. non-privileged information has absolutely no bearing that this subpoena is asking for relevant information. Remember that last nesting box we told you about? And what all is in there once you get past the Mark

Tinsley and Liz and Mandy wrapping paper? It's Greg Roman and Greg Parker, aka the case in point. Neither Liz nor I have anything to do with any of this. Other than we are. reporters who have been doing our jobs for years and doing them really well despite all of the stress and headache and constant harassment connected to this case in particular. Here Becky further shows the court how clear it is that Greg Parker and his attorneys are using their subpoena for no other reason than to harass me and damage my professional reputation. The defendants also make an argument that Ms. Matney is seeking blanket protection from her privilege, we've already addressed that.

As an initial matter, Your Honor, the defendant seemed to be conflating the document request with the deposition testimony. The document request we've addressed in writing, and I did have a brief conversation with Mr. Bannister, that he will accept a certification that she does not have any documents, and if he disagrees with me on that, I know that he'll pipe up. But that doesn't solve the issue of,

can they sit in a deposition and ask her, how much did you make last year? When's the last time you saw your ex-boyfriend? Do you like Greg Parker? And run through all of her social media to try to show that she might have some personal animus against somebody somehow related to the case. That's what we're trying to limit on the deposition.

So I think that their argument on that point is just a little muddled. So I wanted to make that point as well. The defendants also make the argument that they could take the deposition, I can sit there and assert the privilege, and instruct the reporter's privilege and instruct miss matinee not to answer over and over and over and over again and then we can come back to your honor and argue each to each objection my response to

that your honor is that again miss matney is a non-party to this case she is paying out of her own pocket for me to respond to document requests to be here today to defend her deposition every time we have to run back to court to fight over this very overbroad harassing subpoena, it is directly harming and harassing Ms. Matney, which is why we're asking to set some parameters in advance of what's permissible and what's not. And again, I do understand follow-up questions happen and, you know, we can be reasonable with that. But requiring Ms. Matney to keep coming back is it's harmful to her. Any minute that she spends away from her business

has a real financial impact on her because she's self-employed. You know, they make the point in their response that this is not any different than all the other people across South Carolina who get deposed every day and have to miss work. But it is for Ms. Matney because she doesn't work for XYZ Corporation

where if she says, I have to take a day off, she can take PTO, and nothing. comes out of her pocket. If she misses a production deadline for a podcast, that's real. We really appreciated Becky saying this, as this hearing was held on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and all three of us, Liz David and I were watching as we were working on last week's episode, as all three of us put off shopping for our Thanksgiving dishes and being with family to get the episode done. And it wasn't even close to the first time that's happened. Oh, and get this, Greg Parker and his attorneys want me to catalog every call, text, note, story, draft, whatever, and tell them why I think that they aren't legally entitled to that information. All because I asked Mark Tensley for a quote back in 2020, and the one that he gave me was from a video, which he is entitled to do on behalf of his client. In other words, all because I've

was doing my job as a journalist. Again, so the morally bankrupt attorneys who are listening to this will hear this one more time, I did nothing wrong. And finally, oh, sorry, two more things. With respect to the privilege log, they make a statement in their opposition that Ms. Matney has not produced a privilege log.

Your Honor, that's a non-issue. We explained, we preserved the objection to privilege because we were still looking for documents. To the extent Ms. Matney finds documents that are subject to privilege, we will produce a log. There just are none right now. And finally, Your Honor, one more point

that I'd like to make before I answer any questions for your honor is they make a point that there cannot be an undue burden on Ms. Matney because Ms. Matney talks about her experience with lawyers and the legal system on her podcast. And so they say it's, you know, Ms. Matney will monetize this. So there's no burden on her

because she'll get deposed and then monetize it. But Your Honor, I'm sure saw that yesterday, a writer on lunchtime, the defendants filed a motion for a gag order, an extraordinarily broad gag order, the broadest one I've ever seen, that has two paragraphs where they're asking for specific relief. So one of those paragraphs is paragraph 22,

and then in their final paragraph, where they say what they're asking for. It narrows a little bit, but they're asking for essentially anyone who has any involvement in this lawsuit to not be able to speak to anyone about this lawsuit, any filings, any criminal behavior, the character credibility reputation or criminal charges or criminal record of any potential witness, which I think highlights the absurdity of this gag order motion, because that would mean if one of the witnesses or one of the attorneys in this case committed a crime independent from this, no one could talk about it.

But Ms. Matney would be subject to their paragraph 22. So they can't argue that she can monetize it out of one side of their mouth while also representing to this court that they want a gag order out of the other side of their mouth. And Your Honor, to be clear, I'm not arguing the merits of the gag order today. And in fact, Ms. Matney strongly objects to the gag order being heard today. Because it was filed at 11 a.m., I believe, yesterday. So to the extent that the defendant's attempt to have the gag order argued today, I would like to be heard on that, because Ms. Matney does have a strong objection to that.

So, yeah, Greg Parker and his attorneys also are asking the court for a gag order. They don't want anyone involved in the case talking about it publicly, and especially not about anyone's criminal history. Uh, what criminal history? Who has criminal... Oh, the felon. Well, isn't that interesting? Obviously, we're both against a gag order,

but that's an argument for another time because the gag order wasn't under consideration last week. Oh, and we need to talk about W. Barbier. Your Honor, first I want to say that, you know, on behalf of the counsel for the Parker defendants, this subpoena and this subpoena deposition notice is in no way, shape, or form intended to harass or bully Ms. Matney.

That is not how we practice law, and that is not the purpose intended by these subpoenas. We have issued the deposition notice because she's a material witness in this case, and she has discoverable information. In response to the report, record that Your Honor already has before the court, the filing that we made, Ms. Matney's own filing, and the record that you have before you, I'm going to make four points related to

the quashing of this deposition. Oh, the subpoenas aren't meant to bully and harass me? So when you all publish mine and Liz's phone numbers for no legitimate reason in your filings, that was just for what? Just relevant information? When you included a footnote with Liz's salary information and asked her about her divorce, that was for this case? Over the past seven years, I have been subjected to some of the most cruel behavior by supporters of Greg Parker. Every time Liz and I would write about the boat crash and civil conspiracy cases, we would count on what appeared to be robot accounts pushing their pro-Parker's narrative.

In 2020, a Reddit page was started and a fabricated photo was posted showing Mallory Beach with enhanced breasts. The person who posted this claimed that I had doctored this photo to run with my story to get more people to read it. Never mind that the enhanced photo didn't run with my story, but the person who posted that got what they wanted. I started getting hate mail and threats over it. In another time, a vocal supporter of Greg Parker's showed up at a charity event for the sole purpose of recording me and harassing me as I addressed the audience, and she posted it to make fun of me later. She sat front and center in an effort to bully me, and oh, guess what?

She's been involved in political campaigns too. What a pattern. We'll be right back. All of this has caused major stress for Liz, David, and me, and it's expensive. None of us are billionaire gas station owners, and we wouldn't consider this a sport, like Greg Parker seems to. Oh, and we haven't even talked about all of the unnecessary people who received subpoenas in this case, who are also connected to Luna Shark, me and Liz. such as the people Liz sent information to about the mock juries.

What do they have to do with what's in the nesting box? Nothing. They subpoenaed the woman who told Judge Clifton Newman about the egg lady juror. Why? What does that have to do with any of this? And they subpoenaed a supporter of our work in this podcast. Why? No idea.

But I do know how much stress this has caused people and how much stress this has caused us. But sure, Debbie, keep going, keep billing. All due respect. We understand that Ms. Matney is a professional businesswoman who runs a company and have all due respect for that. But the inconvenience that she cites and the assertions of stress and the financial concerns,

none of those rise to the level required to quash a subpoena. And I'm going to address some core deficiencies in that, Your Honor. It cannot, a subpoena can't be quashed on the basis of just ordinary convenience. Professional commitments are a busy schedule. And here the affidavits tells us that Ms. Matney works long hours, producing podcasts, managing a company, traveling. We don't dispute any of that. She states that preparing for a deposition will take away from the income generating time. She and her spouse then running, you know, their household.

But those are ordinary burdens that every deponent faces when they're facing a deposition. Rule 45 requires evidence of a serious, unreasonable, or disproportionate burden. It's not simply that the witness is too busy, or that appearing for a deposition may be disruptive to their schedule. There's not even any documentation or any quantification

or any evidence of any financial harm that she might endure because of, you know, sitting for a deposition like any other normal person. I mean, thank you for being honest about me being a businesswoman. But she still can't stomach calling me a journalist. Why? Because when I'm a journalist, my work product is harder to get to. My communications are harder to access.

She wants me to sit for a deposition like a normal person? The whole point here is that no normal person should be, objected to this type of obvious harassment. There is no need to subpoena me. I had nothing to do with anything besides doing my job and reporting on this case. Not one thing in those nesting boxes is related to me or my work. Greg Parker and his attorneys have already admitted that the only confidential court materials that were published were the ones connected to Greg Roman.

So the point, Debbie, is that the fact that you're trying to get me to sit for a deposition. That is the harassment. That is the bullying. Because you have no legitimate reason to do this other than getting me on the record with things that you want to publish in your little filings. But don't worry, my girl Becky, fired back. If this isn't a fishing expedition, then it's difficult to understand why we can't set some reasonable parameters about perhaps the time period. So we'll ask from questions about 2019 to 2022, give them an extra year after the last article

that they're worried about. But that's not what the document requests indicate they're looking for. The document requests indicate that they're looking for documents that she might have sent or communications that she might have sent today. And there's no relevance of that to this case. And to be clear, we're not asking for the questions in advance.

I'm sure, I mean, I'm not asking for their outline. I would, if it were me, I would not have an outline prepared yet this far in advance. So we're not asking for questions in advance. We're asking for reasonable parameters to protect this non-party from being asked questions that might be inappropriate or spending undue time and out-of-pocket money sitting for a deposition that has absolutely no relevance to this case. And then the second point that I heard was that it's speculative that Ms. Matney might be asked questions that would require to give answers that would be protected by the

reporter's privilege. And again, I mean, similar to the last point, Your Honor, I don't have their outline. I don't know what they're going to ask. So this was intended to set those reasonable parameters. And it's really no different than when an attorney gets a deposition subpoena and files a motion to quash to say, you can't ask me about privileged things. Here we're asking for something maybe a little bit different or maybe an extra layer of the time period for relevance. But this is not a completely, you know, out of, out of this world concept that we would be asking for some sort of reasonable limitation. And then finally, Your Honor, well, two things, Your Honor. I also heard that the reason why the reporter's privilege can't be invoked here is because

Ms. Matney is the only person who could answer the question about how she got the quote that appeared in several Fitz News articles back in 2020 and 2021 or 2019 and 2020. That's That's simply not true, Your Honor. There are interrogatory answers that are in the record in this case, in which, for example, interrogatory number 24, the answer is Ms. Matney contacted, and this is with respect to the specific quote that is quoted in full in the interrogatory itself, and the answer says, Ms. Matney contacted plaintiff's counsel and asked for a quote from Ms. Beach. Plaintiff's counsel provided Ms. Matney with a quote from the mediation video.

So Ms. Matney is not the only person who can give that testimony. And then finally, with respect to the undue burden, Ms. Barbier just mentioned that there were no facts. Ms. Matney's affidavit is based on facts. We don't, you know, we gave the explanation of her travel schedule, of the fact that she is self-employed. All of her income is derived, you know, entirely by the amount of time that she spends working. You know, we don't know when exactly they're planning on taking the deposition. We don't know exactly how long they're planning to depose her for, nor should Ms. Matney be required to put on the public record

exactly how much money Luna Shark would lose if she lost eight hours of prep and eight hours of deposition and whatever other time. I'm not aware of any case law that says that she has to do that, and I didn't hear any or see any in their brief. I guess finally, the last thing I would say, Your Honor, is I heard a comment that Defendants Council wasn't getting anywhere. with respect to, you know, trying to work out reasonable limitations.

I'll say to that, Your Honors, I think the email correspondence that the defendants have attached to their opposition to the motion to quash speak for themselves. You know, we weren't necessarily answering, you know, every email within 10 minutes, but we gave them dates. It's clear that we were communicating about dates and availability and Ms. Matney's availability and the challenges about it. I think I even said in an email,

I'm we're willing to talk to you. So I don't I don't think it's fair to characterize the communications between counsel as we're not getting anywhere. Thank you, Your Honor. I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you. Then Mark Tinsley chimed in. I think it's important again to go back to what our case is about and what it's not about. And me, Barbie and I wrote it down. She said, the reporter shield privilege, by his information gains and he means that I mentioned proceeds to talk about some other things.

And then she gets back to the verbative quote that was given to her in her news gathering and then published in an article. And what they argued originally is, because when this first happened, I moved before Judge Hall. Judge Hall issued a rule to show calls for why Parker should not be held in contempt

violating the ADR rules and so when this first arises the argument of why we have not violated it despite acknowledging we were bound by the rules of confidentiality in the motion that we filed is because there had been some waiver of the ADR rules now judge the focus group both were in May of 2020 there is no photo in the focus group shown in the focus group, used in the focus group. We have, we haven't, but there is no possibility that the photos of this fellow dead body that are used in the sizzling that comes out in November of 2021 with a documentary that's produced by Red Roman in June of 2022. There is no relevant evidence related to anything that happened in the focus group because those photos are not in

the focus group. Those photos are not in the mediation video. So whatever it is that Ms. Mandy may have seen or received in her news gathering, it is impossible for them to be able to suggest that photos that are not used are somehow relevant to what's going on here. But I would submit to the court that the only thing that Mandy Matney did with respect to that quote is newsgathering. And the sizzle reel and this idea that dissemination, again, it gets confusing, I get that, but I will again offer to show the court that the photos of which we complain in this lawsuit are not in anything that the plaintiffs have ever used. And it's certainly not in the focus group and not in the mediation presentation.

There is an argument in our complaint that there were images of the family that were confidential. And when you watch the sizzle reel, you will see they put in big bold letters never before seen video. That's the family. So they cut that out of the mediation presentation that was sent to them and they then use those images of the family. There is a claim for that. But to argue that there's some waiver is a lot like saying because a woman had sex once and may have sex in the future, that we were allowed to rape her on this occasion. They acknowledged that they have an obligation not to do it. The civil conspiracy showed you have to show an act and further in sign. And I believe that their acknowledgement of being bound by the rules when they filed a motion

is an act in furtherance on. There are additional acts and furtherance on. But this idea that there's some confidentiality under the ADR, that was in the boat crash case from Judge Hall. We filed this lawsuit. We told Judge Hall. This is the avenue we're pursuing. And so there's simply no relevance to that. But there's nothing that Mandy Matthew has. And it really demonstrates this is what this is. This is intended to harass. One of the witnesses, they've also subpoenaed this Christian neighbor. This just shows the length to which you. And they raise this idea of the gag word to you. And I know this has got to be confusing, Judge, because it's confusing to me. And I feel like I have a reasonable grasp of fact. The reason that that they want a gag word talking about not being able to talk about criminal records is because the gentleman that they are using to spread all of these stolen text messages is a convicted feller. And they obviously appear to be working with him or someone is working with him. And that has to be the reason they don't want us to talk about this convicted felon in his record. What Mandy Macon has is limited to things that I hope she testified, Judge. I think she's got things she can't

beyond what it is they're trying to do, like the online harassed in 2020. She was accused of augmented Mallory's breasts by Reddit account. It was, it's been created before and never posted it. And that didn't mean anything to me at the time, but we now have reason to believe that those were fake accounts being run by people on this department's behalf. I believe she will testify. But all of the things that they're arguing to you are why they should be this. unfettered access and not be limited to any effect. They have other ways. It's not an elephant. And it's not even calculated to lead to the discovery of anything that could be admissible in this case. We'll say it one more time. This case is simple.

It is that metaphorical nesting box where you can see how one connects to the other, connects to the other. And any time this case is made to look complicated or complex, is actually just chaos being created by the defense. And enough is enough. It's time for the court to step in and stop what we believe to be very clear abuses of process. And now I'd like to introduce you to David's Moses Moments,

our new favorite true sunlight segment. A quick thanks to Mandy and Liz for encouraging me to appear as myself, David as David, if you will. In a new segment, we're calling Moses Moments. What are we seeing from Greg Parker and the other civil conspiracy defendants right now? It's a masterclass in how not to practice law, in my opinion, unless your entire strategy is harassment, intimidation, and distraction. And whenever I talk to lawyers in South Carolina and beyond, and we talk to a lot of lawyers, good ones, really good ones, the best ones, there is a common theme.

whether it's Meredith and Jim Bannon from the Bannon Law Group. Becky Lindall from Katten, Eric Bland, from Bland Richter, Justin Bamberg, Greg Finch, Andy Smith, Christy Allen, John Mazelon, Christian Stegmire, Creighton Waters, Emily D. Baker, Noah Pines, David Pascoe, Mandy Powers Norell, Mark Tinsley, the NBC and Hulu Disney Legal Teams, and so many others, as we negotiate contracts, protect ourselves. and protect others. These attorneys are from all backgrounds and practice in all areas. From civil to criminal to contracts, they prosecute and defend alleged murderers and perpetrators of child abuse and domestic violence. I won't speak for them, but I will

share my impressions that certain lawyers in South Carolina and not just the ones that murder their families make a joke out of South Carolina's justice system. South Carolina Bar and the Office of Disciplinary Council, and the Supreme Court of South Carolina seemed to talk a big game. But as we've covered on our shows, a little surface research reveals their enforcement ranks to be minuscule, their investigations to be secret, and their results to be targeted with disparate impact. But let's talk about these subpoenas for a minute, because overly broad doesn't begin to cover it. Parker's attorneys demanded Mandy's communications and documents from today right now in 2025 for a case about events that occurred

between 2019 and 2021. Let's think about that. They're not looking for evidence. They're looking for anything. Any email, any text, any communication that they can twist take out of context or use to harass the journalists who have been covering this story with integrity from day one. And while Mandy looked and may not have found anything. Mandy objected to that demand as overly broad and burdensome. However, I believe it to be harassment. And here's where it gets really interesting, and by interesting I mean transparent and insulting. Who are they targeting with these depositions and subpoenas, Mandy, Liz, female Luna Shark premium members? Notice a pattern. They're coming after women because I think they believe depositions to be a perfect way of effectively badgering

them for hours. I encourage you to listen to the hearing and imagine Mark Moore's cartoonish voice raised to high decibels demanding information about your divorce, your salary, your livelihood, your sources. It's grotesque. This isn't about finding relevant evidence for their case. The defense to the allegations is to prove Parker didn't leak photos and did not hire goons. This is about intimidation, in my opinion. And Mark Tinsley said in open court that he thinks Parker's is collaborating with a convicted felon as a conduit to spread falsehoods. This is about trying to financially drain, emotionally exhaust, and publicly humiliate the women

who have the audacity to do their jobs as journalists and do it well, the women who asked questions, the women who published the truth, the women who wouldn't be bullied into silence by pompous men. And then they have the unmitigated gall to file a motion for a gag order while simultaneously arguing that Mandy can't claim undue burden because she'll, quote, monetize her deposition experience on our podcast and platforms. Pick a lane. counselors. Either she can, talk about it, or she can't. You don't get to have it both ways. And arguably, it's me that would be doing the monetization. And I plan to monetize all this quite well, frankly, because it fuels our mission to expose the rats. And my favorite hobby is

exposing rats on a sinking ship. But here's what Parker and his legal team clearly don't understand, Luna Shark is no stranger to slaying dragons. We've gone up against the most powerful families in South Carolina history. We've exposed corruption at the highest levels of our legal system. We've faced slap suits, harassment campaigns, and coordinated attacks on our credibility. And we're still here, still publishing, still reporting, still making podcasts and TV series about exposing the rot, still in the sunlight. And I think our listeners know why, because we're not in it for the easy stories about cutest cats or shark attacks.

We're not in it for the money. We are in it because someone has to be, because journalism, real journalism, means standing up to power even when power tries to crush you, especially when power tries to crush you, especially when power tries to crush you. So let me be crystal clear. These tactics won't work. These overly broad subpoenas will fight them. These attempts to depose and to harass women, journalists,

well, we will expose them to sunlight. This conspiracy to silence the press, well, we'll shine a spotlight on every single step. They're using the legal system as a weapon, they're targeting journalists for doing journalism, and they're hoping that if they make it expensive enough, exhausting enough, and public enough, will just go away. But here's the thing about dragons. They always underestimate the people who refuse to bow down. Think Bilbo Baggins, St. Martha, think Medea, think Beowulf, think Thakane. We did not not spend years investigating the Murdoch Empire just to be intimidated by more of the same

playbook. We did not build Luna Shark to back down when things get hard. We built it for exactly this moment, for when the powerful tried to abuse the system, for when bad actors think they can silence truth with legal fees and depositions. We have an army of supporters across the world that fund our mission with their hard-earned dollars each month as members of Luna Shark Premium. They support us with their purchases of quince fine garments, with their subscriptions to Rula and Hungry Route, by sporting their bombous socks and frolicing in their super comfy meundis. And many, especially around the holidays, support us by enjoying family photos on their aura frames. We don't need money from lawyers or politicians to execute secret smear campaigns and we don't use news to tear ordinary people down.

Liz and Mandy use the truth to make the world a better place, to force corruption into the sunlight, to hold public agencies accountable, and to destroy bad systems and bad people who wish to harm good people and good systems. So to Greg Parker and his legal team, keep filing your overly broad subpoenas, keep targeting women, keep trying to distract from the core issues of your civil conspiracy case. Every motion you file, every deposition you schedule, every transparent attempt at harassment, it just proves our point that you're not in this to do justice. Your actions suggest justice is a foreign concept to you. But my money says you're going to lose. and lose in a big way.

And to our Luna Shark community, thank you. Thank you for seeing through these tactics. Thank you for supporting independent journalism. Thank you for standing with Mandy and Liz as we face down this latest dragon. Because that's what we do. We stay pesky. We stay in the sunlight.

And our queens, we slay. True Sunlight is a Lunar Shark production created by me, Mandy Matney, co-hosted and reported by journalist Liz Farrell. Research support provided by Beth Braden. Audio production support provided by Jamie Hoffman and Grace Hills. Case file management provided by Kate Thomas. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions, provided by Luna and Joe Pesky.