Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #156 [Part One] - A Dark Day At The House Of True Sunlight After $176,500 Contempt Sanction

Starting point is 00:00:00 Care for your skin like you care for the game. Dove Men Plus Care is an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and has just dropped their new limited edition deodorant and antipersprint collection for 72 hours sweat and odor protection, helping you stay fresh from kickoff to the final whistle. Visit dove.com slash CA slash E.N. slash men dash care to shop now. I don't know how to move forward after Judge Kelly issued an. unprecedented order forcing me to pay nearly $200,000 of billionaire Greg Parker's legal fees. But I know that a lot of bad people in the state of South Carolina want the order to scare me into silence. And I need your help making sure that it won't.

Starting point is 00:00:55 My name is Manny Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption, previously known as the Murdoch Murders podcast. True Sunlight is a Lunar Shark production, written with journalist Liz Farrell. Hey y'all, I don't know where to start, so I will begin with gratitude. The only reason why I am still standing and still fighting and still speaking out right now is because of you. My listeners, my supporters, my team, our Pink Army, who filled up two separate courtrooms on the other side of the state for me to make sure Greg Parker and his attorneys knew

Starting point is 00:01:35 that the girl that they were going after was loved and supported. And of course, because of my David. But y'all are the ones carrying us through the darkness right now, and I need to start this show by saying that I would not be speaking right now if it wasn't for you. Okay, there are a few folks who I would like to thank personally to start off, and trust me, we will get a better system in place for future episodes to properly express our gratitude. Stephanie France, wow, thank you. We love you.

Starting point is 00:02:07 Author John Copenhaver. Thank you. You're amazing. My best friend, Chelsea Murray. Thank you. Megan Morris. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Stephanie Schumer. Lindsay Owen, Chris. Wick. Rhonda McKinnis. Heather Colusek. Aaron Lee Carr. René Ryan. Jennifer Masservie. Ooh, we love you. Jennifer Graves. Thank you. Jamie Bostic. Michelle Thompson. Leah James. Megan Linnhoff. Thank you. Elise Way, Nancy Blaine, Taylor Snodgrass, thank you. To everyone who joined Patreon today and everyone supporting our mission on Supercast. And to our rapidly growing appeal team from all over the country, thank you. I was gobsmacked when David woke me up on Monday morning to tell me that Judge R. Keith Kelly

Starting point is 00:02:59 not only ruled to hold me in contempt, but he ordered me to pay an unprecedented an unreasonable amount for billionaire Greg Parker's legal fees, $171,500 just to Greg Parker's attorneys, and then another $5,000 to the court. Y'all, this is a third of the cost of what Ellick Murdoch claim that his six-week murder trial cost him in legal fees. This fee, according to a lot of attorneys I've spoken to in the last few days, is what more than most murder defendants pay for their entire defense. This fee is more than three times the amount of the average South Carolinian salary. This fee is outrageous, but the most outrageous part isn't the amount.

Starting point is 00:03:50 Judge Kelly ordered for the breakdown of those fees to be secret, to be sealed, to be confidential. So beyond the fact that I know that Jim Bannister's law firm was awarded $39,900, Deborah Barbiers was awarded $49,950, and Mark Picklejuice Moore's law firm was awarded $85,650. $45,000 was my annual salary in journalism for a good part of my career, so forgive my rage as I say all of this. These fees are in no way reasonable. There is no world where these three attorneys, who could. clearly don't even understand the basic concepts of social media rightfully earned that astronomical

Starting point is 00:04:40 amount of money on the following. And again, this is all we know. The March 27th deposition, the failed deposition, which is the same thing, the rule to show cause filing, the attorney's response to my emergency motion to set deposition location, and my motion for reconsideration, as well as the preparation for and appearances at the May 15th. 2026 and June 22nd, 26 contempt hearings, along with any pleadings or correspondence related thereto. This is all because they deposed me on April 8th at the Spartanburg County Courthouse instead of March 27th at an attorney's office in Bluffton for a deposition related to the Beach v. Parker case. And in that case, remember, is where billionaire Greg Parker, whose gas station illegally sold

Starting point is 00:05:31 Paul Murdoch alcohol the night Mallory Beach died. in a boat crash, he is accused of intentionally inflicting emotional harm on the beach family during the boat crash litigation process to pressure the family into settling for less. The lawsuit ultimately settled for around $15 million in 2023 from the gas station's insurance carrier. But let me give you a quick recap on this because it's confusing. But on the week of my deposition, Jim Seidel, the felon who runs a creepy crime website centered on defaming and harassing me, ramped up his campaign against me to the point where I was terrified and worried for my safety. He appeared to obsessively fixate on me day in and day out.

Starting point is 00:06:18 Several times he threatened to attend my deposition, and several sources told me that he was working with Greg Parker's attorneys and communicating with him. And now, court documents confirm that. Greg Parker's attorneys showed zero concern for my personal safety that week, and in fact, they made me feel like they wanted me to feel unsafe. They posted my phone number on the internet, along with hundreds of my text messages that were conveyed to Greg Parker by a former Fitznews employee, and that cost them nearly $9,000. They showed zero concern for me when I had to get a new cell phone number because the amount of harassing text messages I received after Deborah Barbier posted my phone number on the internet.

Starting point is 00:07:03 Greg Parker's attorneys, in my opinion, helped cultivate my feeling of terror on the day of my deposition. Are Greg Parker's attorneys billing me for that? We have no idea. We are just supposed to trust these people who have been untruthful to us from the get-go. We are supposed to trust that they are being truthful with these ungodly. fees. And honestly, the more that they doubled down on this certain location and refused to meet me down the road at my attorney's office and refused to give us a reason as to why they wouldn't move a few thousand feet for my deposition, it reaffirmed my gut feeling that something wasn't right.

Starting point is 00:07:45 And I felt deeply that I shouldn't go to a deposition in a case where I am not a party to a location where I feel deeply unsafe and unprotected. In 2024, two people, in Las Vegas were shot and killed during their deposition by guess who, an attorney. My fears that day, I felt were justified in every single way, and I didn't see a world where a judge would side with Greg Parker's attorneys after what they did. I honestly thought that they would be the one sanctioned at that point for allegedly brokering a deal to purchase private text messages that didn't belong to the person providing them. And then they were used on the internet to defame us and demean us, and taken wildly out of context

Starting point is 00:08:31 and somehow everything bad ever said in all of those text messages was wrongfully attributed to either Liz or me. This is why we filed an emergency motion to change the location of the deposition, and the judge apparently denied it the morning of my deposition, but he didn't file it until the following Monday, which is a major miscommunication by the judge that this case hinges on. If the judge filed his order that morning, I would have risked my safety and complied. But my biggest mistake in all of this

Starting point is 00:09:04 was believing that common sense and the law would prevail in a case where a pesky journalist known for bucking the system was up against a billionaire in his very powerful attorneys. I knew throughout the Murdoch case that the system was bad, but I always thought my rights as a non-party party, witness in this case would prevent me from facing this kind of life-changing punishment for simply asking that my deposition would be held in a safe place. My lawyers offered a number of alternative locations and times following the failed deposition on March 27th. And Greg Parker's attorneys refused to even respond to us.

Starting point is 00:09:43 Suddenly, Judge Kelly's clerk summoned us to Gaffney, South Carolina for a hearing. And that was the hearing that I was screamed at by Deborah Barrier for hours as she handed me printouts of dozens of my social media posts. And apparently, Judge Kelly believes that suffering through that brutal ambush of a hearing was not punishment enough. Now I have to pay her for it. At the hearing, it was decided that I would be deposed the next day in Spartanburg County. And my lawyers and I all had to stay the night there without notice while Greg Parker's attorneys looked like, like they had packed an overnight bag and were prepared to stay, which was odd. The deposition on April 8th was strange, invasive, and mostly very insignificant.

Starting point is 00:10:31 As I said all along, and Liz will talk about in a minute. They fought so hard for this deposition that, in my opinion, did nothing for their defense. They heard rumors from trolls that we were getting paid by Mark Tinsley and that I had knowledge of Mallory Beach's dead body photos, which I do not. But Greg Roman, who's dodged multiple subpoenas in this case and not been punished at all for it, he might have knowledge. Everything that Greg Parker's attorneys wanted me to do from the subpoena was done on April 8th. And yet they elected to hold these absurd witch-hunt-style hearings and go forward with the contempt charges.

Starting point is 00:11:12 There was never an opt-out button for me to push from that point forward. And they spent, apparently, over three years. $100,000 on this month-long witch hunt that I was forced to be a part of against my will. And now they want me to pay for it. I would have been fine with paying fees for the day that I missed my deposition and calling it a day. But looking back, it was clear that this was never about holding me in contempt. It was about using the court to punish me for everything I have ever exposed on this podcast through my work. I was punished for my voice, for my opinions, and my refusal to stay silent when others would,

Starting point is 00:11:58 and punishing me in particular for using my First Amendment protected speech to speak out against the corrupt lawyers I have faced in this case, and for speaking out against Judge Kelly, who has allowed the circus to proceed. We are allowed in South Carolina to speak out against court officials without facing persecution from our government. It is called the First Amendment. But, turns out, laws don't matter in South Carolina. That's really what I learned this week. Which brings me to the civil contempt law in South Carolina.

Starting point is 00:12:32 David, will you read directly from the South Carolina Judicial Branch website? Compensatory contempt seeks to reimburse the party for the costs he or she incurs enforcing the non-complying party to obey the court's orders. See Poston v. Poston 331 SC106, 114-502, SE2D-8690 1998. In a civil contempt proceeding, a contemner may be required to reimburse a complainant for the cost he incurred in enforcing the court's prior order, including reasonable attorney's fees. The award of the attorney's fees is not a punishment, but an indemnification to the party who instituted the contempt proceeding. Lindsay v. Lindsay 328 SC 329-34549 S.C. S.E. 2D. 583-592. C.C. S.E.2D. 583-592. C.T. 1997. A compensatory contempt award may include attorney fees.

Starting point is 00:13:42 Curley v. Howell. 277. 27. SC 3737386 through 87-287-287-827-S-E2D-915-9191982. Compensatory contempt is a money award for the plaintiff when the defendant has injured the plaintiff by violating a previous court order. Included in the actual loss are the costs of defending and enforcing the court order, including litigation costs and attorney's fees. Hear that? The award is not a punishment. It is supposed to only reimburse direct cost incurred enforcing the order, and the order was enforced on April 8th. Because of the confidentiality

Starting point is 00:14:31 order, Judge Kelly is making me pay $171,500 in legal fees that I apparently can't even dispute the line items on because I don't get to know what they are, which appears to violate a number of laws, but we will get to that. Did Greg Parker's attorneys charge me for that steak dinner that they loudly laughed about was on Mandy on the day Deborah B. Barbier berated me in court for wearing a swimsuit in my own backyard? How much did they charge me for Debbie, creepily collecting hundreds of my Facebook posts and printing them out like a weirdo? How much did they charge me for Mark Moore to spread vicious lies about me on the public index. How much are they charging me for Mark Moore to type dozens of bitchy little footnotes about me in public documents? And are they

Starting point is 00:15:24 charging me for those copy and paste jobs from Russell Lafitte's filings? Hmm, we don't get to know. How much was I charged for Debbie and her sad little minions to make four full binders of my social media posts? They weren't supposed to include that in the cost because it wasn't allowed into evidence. But who knows? We don't. These sick and disgusting attorneys have lied so many times to the court in the past nine months. I have no choice but to assume that they have made up these numbers again to punish me. Punish me for what? It's not for my deposition. They got that. And it is definitely not about sending a message to the public that folks should show up to depositions. But rather, I learned from Greg Roman in this case that the only solution is,

Starting point is 00:16:10 to actually dodge subpoenas. Greg Roman, the fake journalist who had the photos of Mallory Beach's dead body, the photos that are at the heart of this case, he has dodged multiple subpoenas and literally refused to give his deposition in this case. And yet, Judge Kelly has not done a single thing to punish him. He just lets him roam. Also, Greg Parker's attorneys, the same attorneys wanting to lecture the world about the importance of respecting the court, they earn accused of concealing roughly $383,000 in payments, wired in 2020 to an Israeli spy security bot farm company called Demo Man International for what the filing describes as litigation mitigation. And then, according to Mark Hensley, they failed to disclose that in discovery.

Starting point is 00:17:02 And oh, they are also accused of interfering with subpoenas. And yet, Judge R. Keith Kelly has done nothing to punish them. Just me, the only one brave enough to call out the corruption in the justice system. When I first started reporting on the Murdoch story the way that I did, so many people from South Carolina emailed me saying things like no one in South Carolina goes up against the Murdox. No one stands up against the good old boys. And now I know why. And honestly, I should probably consider myself lucky that the punishment was a hundred-old. $176,000 and not jail or my life. Truly, anything could happen in the state of South Carolina where laws do not matter here. But the thing is, this week's ruling is so much bigger than me.

Starting point is 00:17:55 This ruling will give lawyers in our state unbridled power to summon anyone to any dangerous location for what they say is a deposition. Dick Harpoutlian could subpoena me for a deposition at the bottom of the lake, and then I could be fined nearly $200,000 for not going. Burt von Herman, the attorney who called me a fat hippo non-journalist, well, he could summon me to a back alley and claim it was for a deposition. And what about the women who have ex-husbands who are attorneys? Could they be subpoenaed to an unsafe location under the guise of a deposition too? Then, found in contempt for not going?

Starting point is 00:18:34 Lose their kids, their homes, their freedom, their life, You see how this could be dangerous and wrong, and there is a reason that the rules of professional conduct state that attorneys are obligated to avoid imposing a burden on a non-party, which I am. I think this is about making sure women in this state know that they are second-class citizens. It is about making sure the few journalists in the state who dare to speak out against the system know that they aren't really protected by the First Amendment. It's about emboldening the harmful legal system of the South Carolina good old boys that lost its power in the Murdoch murders podcast era. Judge Kelly's ruling sets a terrifying precedent that will chill the First Amendment for years to come. So our only option now is to fight it. We will fight it and we will try our best, but we need your help in the meantime.

Starting point is 00:19:32 There is a massive amount of cash being demanded of us. So while we get our ducks in a row with filing the motion to reconsider and then the appeal, we are asking for contributions in the meantime to stop the bleed, while we hire more lawyers and figure out our next steps, while keeping our reporting as you have come to expect it. The best in the business. I hate asking for money from y'all, as our listeners have done so much to support us.

Starting point is 00:20:00 And again, are the reason why I'm not curled up in the fetal position on the floor right now? It's because of all of you. But if you want us to continue this, if you want us to keep fighting the good fight week after week to make the justice system better for all of us, please support our reporting by joining Lunashark Premium on our new Patreon platform, patreon.com slash Lunashark,

Starting point is 00:20:25 or support our legal defense fund by contributing to our new GoFundMe that was launched today. The links to both of those are in the description right now, please go click on them and share them. Even if you can't donate, sharing helps a whole lot. If every single listener donated a dollar or shared the links, we could raise the money that we need by tomorrow. If a fourth of our listeners signed up for Lunashark Premium,

Starting point is 00:20:53 we could rest assured that the future of our company will not only be able to fight this uphill legal battle, but we will be free to continue to pursue our mission in other cases to expose, the truth wherever it leads, give voice to victims, and get the story straight. In my opinion, a truly good journalist exposes the truth that a lot of people don't want the world to see. In a lot of ways, this legal nightmare has helped me expose the truth of the South Carolina justice system in a way nothing else could. Thank you again for supporting us during this tough time,

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Starting point is 00:23:34 they would deny it, see no problem with using the legal system to settle personal vendettas against journalists. I say unsurprisingly and stupidly and personal vendettas because guess who wrote the order. Oh, you think the judge wrote it. Nope, he sure didn't. That order was written by Greg Parker's legal team and edited and signed off on by the judge. But let's rewind a bit before we talk about that. During the June 22nd hearing in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which was the third hearing in Mandy's contempt case,

Starting point is 00:24:09 Parker attorney Jim Bannister, aka Little Lord Wannister, called David to the stand. When Wannister started to ask David about Luna Sharks finances, Mandy's legal team objected. Let's have a listen to that. My name is David Moses. Thank you. Thank you, Judge. Mr. Moses, you have been mentioned a couple of times by Ms. Matney as being the one who understands the dollars and the finances of Lunas Shark Media. Is that correct?

Starting point is 00:24:39 I do my bets, yes, sir. Objection for all of us, Your Honor. Your Honor, it goes to financial ability to pay. We aren't there, Your Honor. We're trying to get through today, so I'm going to be relatively short. It's over room. Go ahead. Thank you, Judge. All right, so Ms. Madney has described Lunarck Industries or Media as a multimillion-dollar company.

Starting point is 00:25:00 You heard that? I did hear that. Okay. What is multi-million implies to something more than two? How many is it? You know, I'd have to check. What's great about Loon Shark Media is that we are able to hire so many people as contractors. So while gross revenues may have reached very significant levels,

Starting point is 00:25:22 we do our best to compensate those that work for us in defending the First Amendment and calling out bad actors in the justice system. We expose crime and corruption. And thankfully, people find, people find that content, yes, very much interesting. And some people peg us on a monthly basis, or a yearly basis. Some people fly across the country to support us

Starting point is 00:25:50 with their finances so that we are better able and equipped to account with our mission of exposing the truth wherever it leads, giving voice to victims, and getting the store straight. And while gross revenues have been impressive at times, our nets, allow you to our efforts, A lot of us have, I would say, a comfortable lifestyle, but we're not flying private yet. We don't eat at Sophie's Steakhouse all the time.

Starting point is 00:26:16 What we try to do is to honor victims through our reporting and our content. People across the world find that interesting, and they do their best to help us hold others accountable. Public agencies, individuals alike. So multi-million dollars, sure, over the course of the last five years, but we also had to pay immense expenses along the way, including this, hearing today on May 15th, on April 7th, on April 8th, private security when deemed necessary. Okay, so if we wanted to get at what was the net, what would be the documents and where could we find those?

Starting point is 00:26:51 Objection, Your Honor, relevance. No, no, he's testifying to what their financial situation is, and he's telling me that there are other things that are out there that he needs to be able to answer that question. So I'm asking, where are they? What are? Because we can speak those and get them and make available to the court. To parent their own line, what does this have to do with Ms. Madney's contempt? Because it goes to the ability to pay, judge, which is one of the three things that are part of a rule to show cause. What's the other reasons that she didn't show up?

Starting point is 00:27:20 And do they have a financial ability to pay? Because ultimately you're going to have to decide if there was a contempt, and then how much are you going to find or hold them in contempt for? Okay. Your Honor, I'm also objecting to what sounds like a, fishing expedition for documents, again, non-party, what would be the purpose for this? Well, I don't need a fishing expedition, if he'll just answer the question. And remind me your question, sir.

Starting point is 00:27:50 I just asked you, I said you've been described as a multimillion dollar media company, and I wanted to know how many millions we're talking about. That implies more than two. Is there a number you can put on that? Objection, that's actually a different question than what he had asked. I know that I was personal income that's not in the billions of dollars. Permission to approach, Your Honor. Yes.

Starting point is 00:28:12 And with that, Judge Kelly's law clerk, AJ Cedar, turned on a ridiculously loud track of static to mask the lawyer's very long sidebar with the judge. When everyone finally returned to their tables, little Lord Wannister said this. Your Honor, thank you. Based on court's indication, from the sidebar, that ability to pay will be something that we will reserve until after there is a formal finding of contempt, and we will simply reserve our position on that, and I don't have any further questions for Mr. Manza. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:28:46 Thank you. Yeah, you're on. Thank you. You got that, right? Jim Bannister, who appears to be conflating Mandy with Lunashark, was questioning David to allegedly determine what Mandy's. ability would be to pay Parker's attorneys ludicrously exorbitant fees and expenses. Acting like they already knew they had won their argument for contempt, by the way.

Starting point is 00:29:15 But the judge decided that this part of the process could wait until after any formal finding of contempt. So, first, there needs to be a formal finding of contempt against Mandy. Then let's talk about Mandy's ability to pay Parker's ludicrously exorbitant fees and expenses. Guess what didn't happen. That. That didn't happen. Not only did Judge Kelly skip the part where the court was supposed to learn more about non-party deponent Mandy Madnie's ability to pay, Parker's ludicrously exorbitant fees and expenses, there was no discussion about the fees and expenses themselves.

Starting point is 00:29:52 No ability for Mandy and her legal team to challenge Parker's attorneys on their claims of reasonable and necessary costs. No method for them to examine the itemized invoices, scrutinize them line by line, and question individual attorneys about what exactly they did for that money. It was just pay this. Enjoy your lack of due process. Goodbye. Which, and I know this is going to shock you, is not at all how this was supposed to go. Oh, and Judge Kelly issued an order of confidentiality,

Starting point is 00:30:24 barring Mandy from being able to talk about the itemized bills from the attorneys, presuming they ever show them to her. So, secret court is now in session, and they wonder why we're so loud about calling these things out. You want mandate to pay almost $200,000 to a billionaire who electively pursued a contempt charge to the tune of at least $310,000, which in and of itself should be regarded as an act of retaliation, in my opinion, but you don't want to tell her what that money represents,

Starting point is 00:30:57 and you don't want the public to know what it represents, despite the billionaire using the public's court system to exact this unprecedented revenge on a journalist. At the very end of the June 22nd hearing in Spartanburg, Judge Kelly had told both parties to submit proposed orders regarding contempt, and he told Parker's attorneys to submit their expenses and fees to him. Now remember, these are supposed to be reasonable fees and expenses. And I'm going to be honest.

Starting point is 00:31:28 I was super curious if Jim Bannister would submit his expenses and fees at all because from where I sit, Bannister, an attorney who practices in Judge Kelly's circuit appears to have been the friendly local hire for Greg Parker. Bannister was added to Parker's large legal team only after Judge Kelly was assigned the case in 2025, possibly because the judge knows or is familiar with Bannister or because Bannister's familiar with the judge and the system and the clerk of court, and possibly because Jim Bannister's brother Bruce is a powerful legislator, i.e. one of the guys who gets a vote in saying who gets to be a judge in South Carolina, and more relevantly, who gets to continue being a judge

Starting point is 00:32:10 in South Carolina. I wondered if Wannister would be too embarrassed to submit his expenses to Judge Kelly, knowing that the bills, the amounts they were charging for this, would tell a very clear story, that this was an excessively overpriced and wholly unnecessary passion project in which their client was using the court system to show a journalist who's reporting he didn't like that he is the man, that he calls the shots, not her. Again, that's a question that occurred to me before I learned that Judge Kelly is not the inscrutable enigma of a studied jurist that I had hoped he was going to be, meaning I learned that he's exactly the good old boy he seemed to be, standing desk and all.

Starting point is 00:32:55 Anyway, Mandy cannot see what the money was spent on. She can't see things like how many steak dinners were on those invoices. We have to ask that because after the first hearing, Parker's legal team was overheard joking to each other about how dinner was going to be on Mandy. And then there's how many hotel stays are on those invoices. Why was it necessary that four partner-level attorneys take part? in this sideshow circus act. How come Zoom was never an option for these hearings? It could have cut the cost or significantly reduced them.

Starting point is 00:33:27 And why has Mandy never had a say in any part of her own witch hunt that they are now making her pay for? Why was it necessary to create binders of Mandy's social media postings? How many hours did that take? Were they trying to charge Mandy for the April 8th deposition that she sat for? A deposition that they wanted and dragged her into. a deposition that they said they needed for their defense. They needed that deposition and yet not one mention of one single thing gleaned for Mandy's deposition

Starting point is 00:33:59 in Parker's motion for summary judgment. Their final argument to get the case dismissed in their favor. Their big moment, the final battle before trial, their opportunity to use all their weapons put all their cards on the table for the judge and there's nothing for Mandy's deposition which no duh there's nothing their whole reason for deposing Mandy despite what the trolls say despite what the felon Jim Seidel says despite journalist John Monk's inaccurate and petty reporting on the case for the state newspaper was bogus made up manufactured what is it John Monk keeps writing about the reason Mandy needed to be deposed David will you read from Mona John's too poorly written and terribly reported and deeply biased stories that he's written

Starting point is 00:34:49 in the last week about this. In 2023, Parker's company, which sold an underage Paul Murdoch alcohol before the crash, paid Renee Beach $15 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit that Beach had brought against Parker. In a separate lawsuit, now pending, Beach sued Parker, alleging he had leaked photos of Mallory Beach's dead body to the public. It is that lawsuit in which lawyers for Parker sought Matney's deposition to see if she had any knowledge about leaked autopsy photos of Mallory Beach's body. Ah, yes, to see if Mandy had any knowledge about leaked autopsy photos of Mallory Beach's body. This is how it happens, y'all.

Starting point is 00:35:36 When all alleged facts are given equal weight by a reporter whose main professional qualification was never relentless pursuer of the truth, but rather is and always has been man. Do we tell you about the June 22nd hearing and how John Monk sundowned his way into the courtroom at the last minute and tried to bark his way into the front row by telling the law students occupying it that they had to move because he had a job to do. My name is Peter Parker, but I'm also Spider-Man. This July, we're faced with a threat. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker.

Starting point is 00:36:19 I'm just a neighbor. Friendly neighbor. But he hasn't forgotten them. Sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing. That's my responsibility. Talk to Banner? I didn't know you could get that big. Spider-Man, brand-new day.

Starting point is 00:36:33 In theaters, July 31st. But back to John's rendition of why Mandy was deposed by Parker's attorneys. He validates the deposition with that sentence by making it seem like a legitimate inquiry. He normalizes this idea that it's okay for attorneys to go on fishing expeditions with journalists to see what they know. He abandons further scrutiny and due diligence because the narrative that he seems to be drawn to is the one that seems to appeal to him the most, is the one that paints Mandy, who in the past has called John out publicly for his continued use of sources who have lied on the record in a poor light. Interesting how monk stories don't seem to mention that. that while Parker's attorneys continue to harangue and bully Mandy in court, while providing

Starting point is 00:37:28 no evidence that Mandy has any information they need about how the photos got into the hands of Greg Roman, there's a very direct and provable connection between Greg Parker and his legal team, who had the photos of Mallory's body, and with Greg Roman, the man who caused the photos to be published. John Monk skips right over all that in his stories. Oh, and also, you can't just depose people, John. The deposition has to be, quote, reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence. And you tell me, John Monk, what is the reasonable calculation here? If you're phrasing it as see if, they deposed her to see if she had information about leaked photos. All you have evidence of is that Mandy reported on the filings in the public index as a reporter does. And that's all she's

Starting point is 00:38:20 ever done. Report on the story as it unfolds in court filings and exercise her First Amendment rights in offering her opinion about what she's seeing happen based on the facts of the case. We've never published photos of Mallory's dead body, ever. We have never had them. Greg Parker's boy Greg Roman has, though. There's not a single witness out there who could swear under oath that either Mandy or I have ever had the photos on our possession because we haven't. But oh look, There's an affidavit right there in the public index, accessible to the public, which includes, John, I have a job to do monk, from journalist Vicki Ward, saying exactly where, when, and how. She got the photos of Mallory's dead body and from whom. Greg Roman.

Starting point is 00:39:06 The guy who Greg Parker hired as part of his litigation mitigation team in 2020, according to Parker's spokesperson, in an August 22 story in the Wall Street Journal. But no, let's feed into the manufactured contempt charge against Mandy, right, John? And the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent litigating that. I'm sorry, but this is all so infuriating and I'm tired. I'm sick of saying the same things over and over and hoping that someone out there with more power than I have. Well, listen, every day feels more and more surreal. How is this allowed to happen?

Starting point is 00:39:40 How do the John monks sit by and think, what, that Mandy deserves this? that because Mandy is outspoken on social media about how traditional media in South Carolina has allowed generations of corruption to rot and fester in the court systems by cowtowing to powerful sources that she somehow must be in contempt here. All right, Mandy, quote,

Starting point is 00:40:03 failed to give her deposition, according to John Monk. That's her crime. She failed to give a deposition that she gave. She gave the deposition, John. She made herself available for the deposition on the day and at the time posted on the subpoena. And she used the tools available to her

Starting point is 00:40:21 and everyone else in the court system by asking Judge Kelly for emergency relief for permission to have the deposition held at her attorney's office. And she waited for his answer. And while she waited for his answer, she gave Parker's attorneys the opportunity to depose her right then in there, over Zoom or in person, 2,700 feet away. But Judge Kelly's decision did not come until after the scheduled deposition time, despite having been decided on and signed off on before the scheduled deposition time. Where is your journalistic scrutiny on that, John Monk? No red flags there for you? Nothing fishy about that? Picture this way. At one table, there is a completed 1,000-piece puzzle. It takes all the public filings in this case, all the public exhibits, all the public arguments

Starting point is 00:41:14 made in public court, and every piece that's been considered weighed and put together so that the final picture becomes pretty clear. And nowhere in that final picture of all those pieces from the public index, do you see me? And nowhere in that final picture do you see Mandy. There's just Greg Parker and Greg Roman and Vicki Ward and a single documentary that had possession of photos of Mallory's body and used them in a publicly posted and widely accessible video to promote the documentary. All the pieces are there. But people like John Monk, Judge Kelly, the pro-park are trolls, the content creators determined to twist the story into being about me, Mandy, and Mark Tinsley, they all ignore the puzzle, which fine, ignore it. You don't have to use our puzzle. But how about

Starting point is 00:42:05 put together your own puzzle? Using those publicly available pieces and not these made-up theories based on the hopes and dreams of seeing us fall. No one wants to do that, though. Instead, they rely on the echo chamber created by Parker's attorneys and shouted into existent by the trolls in their caves and vice versa. They rely on table number two, where there's one big, amorphous lump of brown Play-Doh. All the Play-Doh colors mushed together, ruined, and muddied. And they call that the story. And it makes it. me want to scream. This entire case is about how photos of Mallory Beach's dead body ended up in the Murdoch murder's deadly dynasty documentary, produced by Viggy Ward and Greg

Starting point is 00:42:51 Roman, and having 0.00 to infinity percent to do with us. Those photos were never released to the public. They were never released to the media. We never had them. We've never seen them. There's nothing John Monk or the others can claim to say shows we did. And yet, he and the others continue to ignore that the path between Greg Parker and Greg Roman is a short one. Making all of this one big distraction from that. Look at the shiny toy, John Monk. You follow that shiny toy. Follow this story about the reporter you dislike whose book release you ignored, whose scripted TV series you ignored,

Starting point is 00:43:32 whose name you can barely say, whose professional title you continue to deny. follow the shiny toy and ignore the publicly available facts. Not only do we have a Parker spokesperson confirming that Greg Roman was paid by Greg Parker to help with litigating the boat crash. In July 2021, Greg Roman posted a very lengthy blog post about the murders and the boat crash case. A blog that concluded Parker's Kitchen ought not to be held responsible for Mallory, Beach's death. And according to a filing by the Beach family, that blog contained information that was only contained in unreleased police reports at the time. Sorry, not only contained in unreleased police reports at the time, but rather contained in something called the Murdoch

Starting point is 00:44:27 report, a dossier paid by Greg Parker that his attorneys had argued that the court was considered confidential attorney-client-privileged work. Meaning, it appears Greg Roman, who used to Greg Parker's dossier on the Murdox to glean facts for his blog post. In a November 2022 email to Parker's attorneys and Judge Bentley Price that's available in the public index. To you, John Monk, Mark Tinsley further shows how connected Greg Parker is to Greg Roman and how it appeared that Roman had used Parker's Murdoch report as sourcing for his public blog post.

Starting point is 00:45:06 David, will you read from this email? Roman references an EMS statement which falsely suggests that Paul Murdoch may have taken shots of brown liquor at a restaurant in downtown Beaufort called plums. Roman wrote on page 19 of 25 of his blog, quote, according to an EMS statement, Paul's ex-girlfriend Morgan Dowdy told her that the boys also drank shots of brown liquor at another downtown restaurant called plums. That statement from the EMS personnel was not published. publicly available as of July 27, 2021, to Mr. Roman, meaning it had not been released to the public by either DNR or the AG's office. Moreover, that statement has never been reported on other than by Mr. Roman. It is, however, also outlined on page nine of the alleged confidential Murdoch report, which uses the same phrase of, quote, shots of brown liquor, end quote. Similarly, the

Starting point is 00:46:09 actual statement is published on page 135 of the Murdoch report. Clearly, Mr. Parker knowingly and intentionally waived any privileges that he now claims by publishing these materials and giving them to Greg Roman for publication. By the very fact that Parker gave the materials to Roman, a purported journalist, waives any of his claimed privileges. Once the privilege is waived, it is waived for all purposes. Mr. Moore knows full well about Greg Roman and his work for Mr. Parker. His refusal to acknowledge these facts, as he has, suggests that he is, at best, being less than candid with the court. So, not only is there evidence that Greg Parker hired Greg Roman, an evidence that Greg Roman gave Vicky Ward the photos of Mallory's dead body, along with other confidential court materials that were

Starting point is 00:47:02 used in a documentary that Greg Roman produced, there's evidence that Greg Roman was quoting from a super secret dossier owned by Greg Parker, using details that were only known to investigators at the time. Where's that story, John Monk? Anyway, let's talk about that order, shall we? Like we said, Judge Kelly skipped over what seems like a pretty big part of this, determining whether Mandy can afford to pay these exorbitant and, in my opinion, absolutely unnecessary legal bills from Greg Parker. Legal bills and giving Mandy the opportunity to question the legitimacy of the legal bills. Legal bills. What am I saying? What's the legal equivalent of punching Mandy in the face and then

Starting point is 00:47:47 charging her for the bruises on their knuckles? What's that called? Is that also called legal bills? Hmm, makes sense. Okay, so like we said, this order was written by Greg Parker's attorneys. which is not unusual. Judges in South Carolina draft orders for the judges to use in whole or as a jumping off point. Like I said, Judge Kelly is ordering that I pay for Greg Parker's attorney's fees for the March 27th deposition, the failed deposition. The rule to show cause filing, the attorney's response to my emergency motion to set a deposition location and motion for consideration, as well as for the preparation for the preparation for an appearances at the May 15th, 2026 and June 22, 26, contempt hearings, along with any pleadings or correspondence related thereto. You know, the hearings that I did not ask for.

Starting point is 00:48:47 The hearings that were entirely unnecessary after I did what they wanted me to do and gave my deposition on April 8th. And the cost of that, Judge Kelly is ordering that little old may pay over $171,000 for Greg Parker's attorney's fees. And Judge Kelly is fining me $5,000, noting that it was necessary to deter similar conduct in the future and promote the respect for the law. I'm sorry, L-O-L, Your Honor. L-O-L. Respect for the law?

Starting point is 00:49:24 So the law says that it is okay for lawyers to drag a non-party deponent into their case as a distraction from the case in chief and treat that non-party deponent like a criminal while tearing apart their life from inside out. The law says that it's okay for lawyers to purchase private text messages that otherwise they could not get through a valid subpoena that were alleged by Mark Tensley in open court to be stolen from the non-party deponent's former workplace by a terminated employee who was not a recipient or owner of those text messages? The law says that it's okay for a felon who has been on a months-long mission to destroy the

Starting point is 00:50:09 non-party deponent's career and credibility to partner with the lawyers and broker the sale of the text messages and then publish those allegedly stolen text messages on a so-called news website that he seemed to create in service of his mission. a so-called news website? The law says that it's okay for lawyers to inconvenience and instill fear and a non-party depotent by refusing to entertain any conversation about moving the deposition to a location where the non-party deponent would feel safe in light of the felons recently disclosed relationship with the lawyer and his online post about attending the non-party depotent's deposition? The non-party deponent whose career and reputation, he is seeking

Starting point is 00:50:57 to ruin? The law says that it's okay for the judge to deny the non-party depotent's emergency motion on the morning of the scheduled hearing but not inform her of the decision until after the window for holding her deposition is over? Is it the law that lawyers can charge double and triple what some murder defense case costs to sadistically pursue can tip charges against the non-party deponent even after she sat for the deposition? That is the law that needs to be respected? On that note, we will talk more about what this seemingly retaliatory and wholly unprecedented order says when we return with part two of this week's True Sunlight podcast.

Starting point is 00:51:47 Again, if you want to help us in this fight, please consider joining Lunashark Premium on our new Patreon platform today, or donating to our GoFundMe for legal fees at the link in the description. Thank you for all of your support. Until next time, stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production

Starting point is 00:52:19 created by me, Mandy Matney, co-hosted and reported by journalist Liz Pharrell, research support provided by Beth Braden, audio production support provided by Jamie Hoffman and Grace Hills, case file management by Kate Thomas. Learn more about our mission and membership at LunaSharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky. You know me, I dig until I find the truth. And it turns out, that same instinct that drives my investigative journalism, it makes for a different, but pretty amazing, new kind

Starting point is 00:52:58 of travel show. Wherever it leads is Luna Sharks' brand new podcast. And it's nothing like the travel content that you've heard before. We go deeper. We talk to locals. reporters, and people who actually live where you want to visit, not just the ones who want your tourist dollars. We cover the food and landmarks, sure, but we also ask the harder questions. What is the real history here? The often sad and traumatic history. What new challenge is this place facing? And how can you show up as a visitor who actually makes things better? My co-host, David Moses and I, along with a team of journalists, are hitting destinations around the world to expose the truth, give voice to victims throughout history, and get the story straight,

Starting point is 00:53:43 with new destinations and episodes every other week. Wherever It Leads from Luna Shark. Find it wherever you listen to your podcast or visit wherever it leadspod.com.

Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #156 [Part One] - A Dark Day At The House Of True Sunlight After $176,500 Contempt Sanction

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