Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #142 - Fair Is Fair: A Tail of Two Greg(g)s, a Trail of Dead-End Excuses and The Deposition Double Standard in the Beach v. Parker Case

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

New motions have been filed in the Mallory Beach civil conspiracy case — and they expose a glaring double standard that should make everyone pay attention.  Gregg Roman, the man directly linked to confidential photos of Mallory Beach's body ending up in a documentary sizzle reel, is fighting tooth and nail to avoid a deposition — claiming journalist privilege, Israeli AND Philadelphia residency, and even a potential Israeli military obligation?  Greg Parker's attorneys have been paid royally from Parker’s fried chicken sales, dragging Mandy and Liz through costly legal battles over depositions they never should have faced — and denied them the same accommodations offered to this "Middle East Policy Expert" at the center of the civil conspiracy allegations.  On today's episode, investigative journalists ⁠Mandy Matney⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠ break down who Gregg Roman really is, his paid connection to Greg Parker, and why the South Carolina Supreme Court now holds the key to the simplest question in this case: Who gave Gregg Roman those photos? Let's Dive in… 🥽 🦈 Episode Links Listen and Follow our new Travel Podcast: Wherever It Leads… 🗺️ “Death and Justice: The Murdaugh Family Murders” - Gregg Roman, July 27, 2021 📄 “A Convenience-Store Magnate, Teen Drinking and a Fatal Boat Crash: The Legal Case Shaking South Carolina” - WSJ, Aug 13, 2022 📰 We’ve got more on the boat crash cases - head to the Members Lounge to dig into the full case documents. ☀️ Previous Episodes: TSP 71, 72,  73, & 126 🎧 Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Learn more about LUNASHARK Premium Membership at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lunashark.supercast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get bonus episodes like our Premium Dives, Wherever It Leads..., Girl Talk, and Soundbites that help you Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight. Plus BTS content from ⁠⁠⁠⁠Murdaugh: Death in the Family⁠⁠⁠⁠ AND Mandy's book Blood On Their Hands. ⁠⁠⁠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! *** This episode was edited for typographical error near 45:00 thanks to amazing listener Lauren L. - thanks Lauren!!   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

Together, Campside and Lunaschart present Pursuing Justice, launching later this year to shine a light on active and cold cases through the eyes of the world's best investigative experts. Pursuing justice delivers expertise and real-world experience to families and advocates falling through the cracks of the justice system. Each episode tackles a different angle of the most intriguing, most frustrating, and most heartbreaking cases submitted from you, our audience, with expert analysis. from around the country and the globe. How do you interact with law enforcement during the height of tragedy to get them to care as much as you do? How do families navigate media relationships

during their struggle for answers? What's the threshold necessary to cross over from mild suspicion into actionable evidence? If you know the answers or want to submit a case to us, please email info at luna sharkmedia.com. And if you want the answers and education,

stay tuned. Pursuing justice premieres in 20, When I look back at my younger self, I remember the feeling of being bullied and disrespected. I remember hating that feeling, and I remember the day that I resolved that it would never happen again. When I founded Bland Richter with my partner Ronnie Richter, we committed to build a firm that demanded respect that would fight for the powerful on behalf of the clients who felt powerless. transforming Bland Richter, we've stood tall against the largest law firms in the state,

in the country, and in the world. And we've remained true to the commitment not to be pushed around to give tenacious representation with proven results. Tenacious representation, proven results, Blan Richter. Learn more about what we do and who we are by visiting blan-rictor.com. That's B-L-A-N-D-R-I-C-H-T-E-R-H-T-E-E-R. I don't know how Liz and I have been allowed to be defamed and abused more than the supposed journalist who allegedly leaked photos of Mallory Beach's dead body to a documentary company during the litigation of the Beach versus Parker lawsuit. But we need to talk about that alleged journalist who seems to be more like a Middle East spy and how he factors into a truly

diabolical plan that will make your headspin. My name is Mandy Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption, previously known as the Murdoch Murders podcast. True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production, written with journalist Liz Farrell. Hello, can you hear the anger in my voice today? As I told y'all in Cup of Justice this week, I have decided to sit for the deposition in the Beach v. Parker

civil conspiracy case, that is if Greg Parker's team of attorneys agrees to my reasonable conditions that actually involved my safety. This decision to let up the long and intense legal battle that we have fought against Greg Parker and his team of attorneys was not easy, but it was best for my company, my mental health, and my marriage, to ultimately get this ever with and continue to document all actions perceived as harassment. Plus, I noticed a lot of my haters were really rooting for me to make the decision to go to jail instead, and y'all know how much I love to disappoint them. I'm angry today.

Because of the amount of time our team has spent fighting this stupid billionaire and his team of, in my opinion, heartless attorneys. This is time that we could have dedicated to digging into the Bialis case, the Spivey case, the Miller case, or the Gilley case. time that we could have spent focusing on the launch of our new travel podcast wherever it leads. And please, please, please take a minute to give us a five-star rating it means so much. This makes me sick, but we have to fight our own battles first, as they say on airplanes, put on your mask first before helping anyone else. What we have built at Luna Shark is unique, special and vital for journalism and democracy. We expose the truth that no one else wants to touch.

We dig into the dark spaces that the powerful keep hidden. We slay the dragons of the justice system case by case week by week, and we have inspired countless others to fight their own legal battles. And in that process, we have pissed off a lot of powerful people. So, I have a message going into this dreaded deposition for Greg Parker's attorneys, who I know are being paid to listen to this show as they plot their strategy to find my weakness and aim to destroy everything I have built in the reputation I have earned through blood, sweat, and tears in my 13 years as a professional journalist.

You can't hurt me. You can't break me. My brother died when I was seven years old. I almost died from a bad appendectomy at 23. I had skin cancer at 26. At 32, I was bullied into a life-threatening depression spiral. Each catastrophic event I have faced has made me more fearless and more motivated to live a life of purpose and fight to expose those who hurt others. Each event has made me a better journalist and human being. We will talk about professional journalism a lot more in this episode, as a core issue in the Parker case is about us.

other alleged journalist being accused of extremely unprofessional actions that I would never think of doing because I have taken my title as a journalist seriously from the moment I graduated from the University of Kansas Journalism School. I believe that journalism is about finding the truth and reporting it, especially when you don't like the truth that you found. I have never been paid by anyone for favorable or disfavorable I would never accept money in exchange for a story to fulfill anyone's narrative because that is everything against what journalism is. A big part of my job as a journalist is Living My Truth.

I have built a successful career from calling people out for their lives and their crimes. There is no room for skeletons in my closet when you do this job. You won't find them. my truth means that I have never paid for any followers or ever made any fake accounts. When I want something to be said publicly, I say it next to my name and reputation attached to it. I own it. And no matter how many twisted questions Greg Parker's team of attorneys asked me in the deposition, they will never get the answers that they are looking for. Unlike the other alleged journalist accused of wrongdoing in this case, one named Greg

Roman, who is claiming that he doesn't have to sit for a deposition when he is actually the one accused of distributing photos of Mallory Beach's dead body. Unlike them, I have integrity at the beginning, middle, and end of every day, and no amount of vengeful lawyering will ever change that. I have learned so much being involved in this case. But above all else, I have learned that nothing drives your enemies mad like being a person of integrity. It stumps terrible people at every turn when they come to find out that you have not and will not ever stoop to their levels of moral bankruptcy. Unfortunately, I have learned in this case that too often the judicial system does not favor those

of us with integrity, which is what we are going to talk about today. There are so many more cases that need our attention. And more importantly, your attention, because it is your collective power that really scares the good old boys. Every time Liz and I have to address the Parker's case on this show, we worry that we are boring you or worse, burning you out. It is a really hard thing to know what to do with this, because we're both so angry at the unfairness of it all. To us, David, the Luna Shark team, to Mark Tensley, and to the Beach family. It is not okay what has been happening, and it has been going on for seven years. Seven.

Every word we say has been scrutinized and examined for ways that can be twisted to serve Greg Parker. It's not just exhausting, it's terrifying, because this should not be happening, because this shouldn't be something that can ever be purchased. But it is. His money is why all of this has been happening. That said, in sitting for this deposition, I am hoping it satisfies whatever vengeance, Greg Parker, Mark Moore, and Debbie Barbier are seeking against me. In the meantime, I just want to thank you all for your support, especially the Lunashark Premium members. I need it. All of us really need it.

We read everything that you send, and though we don't always respond, please know that we use it to bring love and sunlight to an otherwise difficult day. Before we get into it today, David, as David, has a message that he wants to share with y'all, so I'll turn it over to him. I hope you bear with me because I just have a few things to share. First, some appreciation for the outpouring of support for our new travel show, wherever it leads. Our first three episodes are now on the public feed and four on the premium feed. Already, the public feed is in the top 75th percentile of podcasts, which is amazing. So stay tuned for episodes about Santa Fe, Madrid, Colorado, the Dominican Republic, Thailand, Hawaii, Vietnam, Brooklyn, New York, Cambodia, Sonoma, and Napa, Amsterdam, London, and beyond.

Thank you for supporting this passion project. It is absolutely a joy. amidst quite a lot of darkness. A few days ago, Mandy and I watched Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, and there's a scene after a tremendous amount of trauma which resonated, where the character Jules, played by Sam Jackson, examines the Bible verse Ezekiel 2517. You remember, the path of the righteous man, yada, yada.

The path of righteous people facing all sorts of obstacles in order to protect the things most important to them. What a notion. I believe the righteous take up causes against those who have harmed the defenseless or against those that pervert various societal systems for their own gain. I think about Creighton Waters,

Carl Stoller, the Beach family, Jane Doe One and Jane Doe Two, all righteous. These increasingly and apparent inequities brought about by the actions of the selfish, showcase how a distracted society is often the mechanism which allows tyrannical men to perpetrate evils on this world. The well-known quote talks about those that invoke charity and goodwill to shepherd the weak through the valley of darkness. This is who we work to bring sunlight to on a daily basis. The victims like Stephen Smith and his

Monsandy, Mallory and the Beach family. This is Bishop Venters and Micah Frances and Krista Bauer-Gilly. This is quite literally Charity Bialis. And of course the Satterfield family, the Plylers, the Pinckneys, Paul and Maggie Murdoch too, those whose voices are silenced forever, drowned out, or have been shouting so long their voices hoarse from yelling into the void. And then the verse talks about great vengeance. and furious anger for those who attempt to poison and destroy. Mandy and Liz have endured hatred, betrayal, and unimaginably vicious attacks over the last five years, as their light shined down on rotten corners of South Carolina and beyond to provide hope and justice for those trudging

alone in darkness. They've brought the tenets of journalism, and their talents in applying those tenets to be champions for the truth. and yes, against the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. And they've kept their heads above water, sometimes only barely, to watch the proverbial heads of dynasties thud to the floor of metaphorical gallows. Their flawless execution of the practices of real journalism is permanently tattooed into the souls of those who underestimate them, which brings me to what I actually want to say to every single one of you who has shown up for Mandy and Liz and Eric these past several months or even years.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Mandy and Liz, and even some of our members and listeners, have been dragged into discovery proceedings that have absolutely nothing to do with anything except punishing them for how they cover or support our coverage of criminal and civil defendants. Let me be very direct about something. The behavior, of attorneys Debbie Barbier and Mark Moore toward Mandy Matney, Liz Varel and others can only be interpreted as an attempt to punish them for their speech, for their exercise of the First Amendment's guarantee of a free press, and to chill their criticism and reporting on their client, Greg Parker, and in criminal matters they have handled on behalf of other clients like Russell Lafitte and

Corey Fleming. The latter seems to be in Ohio now for some reason. This retribution is not what discovery tools are for, no matter how much money Gassie Greg Parker is paying them. That is a weaponization of the legal system against a free press, and no matter what side of the aisle, or whether you're outside singing with Afro-Man, like we discussed in Cup of Justice this week,

that should terrify you. And now our friend and colleague, Eric Bland, a man who spread his career demanding accountability is targeted by systems that pretend to hold lawyers accountable but are in reality being used to attack the one attorney who refuses to shut up. And I say that with all respect. I'll be honest with you. The last few months have been genuinely, almost impressively stupid. We fielded harassment from stalkers have dealt with fake news operations written by actual criminals who are now emboldened and apparently paid by billionaires who want to distract society and any potential jurors from what they

might have done. We have watched attorneys attempt to launder retribution as litigation. South Carolina's justice institutions, the Constitution of the United States and the very concept of truth itself, is under coordinated attack by people who have learned that if you can't beat the righteous, You destroy the shepherd and anyone walking with them. But here's the thing about us at Lunarshark. We don't sink. We just keep swimming. And we plan to do that this week in Mandy's very, very, very stupid waste of everyone's time deposition.

And the following week with the next ridiculous moment the universe throws at us. Thank you for listening, and I hope you'll accept our sincere appreciation for supporting our mission. to expose the truth in the name of charity and goodwill. Shepard the voice of victims to new heights and get the story straight so that the righteous prevail. If you've been following our cases, then you know that we need to send mail from time to time in order to request documents or send payments

to those antiquated government offices. Thank goodness for stamps.com. With stamps.com, we can send from our computer or phone 24-7. No long lines, no low supplies, open any time, print postage on demand, and get up to 90% off carrier rates like FedEx, UPS, and United States Postal Service. Whenever we have an important document coming in or going out, we only use our Stamps.com account. No heirs, no rejected mail, no wasted trips. Right now, you can try Stamps.com risk-free for 60 days. Go to Stamps.com and use code sunlight to get 60 days risk-free.

60 days gives you plenty of time to see exactly how much time and money you are saving on every shipment. That's stamps.com code sunlight. That's stamps.com code sunlight. Someday in the bright and sunshine-filled future, we're going to be done talking about Greg Parker and the civil conspiracy case that was filed against him personally by Mallory Beach's family in December 2021. Someday. Not today, though. We have a lot to say today.

So whenever we discuss this case with y'all, it usually requires like a 50 first dates amnesia video to catch everyone up, Drew Baramore style on where things are and why things are the way they are. Because there are always like 50 absurd and brazenly dishonest things, i.e. distractions with a capital D, coming from Team Parker just about every week. But it's all really simple. And that is something Team Parker is constantly trying to change. They don't want it to be simple. because when it's simple, things become super clear, and Team Parker likely knows how hideous they look when the lights get turned on. Let me break this down real quick. This case is about photos of Mallory Beach's dead body and how they made their way into the hands of two producers of the Discovery ID docu-series Murdoch Murdoch's Deadly Dynasty in the fall of 2021. In November 2021, a sizzle reel for the docu series, which is a short marketing video aimed at getting investors interested in a project.

was posted online and the link to the video was shared among people in the business, as they say, and beyond. Remember, fall 2021 was like peak Murdoch murder's mayhem, when all of Hollywood seemed to descend on the low country. The Murdoch story was the hottest thing happening in South Carolina and the country, and people couldn't get enough of it, or of the 2019 boat crash, which was at the heart of the murder's case. So stick a pin in all that for a second. But that's it. That is the origin story of this civil conspiracy case. How did this happen? Who did it? And why?

Why would anyone, beyond investigators, need to see those photos ever? From the start, there was a clue, a big one, because this is a reel also contained clips from a video that the Beach family had produced in 2020 to use in mediation containing very emotional and private interviews of family members discussing the impact that Mallory's death has had on them, which is very odd because those photos in this video weren't available to the public, like at all. But they were part of the mediation process in late summer 2020,

meaning these materials were part of confidential court materials related to private settlement discussions in the boat crash case. Meaning the photos and videos appeared to have come directly from one of the parties in the case. And the beaches obviously knew it wasn't them. There were a few more clues, too. See, the two producers of the docuseries in question were Greg Roman and Vicki Ward. Both names were already known to the plaintiffs, though it would take longer to learn of Greg Roman's connection to the sizzle reel. But let's talk about him first. On July 27, 2021, about six weeks after Maggie's and Paul's murders,

Greg Roman had randomly published a long, one-off blog about the murders and the boat crash case on his website, which was otherwise about Middle East politics. Stick a pin in that one too, like a big pin. The blog entry was called Death and Justice, the Murdoch family murders, and a few things in it, let's just call them lies, really stick out now. At the time, we immediately sniff this guy out as full of it, though, for so many reasons. So many. But for the sake of time, we'll boil it down to the big three.

One, he seemed to spend a lot of time explaining how he had accidentally stumbled upon the boat crash story in the summer of 2020. Pre-murters. Why? because he clearly knew it seemed odd that he would be writing about this. Two, like I said, this was a one-off blog. So for someone so wildly taken by the Bowcrosh story that he decided as a hobby to go down a rabbit hole in 2020, as he claimed to have been, there was no other public mention of this case

or his thoughts on it that we could find from him beyond this one blog entry. And that seemed unusual to us. And three, it's what Roman had to say about Parkers and the sale of alcohol to Paul, because not only was it not congruent with general public sentiment that businesses shouldn't sell alcohol to minors, duh, it almost seemed like Roman was trying to appear super casual about letting Parker's off the hook. I mean, what normal everyday person minimizes the sale of alcohol to kids? Here's David with a mashup of quotes from the blog. Remember, even though a lot of this is known now, it wasn't known publicly at the time that this was published.

Paul's 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 Parker's could solely have caused these two boys to get so drunk. So why aren't the other parties involved in the events that night being held accountable for their roles in Mallory's death? While the Parker's chain, with 54 fuel convenience store locations in Georgia and South Carolina might have of the deepest pockets of all those involved in Mallory's death, this is a lazy and misguided approach. Or perhaps it is the course being taken because the powerful Murdoch family, and those

last three words were bolded in the blog, is pressuring the plaintiff and their counsel to stay away from their family, friends, and allies. Funny, right? This random dude who randomly became interested in the boat crash a year earlier, who wrote this random blog in which he had to explain his interest in the case because it was so off the beaten path for him professionally, is taking up for a local chain of gas stations. This blog entry, which is mostly about the Murdox influence and history, concludes by insinuating that this local chain of gas stations was being legally targeted by the Beach family, by the family that lost their daughter, because the Murdox were pressuring them to? Imagine us reading this at the time. It was so confusing because, yeah, we're right

there with you. The Murdox have a stranglehold on the low country justice system, and we wanted to expose that, but Parker's Kitchen did sell alcohol to minors that night, and a minor died as a result of a drunken crash. So why is this guy Greg Roman acquitting the Murdoch's power for the beaches believing that Parker's kitchen should also be held accountable for their daughter's death. Here are a few more of the suspicious passages from Greg Roman's July 2021 blog. David? Paul put the beers and hard seltzer he bought at Parker's on the boat. There was also most likely other alcohol on board in the boat's cooler and a bottle of Crown Royal Whiskey that some of the boys were drinking. There is no way that Paul could have been this drunk if he

had only consumed the alcohol purchased at Parker's. Even if, for argument's sake, we assume that the girls drank the hard-seltzer and Paul and Connor drank all of the beers bought at Parker's, and Anthony had none, which is unlikely. The numbers don't add up. He then goes into how many Parker's beers there were, 21, and how many Parker's hard-seltzers there were, 12, and how he thinks they would have affected Paul based on a totally made-up rate of consumption that he could not possibly know. Again, it seemed like a mental exercise, requiring a lot of creative math, and that only someone attached to Parker's or, motivated to help Parker's, would have gone to the trouble of doing. Anyway, that's Greg Roman, the random guy who randomly wrote about the Murdoch family

and how their influence might be the reason Parker's Kitchen, the store that sold Paul the alcohol, is being sued by the Beach family. The absurdity of that literally sounds like the kind of plan out-of-touch Richmond would come up with, in our opinions. But back to the point at hand here. There was also Vicky Ward. At the time the sizzle reel came out, she was known to Mark Tensley, the Beach family's attorney, because she was sniffing out all over the low-cut.

looking for people to participate in her docu-series, including the beaches. Including me, she emailed me back in 2021. Vicky Ward is best known for being the first journalist on record to know about Epstein's horrific crimes, and she decided to write a puff piece about him instead of telling the victim's stories. Because supposedly her boss told her to. Real journalistic hero there. The conspiracy theory lawsuit was filed.

filed in December 2021. Vicki was listed as a defendant, along with Greg Parker and others. Here is David with what that complaint said about her. On her about September 14, 2021, Vicki Ward was told that the confidential video she had in her possession was in fact confidential, and in her possession, in violation of the confidential mediation process and its rules. In an attempt to get the plaintiff and their counsel to appear in her documentary, Vicki Ward acknowledged that Parker and his law firm, referencing defendant to Cruz's law firm Baker Hostetler, quote, had an agenda, and that she had, quote, nothing to do with them other than having their stuff, end quote. The plaintiffs and their counsel refused to participate in Ward's

documentary. Vicky denies saying these things to the plaintiffs, but in November 2022, she settled with the Beach family and was dismissed from the case. In March 2024, the beaches filed a brief with a court that included an affidavit from Bickey. Here is David with what she had to say. In the course of my work as a journalist gathering information for the documentary, I was provided with a copy of a video containing information related to Mallory Beach's death. I was not aware of the existence of the video until I came into possession of it. I did not specifically seek out, solicit, or request the video, nor did I pay for or make any promises or representations in exchange

for the video, or in exchange for a license to use the video. To the extent that I may have ever stated to anyone that, quote, we paid for or purchased the video, it was a mere acknowledgement that, to my understanding, a license to use these materials in the documentary had been purchased by Blackfin, the production company. I was not involved in any such purchase or payment for the license or acquisition of the video. The video was shared with me by Greg Roman. It was provided to me on September 9, 2021. by means of a text message through the signal messaging application that included a clickable hyperlink. From my communications with Roman, I understood and continue to understand that Roman permitted me to disclose

as part of my reporting that I had obtained it. Vicki admitted to corresponding with Greg Roman through email via a specific phone number. She also said that she had spoken to Greg Roman over Zoom. Okay, so that was the video. But what about the photos, David? In the course of my work as a journalist, gathering information for the documentary, copies of certain photographs of Mallory Beach's body taken during its recovery by law enforcement were shared with me. The photos were provided in JPEG format by Roman on or about September 13, 2021.

Okay, so that first pin you've been holding. Everyone. And I mean, everyone. Journalists, screenwriters, authors, bloggers, influencers, true crime fans, and just regular old people on Facebook who were captivated by the case, was on a hunt for more information about everything Murdoch related at that time, especially information that no one had found or seen yet. And that is important context, because it made what Greg Roman and Vicki Ward had in their possession a commodity of sorts, which is gross. It's gross that it was this way. way and it's gross to say it was this way. But what I mean by that is this. Anything that got

published about the case at that time in 2021 was likely to be highly circulated among the public. That was the reality back then. And that makes all of us so much more sick when you think about those photos circulating outside of mediation at that time. Which brings us back to the very core of this case, which is how did they get those materials, who is behind it, and why? Why? Here's the thing we can't say enough of. Because of those materials, getting into the hands of Greg Roman, Mr. I just happened to hear about the Mallory Beach story from a high school kid on my family dolphin and crocodile tour. He literally called it a crocodile tour. The Beach family has to live in fear of inadvertently encountering those photos. It's such a specific and awful fear to have and a

horrifying thing to think about. Photos of your loved one, the teenage girl you spent a week praying and hoping to God was still alive, dead in the water the entire time. It is a horrible invasion of privacy and completely unnecessary. There is literally no journalistic value to those photos and no legitimate reason for those to have ever been given to Greg Roman. But how did Greg Roman get them? What is his connection to the boat crash case beyond the blog and the alleged team of quote, volunteer investigators and concerned citizens who eventually assembled with him, that he says he worked with to produce the blog, which I believe zero percent, by the way. I've yet to meet one person or source in the low country who knew Greg Roman. According to Greg Roman at the time,

he was just a guy who happened to find the boat crash case interesting, which is why this passage from an August 2022 Wall Street Journal story was interesting. David? A spokeswoman for Mr. Parker said an investigative firm digging into the Murdox on Mr. Parker's behalf hired investigative journalist Greg Roman and two private investigators, Max Fratati and Henry Rosado. Mr. Roman published a 7,000-word investigation on the Murdox on his blog last summer. He also appeared in and co-produced Ms. Ward's documentary. Mr. Parker's spokeswoman said Mr. Roman's contract ended well before the double homicide, and no one affiliated with the Parker's team authorized his blog post or participation in the documentary.

Mr. Roman said his written and documentary work were independent of the research he was paid to conduct. An investigative firm digging into the Murdox on Greg Parker's behalf hired quote-unquote investigative journalist, and I feel like coughing here, by the way, Greg Roman and two private investigators, Max Rotati and Henry Rosado. And the contract ended before the blog post was published. And Roman's blog is independent of the research that he was paid to conduct. So hang on, Greg Roman told everybody in July 2021 that he did this to pass the time on his family vacation during COVID. Greg Roman, the so-called investigative journalist, didn't mention that he had been paid.

paid to do this research by Greg Parker's team. Greg Roman and Greg Parker want us all to believe that this blog and docu-series exists independently of the work he was paid by Parker to do, when the blog itself appears to be a propaganda piece to get the public to see Elyke Murdoch as pressuring the Beach family and Mark Tinsley to sue Parker's Kitchen as a way to protect Elyke Murdoch. Hmm. Okay. So, I mean, what do we do with that, right?

Because the question is not, are Greg with 1G who sells gas and Greg with 2Gs who writes blogs still working together? The question is, how did these photos and that video that Greg Roman had and gave Vicky Ward end up in Greg Roman's hands? Again, simple. This case is simple. But because of the tricks, the lies, the bullying, Parker's attorneys have spent the better part of the three and a half years since the Wall Street Journal exposed the Greg Parker-Greg Roman connection, creating a false and desperate counter-narrative about us, accusing us of being paid by or on the behalf of Mark Tensley to write stories that they see as favorable to the Beach family, and that we see as telling the truth and doing. our jobs, exposing corruption in the state's justice system, shining a light in dark rooms. Our stories on this case have covered the facts, including Greg Parker's denial of wrongdoing, and yet because we don't write, I don't know, blogs like Greg Romans, absolving Parker's kitchen

of liability, we must somehow be getting paid by Mark Tensley. And I'm sorry, Are they stupid? Do Craig Parker's attorneys just not hear all of the advertising on our shows when they spend all of that time spying on us? Let me say this plainly. We are paid because we have listeners from all over the world and advertisers that share amazing products and services with those listeners. We get paid because of our amazing Lunashark Premium members. We get paid when our coverage of Christ, crime and corruption is so prescient to public interest that NBCU and Disney make a series of it.

I have a best-selling book. Now I have four successful podcasts. I am not going to muck all of that up by being some covert information peddler. Our secret sauce is that people trust us. It is not that we are paid by some dark money groups or gas station billionaires with bad fashion to throw shade where it is not warranted. We throw shade where it is deserved, like here. All of it is such an illogical theory, and yet the court has allowed Parker's team to continue their harassment, bullying and lies about us in their effort to make two very unequal things somehow the same. Greg Roman wrote about the Bochrash story through the lens of Parker's Kitchen is being wrongfully targeted in this case. Greg Roman was paid by Greg Parker's team.

Those two things are not mutually exclusive, no matter how much the Greggs want them to be. Greg Roman wasn't just reporting on court filings like I was. He was an instrument in Greg Parker's defense, and he put a theory out there that would not have survived a day if Parker's Kitchen had filed it in a court briefing, that the store that sold a teenager alcohol was being unfairly sued after the teenager drunkenly killed his teenage friend hours later. I mean, get out of here. So why do we think that Greg Roman wrote that blog besides the money? I mean, to taint the jury pool, right? To specifically and intentionally taint the jury pool, which is something Team Parker accuses us of doing. And the difference? Well, first of all, like we said,

We are not on anyone's payroll. No one hires us to change the public's opinion about anything. Because we are not for hire. We're just doing our jobs reporting on a case. It just so happens that we are good at spelling things out in an impactful way. We are good at connecting the dots and providing context to explain why we see things the way that we do. Our work continues to help people find justice that might otherwise be done. denied. It brings so much purpose to our lives and to others, and we love that. But downside for

Greg Parker, our reporting includes facts that he doesn't like. For example, that the lawsuit accuses him of hiring a private investigator named Sarah Capelli, who allegedly bought drinks for minors at a bar one night to get the scoop on Paul. Again, I guess we're supposed to write like Greg Roman and ignore the parts of the lawsuit that Greg Parker does not like. such as how Parker's Kitchen was accused of not giving their cashier's adequate training on alcohol sales in another drunken fatality case not long before the beach case, and yet they did nothing to fix it before Mallory's death, according to the Bowcrash lawsuit. Now, I am sure that Greg Parker and Greg Roman would deny that Roman's bizarre blog

was intended to influence public opinion. And from the Wall Street Journal's story anyways, It seems like Parker's team is trying to say they didn't hire him to write that blog, that Greg Roman just did that on his own. And please stick a pen in that. But let's look at the main assertion of this blog, that the Murdoch family was pressuring the Beach family and Mark Tensley to sue Parker's Kitchen. As if it were a reach to think Parker's Kitchen would be a defendant in this case.

It is utterly comical. To support that dishonest assertion, Roman told his readers that no one else was being held accountable for Paul's drinking that night, which, uh, okay. First, Elic Murdoch was being sued for tolerating and encouraging Paul's drinking and letting him use the boat that night, knowing that Paul was likely going to drink in excess. Second, Buster Murdoch was being sued for allegedly allowing Paul to use his driver's license and buy alcohol, which Buster denies. Third, the Wood family, who hosted the oyster roast that night that the kids went to, Randolph Murdoch, whose house the kids left from that evening, and Luther's rare and well done, where Paul and Connor had shots that night, were all Parker's Kitchen co-defendants

in the lawsuit, all of them. But the Wood family, Randolph and Luther's, the good sense to settle their case immediately. And Roman left all of that out of his blog. Again, I guess that is what Greg Parker considers to be fair reporting. You know, the kind that you pay for, the kind that conveniently leaves out pertinent facts that don't suit your narrative, the kind that does not come from a place of what's good for the community and what is considered justice. But back to the purpose of Greg Roman. In this, This other pin we asked you to hold on to.

Why was he hired? I don't just mean why, as in what he was paid to do, but why him? Why that particular person? The answer to that is a fun one, mainly because we really don't know. How can we possibly know what goes on in the head of Greg Parker, a man who does not appear to know just how stupid he looks most of the time? We can't know, but what we can tell you are some facts from the case that Greg Parker presumably does not like and will probably accuse us of being paid by Mark Tensley for sharing with y'all.

But that might help you see what the why him answer might be. That brings us to talk about the stunning appeal that was filed in this case last week. More on that after a quick break. West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. So all of this brings us to an appeal that was

filed with the South Carolina Supreme Court last week, an emotion that was filed this week in state court by Max Rotati and Henry Rosado. The two private investigators associated with Greg Roman, also hired by Greg Parker, according to Parker's spokeswoman in the Wall Street Journal. Like us, Greg Roman isn't a party to the civil conspiracy case, but unlike us, he had a paid role in this case, and he is fighting his deposition, but unlike us, it's not because he considers it to be harassment of a journalist, which it is in our cases, but because, well, his reasons change, which in our opinions looks a whole lot like Greg Roman is avoiding his deposition because it could be damning for him and Greg Parker. So let's start with the private investigators who are

deposing Roman. They're asking the court to order Greg Roman to explain why he won't sit for the deposition. According to their filing, Greg Roman has evaded service for their subpoenas, has claimed insufficient delivery service of subpoenas, has an attorney who appears to be playing musical chairs with the court and has twice not shown up for scheduled depositions. Can you imagine if Mandy and I did this, how Mark Moore and Debbie Barbier would act? You would think that the two of us were on trial for murder, the way Mark and Debbie and their troll friends act, when we're not actually on trial at all. Anyway, I want to talk about the lawyer thing for a second because it would be funny if it

weren't so effing annoying. An attorney named Taylor Smith has made an appearance on behalf of Greg Roman. and he recently filed a motion to reconsider a court order on Greg Roman's behalf. But when the attorneys for the private investigator subsequently served Taylor Smith with the notice to depose Greg Roman, Taylor Smith was like, oh, I'm not authorized to accept service on Greg Roman's behalf. Taylor Smith is representing Greg Roman, but also isn't representing Greg Roman. So, again, what are we supposed to do with that?

That's a serious question, by the way. Because in Greg Parker's world, if we question the absurdity of that, then it's evidence that we're working for Mark Tinsley. And not that we're just normal reporters being like, huh? What is happening there and why? But again, it's all very simple. Let's break it down. Greg Roman, the guy who is responsible for photos of Mallory Beach's dead body ending up in the hands of Vicky Ward and in a sizzle reel for a docu-series that both she and Greg Roman were producing.

the guy who was being paid by Greg Parker's legal team for research in the boat crash case, the guy who wrote a pro Parker's Kitchen blog demonstrating a deeper knowledge of the investigation than he should have had, has a lawyer who is putting his hands in the air instead of accepting a notice for his deposition. That's fishy, okay? Greg Parker doesn't want it to be fishy, I'm sure, but hey, this is your boy, Mr. Parker. We only know this guy's name because of you. He's only associated with this case because of you. And he has a lawyer who is also saying he's not his lawyer except when he's being his lawyer.

But he also has another lawyer, Cozen O'Connor in Philadelphia, who wrote a letter on January 6th of this year to the private investigator's attorneys, saying that Greg Roman doesn't live in Philadelphia and therefore can't be deposed in Philadelphia. But also, Philadelphia protects Greg Roman from being deposed because he's a journalist. And also, when you served him in Philadelphia, you didn't serve him the way you're supposed to serve him, according to the rules of civil procedure in Pennsylvania, where Greg Roman doesn't even live, you, dodo birds. Again, these are the things Greg Parker seems to want us to just accept and ask no questions about, because if we ask questions, then we're working for Tinsley. Also,

you have no idea how bitterly rich this all sounds to us. The guy Greg Parker's team has admitted to paying to do research that resulted in him writing a pro-Parker's kitchen blog is claiming he can't be deposed in a case that he is absolutely connected to and whose role is absolutely pertinent to the case at hand. Mandy and me? Sure. No problem. Why not? Let's make a big show of hauling Liz and Mandy in and putting us on the defense about doing our jobs. Meanwhile, there is a direct connection between Greg Parker

and the guy who had the photos of Mallory's body and gave them to Vicky Ward. It is so sick. And it's only happening because South Carolina's Bar Association allows it to. They love the chaos of their own system. Okay, so this letter from Kozin, David is going to read the top five passages from it. Number five. Nor have you properly served Mr. Roman since December 5, 2025.

During our December 30, 2025 call, you represented that you attempted to serve Mr. Roman on December 29, 2025, at his, quote, home, end quote, in Pennsylvania, but that his, quote, wife, end quote, denied service. That representation cannot be true. Neither Mr. Roman nor his wife were present in the United States at that time as they moved to Israel in June 2025. Number four, there is no basis for you to threaten a bench warrant, arrest, or contempt against Mr. Roman. Indeed, the issue is not that Mr. Roman. Indeed, the issue is not that Mr. Mr. Roman is evading a valid subpoena, as you've suggested, but that your client has failed to properly serve him in the first place. Your attempts to intimidate Mr. Roman are thus improper.

Please comply your ethical obligations and refrain from threatening criminal or disciplinary action as a means of obtaining an advantage in the civil beach dispute. Oh, give me a break. Sorry, continue, David. Number three, Mr. Roman is the target of terroristic threats stemming from his journalistic activities on matters related to the Middle East. As such, I cannot disclose his precise location without compromising his safety. However, I have been authorized to inform you that Mr. Roman lives and works in Israel, not Pennsylvania. Given Mr. Roman's absence from the Commonwealth,

it is risable for you to claim that he is dodging service. It is abundantly clear, based on publicly available resources that he is in Israel. And then, the lawyer includes a link to an article on Greg Roman's website about him testifying in front of the Knesset, the Israeli legislative branch, on December 25, 2025. Wait, so the proof of Greg Roman living in Israel and not Philadelphia, Is that Greg Roman says so? Shouldn't they at least have included a utility bill? You can't even get a library card without proof of residency,

never mind get out of a deposition. And I'm wondering, did attorneys send a process server to Greg's parents' house like they did mine? Also, according to one of the exhibits attached to the private investigator's motion, emails between the attorneys show that Greg Roman, chose Pennsylvania as governing law over his part in this. He chose Philadelphia County as the venue. The emails also show that the private investigator's attorney asked Roman's attorney for an affidavit,

disclosing Roman's current address and Roman has refused to do so. Number two, to appear for a deposition, Mr. Roman would need to secure costly plane tickets and travel upwards of 14 hours each day. Upon information and belief, Mr. Roman is also subject to imminent call-up in the Israeli Defense Force Reserves, which may render him unavailable for any noticed future dates, as it is likely that he would serve in Gaza or some other unstable region. Yeah, I'm going to need to see Greg Roman's military IDF card there, but sure, okay. And, okay, they're saying he might have to go to war, while also saying he's not trying to dodge this.

So stop saying that about him. David, what is the number one passage from Greg Roman's lawyer's letter? Number one. The compelled disclosure of a journalist's confidential sources, unpublished resource materials and editorial processes, has a chilling effect on news gathering that strikes at the heart of press freedom. It is difficult to conceive of an interest substantial enough to outweigh Mr. Roman's protections and the interests protected by the First Amendment, where Mr. Roman is not even a party to this lawsuit. Uh, hang on a minute. I just need to take a second to... I actually wasn't done. There's one more part I want to read. Uh, should I proceed?

Yes, go ahead. Please confirm in writing that you have withdrawn any subpoena you claim to have served and that you will read. refrain from further service attempts. If you persist, Mr. Roman expressly reserves his rights to file objections and seek all available remedies, including but not limited to a protective order and sanctions. Let me just make sure I have this straight, because it is really hard to hear over the sound of my own voice screaming inside my head. So again, Liz and I are fair game for Greg Parker, even though we have never been paid by Mark Tinslow. or anyone associated with him or the beaches in this case and never would be to write stories,

which are about the facts of the case, while also being very transparent about our opinions on this case, and there is no evidence that could possibly exist that would suggest otherwise. Parkers cannot point to a single thing that actually justifies their depositions of us, other than assumptions based on poor reasoning and intensely dishonest dock connecting from the bells of their teeny tiny money-hungry minds and the obsessive addled brains of our online trolls. Liz sat for her deposition with no fight and answered questions openly for eight hours because she had nothing to hide and neither do I. Liz has never seen photos of Mallory's dead body.

And she has also never had access to those photos or had photos in her possession to give to Greg Roman. Nor would she ever. And while yes, before the murders, she wasn't a journalist anymore and was instead working with the sheriff's office, Mark Tinsley did ask her to look at a draft of the Beach family's video and give him feedback.

It was not the video that was ultimately used and mediation. Meaning, it was not the video that Greg Roman, who was being paid by Team Parker, gave to Vicky Ward. But that did not stop Parker and his attorneys from further harassing Liz by needlessly including passages from her deposition in court filings, including both of our personal cell phone numbers. It has not stopped Parker's attorneys Mark Moore and Deborah Barbier from knowingly lying to the court about what Liz said in that deposition, and it has not stopped them from communicating with wackos and indulging those wackos by entertaining their made-up absurd theories. And it has not stopped them from using the court to humiliate and bully me when I decided that I should fight

their deposition in court, since Liz's way of playing nice and handling the deposition proved that this was not about them getting information. It was only being done to harass and silence journalists for doing their jobs. In the time since Liz's deposition, we have had to deal with almost daily harassment from a felon who has aligned himself with Parker's cause. He has made a significant effort to work both behind the scenes and publicly to try to destroy our credibility and our careers. And though he wants to be called a journalist and taken seriously, he has repeatedly done things that no journalist would ever do,

such as publishing unverified in allegedly stolen text messages purportedly between Liz, me, and our Fitznews colleagues about, let's see, how did Greg Roman put that? The compelled disclosure of a journalist's confidential sources, unpublished resource materials, and editorial processes, has a chilling effect on news gathering that strikes at the heart of press freedom. Mandy, there was one more like that in the letter. You want me to read that? Actually, yes. Thank you, David. Any attempt to meaningfully depose Mr. Roman would be futile. Pennsylvania's shield law affords privilege to journalists. Mr. Roman is therefore protected against the compelled disclosure of confidential sources or information that could lead to the identification of a source.

This protection is absolute. There are no exceptions for civil litigation, criminal investigations, and certainly not for collateral non-party discovery in an out-of-state lawsuit. Your client is thus categorically barred from deposing Mr. Roman on these matters. It all makes me so mad. A person actually connected to Greg Parker, who has been identified as the reason Vicki Ward had the photos in the video, a so-called journalist who was paid by Parker's team to do whatever it was he was supposed to do,

is setting protections that Team Parker isn't even challenging one bit. In the meantime, Greg Parker is behind what has been one of the most stressful and destructive things to happen in our lives. And it never stops. Every day, there is a new ridiculous accusation being made behind the scenes. And we're asked to once again prove a negative. Prove that you didn't do X, Y, Z. Prove that you're not the Zodiac killer.

Prove that a thing that doesn't exist, doesn't exist, doesn't exist. Again, for simply reporting the facts and being transparent about where we stand on things. And because of this dishonest narrative from Mark Moore and Debbie Barbier, trying to paint Mark Tinsley in the beaches and us, out to be unethical and deceptive people, we can't even fight back the way Greg Roman gets to fight back. Because if we fight back too hard, it looks like we've done something wrong. And that's a fact. I can't tell you the number of people who have misconstrued Mandy's legal fight when it comes to this deposition to mean that she's a lot. I'm a lot of hiding something when really what she's doing is sticking up for herself and for me and for anyone

else out there who the system allows to be abused and service of one devious party's dishonest defense theory. Meanwhile, it's lose-lose for us. I have to ask this obvious question. Shouldn't Greg Parker also be fighting for Greg Roman to get to post? Wouldn't Greg Parker want to get it on the record that he didn't give Greg Roman the photos or the videos or any other parts of the mediation materials? Wouldn't he want to set the record officially straight? He denies having anything to do with these photos and the video getting released, so why not have the guy you're wrongfully accused of giving those things to, say it on the record.

Say it under oath. Greg Parker is oddly silent on Greg Roman's deposition. Or maybe not so oddly silent. So, okay, Greg Roman says he can't be deposed for all the reasons, including that he lives in Israel now. But what about Zoom, right? Why can't he do this over Zoom? According to emails between the attorneys, a Zoom option was offered so that Greg Roman wouldn't have to leave Israel.

Here's David with what Greg Roman's attorneys have to say about that offer. Your offer of a remote deposition is rejected. While seemingly styled as a good faith accommodation, it addresses only the burden of international travel. One of several independent grounds precluding Mr. Roman's deposition, Mr. Roman is a journalist. Any testimony you seek regarding his sources, unpublished materials, or editorial processes is categorically privileged. Remote participation does not waive these protections. I'm sorry, I have to pause and repeat this for a second. Greg Roman, the wannabe journalist with no apparent history of doing any actual independent journalism,

the kind, you know, not attached to a political journalist. cause, whose actions are in fact at the center of this lawsuit, he was offered to do a Zoom deposition. Now, I'm trying not to scream about how deeply unfair this is and how much this appears to be targeted harassment aimed at us. I have spent an insane amount of money fighting this deposition because, one, I believe in the First Amendment, in a journalist's right to privileged information, and two, because I have been concerned for my safety. An actual criminal felon who is associated with Greg Parker's team has threatened on TikTok to show up to my deposition. A large part of the back and forth between my attorneys and Greg Parker's team has been about

the location of my deposition, and we have offered Zoom a number of times, which has been denied at every turn. It infuriates me that Greg Roman, who has an actual connection to this case, was offered to be deposed via Zoom and I was not, when I am not a party in this case. The thing is, it really feels like Parker's attorneys do not want to depose me via Zoom because getting truthful answers out of me, like the attorneys who are going to depose Greg want to do, that isn't their goal. It surely feels like harassed. harassment and the intentional infliction of emotional distress to me. And to the Parker's attorneys listening,

stick a pen in that one too. More on that in a minute. Where is Daredevil? I'm right here. Don't miss the return of Marvel Television's Daredevil born again. So what's next? I'll be liberated. We're to take this city back.

In an all-new season now streaming only on Disney Plus. They're hunting us. It's time we started hunting them. I can work with that. This should be tons of fun. Marvel television's Daredevil, Born Again, now streaming only on Disney Plus. Again, Greg Roman's not a journalist in this case. He was allegedly paid by Greg Parker's legal team to report on Parker's co-defendants in the boat crash suit. I'm not sure what the case law says on that, but it would seem to me like the journalist's shield not only wouldn't apply

here, it couldn't. If you're a client, you are not a source. There is no journalist's client privilege, which brings us to Greg Roman's other attempts to avoid giving information in this case, this case that only exists because of him and whoever gave him the mediation materials. Before we talk about his appeal to the state Supreme Court, let's talk about his former attorney, Andrew Radiker. On Friday, Andrew filed a motion to quash his deposition subpoena with the court. He says he can't be deposed on March 31st because he has a scheduling conflict. But also, there are other bigger problems according to his motion. Here's David with one of those problems, as outlined in Andrew's affidavit.

As the record reflects, I was one of the attorneys of record for defendants, Fratari, Rosado, and Private Investigations Services Group. As the record also reflects, a conflict of interest developed during the progress of the case that required me to stop representing those defendants, and the other client with whose interests those defendants' interests conflicted. I represented that other client with regard to the same matter, the matter subject of this case. I accordingly ended my representation of all my now former clients in this matter, and an order relieving me as counsel was filed in this case. Not long after the conflict developed and I was relieved as counsel.

counsel for all parties in this case became informed through discovery that my other non-party client in this matter was Greg Roman. I mean, you can't make this stuff up, guys. Andrew Radiger was representing Greg Roman and also the guys who are now trying to oppose Greg Roman. Did they hire him together? How did that happen? In this affidavit, Andrew goes on to testify that, quote, Mark Tinsley stubbornly insisted without any supporting evidence that Greg Parker, or some company he controls hired my firm and or paid for the legal services I rendered in this case, as far as I know, that is completely false.

Ah, as far as he knows, that's confidence building right there. But also, did Greg Parker have something to do with the weird attorney stuff that's happening in this case? Andrew also testified that he never took direction from Greg Parker or anyone on his behalf, to his knowledge, etc. Anyway, Andrews says in this affidavit, why he can't be deposed on March 31st. Here's David with that. There is a problem, though, that is not so easy to fix, that of privilege and confidentiality.

Defendants, Fratati, Rosado, and Private Investigator Services Group have waived attorney-client privilege, according to their present counsel in this case, and consent to me testifying fully. Mr. Roman, however, has not waived privilege or confidentiality. I am thus bound not to reveal privileged or otherwise confidential information relating to my common representation of these former clients. It's not enough for some of them, but not all of them, to waive privilege. So yet another holdup in the case from Greg Roman. And by the way, this sounds really messy. Why would Greg Roman, who is a non-party in the case, be able to prevent the private investigators from having their

former attorney testify? The private investigators are literally defendants in this case, and they're okay with whatever Andrew Radiker might testify to when it comes to them. But Greg Roman, the non-party, gets to just stop that? That feels wrong. And again, it's fishy. Shouldn't the private investigators get to defend themselves given that there are defendants? But again, there seems to be a real effort to keep Greg Roman and information about him away from the court. While Greg Parker's attorneys, Mark Moore, and Debbie Barbier, instead make a big production out of deposing us and even deposing a fan of this show for posting her own opinions on social media on her own, literally. Mark and Debbie did that, and in our opinions, they did it for one of two reasons, or maybe both reasons. Either they're seeking

to silence journalists through harassment and intimidation while building a fake narrative to mask the stench of their stinky client, Greg Parker, or they're profoundly dumb, and also giant losers who, in the absence of facts and evidence that would help their client, have instead resorted to digging around in troll trash by seeking their advice on who to depose. They were literally settling a score between one of our listeners and a troll for however much money that cost Greg Barker. Back to Greg Roman though. Who is he? And why? Why isn't the court doing something to get his testimony on the record? There is a direct and established connection. between Greg Parker and Greg Roman,

which means that is the place to get answers, no? To ask those questions about how the photos and videos made their way to Greg Roman? Oh, wait a minute. The court did do that, sort of. In May of last year, Greg Roman and his company, Gravitas Synergy Solutions, filed a motion to quash, claiming that all subpoenas issued to Greg Roman were improper

and asking the court to block them all. According to court records, the subpoenas in question were for Romans' financial records from PNC Financial Services Group. Presumably Mark Tinsley and the Beach family are seeking this information to determine when and how Greg Roman was paid in connection to his work for Greg Parker, which we know happened based on the Wall Street Journal story. With the motion, Greg Roman included an affidavit.

Here's David with what he said. I am a journalist who uses his financial accounts to fund journalistic investigations. I am not a party to this action. Gravitas, Synergy Solutions, LLC, is a business entity through which I conduct both journalistic activities and private counseling services. Gravitas maintains binding non-disclosure agreements with all clients and vendors, creating contractual obligations of confidentiality that would be violated by disclosure of the requested financial records. My financial records document investigative activities, including

payments to confidential sources, travel expenses to meet with sources, subscription fees for research services, and other expenses that would reveal my network of sources and areas of investigation. Disclosure of this highly personal and proprietary financial information would severely impact my ability to cultivate sources and thus conduct investigations and gather news for publication. Excuse me, but paid confidential sources? How is any of that? actual journalism. That sounds more like marketing disguised as journalism so that the reporter shield will apply, which it didn't. In February, Judge R. Keith Kelly denied that motion, as well as Greg Roman's request for a protective order that would prevent the disclosure of Romans and

Gravitas's financial records. After that, Greg filed a motion to reconsider, which for some reason was misfiled in the public index under the private investigator's company name. In the motion, Greg's attorney, Taylor Smith, says that the judge erred by saying in his order denying Greg's motions that Greg's counsel had been present at a November hearing. Smith said that no attorney appeared on Roman's behalf at this hearing and that Roman's attorneys were not notified about the hearing. Smith requested that Judge Kelly vacate the order and schedule a hearing. On March 16th, though, Judge Kelly issued an order that corrected the record, noting that the parties had filed a motion and briefs in support of their position in lieu of oral arguments.

He again denied Greg Roman's motion to block the financial subpoenas for his and Gravitoss's financial records. On March 18th, PNC Bank's managing senior counsel advised all parties that PNC was gathering Greg Roman's records that are responsive to the subpoena. The next day, Greg Roman filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief and motion for injunction with the state Supreme Court. Here's David with how this filing started.

This case presents extremely urgent and critical questions for the court under its original jurisdiction pertaining to South Carolina's journalist Shield Law, which may have dire and irreversible consequences for both petition slash plaintiff and his confidential sources. Indeed, the imminent disclosure of highly sensitive information. that would identify these sources, many of who are in active conflict zones or are subject to the rule of regimes who would have no tolerance for their relationship with an Israeli-American journalist puts their lives in danger,

all due to the lower court's clearly erroneous decision. Not to keep asking the question of who is Greg Roman, but who is Greg Roman? And more importantly, why did Greg Parker's team hire him? him. What in the world could Greg Roman do for Greg Parker in a case about selling alcohol to miners before a fatal boat crash? In this filing, Greg Roman identifies himself as a national security analyst who serves as executive director of Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based policy research organization. David, can you read paragraph 24 from Greg Roman's petition?

Roman is an investigative journalist who makes over 300 media appearances annually. as a security analyst and has testified before the United States Congress. His financial records at PNC document payments to confidential sources, including individuals inside Syria and Iran, who risk torture and death for their cooperation. Travel expenditures revealing when and where he met with sources. Payments for communications, security infrastructure, including over 470 Starlinked satellite terminals, deployed inside Iran and compensations arrangements with freelance investigators, translators, and fixers whose identities must remain confidential.

Uh, 470 Starlink satellites inside Iran. I'm sorry, are you a journalist because that sounds like spy stuff? Okay, let's do paragraph 252 because y'all have to. to hear this to believe it. Roman resides near Tel Aviv, Israel, an active conflict zone. Since February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel have been engaged in a military campaign against Iran. Iranian intelligence services are actively conducting security sweeps to identify individuals suspected of collaboration with Western governments, media organizations,

or opposition groups. Disclosure of Roman's financial records, would provide a documented roadmap of his source network to hostile state actors. Greg Roman is asking the South Carolina Supreme Court to issue a declaratory judgment on the basis of violation of due process, and in the meantime, grant him a temporary restraining order, which they did. On Friday, the justices signed an order stopping PNC from responding to the subpoena for 30 days to give the Beach family 10 days to respond. After they respond, Greg Roman will have three days to apply. So, the guy who gave photos of Mallory's dead body to Vicki Ward, along with the Beach family's mediation video, is some sort of, I mean, he says journalists, but something isn't

right there. Because we've researched Greg Roman in his body of work, along with the Middle East forum, and he's more of a propagandist in our opinions. Well, not just our opinions, actually. In episode 1.26, we shared some of that research, which included a 2020 report from the charity and Security Network titled Islamophobic groups attacking humanitarian peace-building groups and human rights defenders. In this report, the Middle East Forum was described by the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University as, quote, a right-wing anti-Islam think tank that spreads misinformation, creates watch lists targeting academics, and advocates hawkish foreign policy. MEF provides funding to numerous anti-Muslim organizations and has provided legal services to a number of anti-Muslim activists.

David, can you read what else the report said? One M.E.F. Target, academic Juan Cole of the University of Michigan, described his experience. 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. Uh, that doesn't sound like journalism to me, but also, again, why was Greg Roman hired to help in the boat crash case? I mean, obviously there are some things that resonate here, like spreads misinformation and creates watch lists, and harass and spied on, threaten, and bully, and try to intimidate you. And quote, if that fails and you show some spine, then they simply lie about you. Oh, and quoting half a passage and denuding it of context,

and, quote, adopting a tone of pained indignation when quoting a perfectly obvious observation. All of that sounds real familiar in terms of the strategies that we have seen come from Team Parker. So Greg Roman and Greg Parker sound like a real match as far as we're concerned. And it raises questions about the kind of players Greg Parker and his team are connected to. First you've got Greg Roman. Take everything that we have talked about today and add that Greg Roman was sued by a former Middle East Forum employee in 2019 who accused him of sexually harassing and sexually assault

her in engaging in retaliatory behavior. Interestingly, he is not at all, described as a journalist or working in journalism in this complaint. Then there's Callie Lyons, the former Fitznews employee and unfortunately former Luna Shark freelancer, who for some reason had access to text messages purportedly between me, Liz, and Fitznews researcher, Jen Wood from the 10 months Liz and I worked with Jen. Callie is not a party in any of those text messages, which if real, would represent content that is protected from subpoena, in our opinions, and likely a court's opinion. Callie did not work for Fitts or Luna Shark at the time, and yet here she is, getting thousands

of dollars from Greg Parker to produce text messages that she somehow has. Interesting. And then there is Parker's little helper, Jim Seidel, the felon. Who has been very deeply and very oddly involved in making sure that Parker ruins our lives? I'm not going to waste another word talking about that fool, but I think it says a lot, like a lot, a lot, a lot that Deborah Barbier, Mark Moore, and their client Greg Parker continue to associate themselves with this cast of characters. This case is simple.

Who gave Greg Roman the photos of Mallor? Beach's body. It was not us. It would never be us, ever. Any suggestion otherwise is a lie meant to hurt our reputations and help protect billionaire Greg Parker, the man who had Greg Roman on his defense team. It does not look good for Greg Parker, does it? He is directly linked to the guy who gave the photos to Vicky Ward, directly linked. And instead of taking accountability for that, He has invested, likely millions of dollars, in what feels like, trying to ruin a lot of people's lives. That says a lot about him, right? So, if the South Carolina justice system wants to maintain the single thread of dignity it has left,

the Supreme Court should rule that Greg Roman's finances are fair game and not protected by the reporter's shield, because he is not a reporter by any stretch of the imagination. Or at the very least, the payments from Greg Parker should absolutely be fair game in this. Reporters do not get paid to push certain narratives. And since this court forced Liz and I, who had nothing to do with the accusations at the heart of this lawsuit, to sit for a deposition,

well, Greg Roman best be made to do the same. To quote Liz's favorite movie, The Legend of Billy Jean, Fair is Fair. Until next time, stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. 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.