Murdaugh Murders Podcast - What Happened To Gloria Satterfield? Part Two (S01E12)

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

Gloria Satterfield died suspiciously in 2018 following an alleged “trip-and-fall” incident while working at one of the Murdaugh family homes. In this episode we explore the new developments brought about by attorney Eric Bland and his righteous pursuit for justice. The question in this case now is who will be held accountable. Listen as the case develops and Eric Bland explains all that's happened in the last week. And a special thank you to: The Bannon Law Group - From sitting by the fires to setting them, the Bannon Law Group has got you covered. Lauren Taylor Law - Few events are more traumatic and stressful than a divorce - let Lauren Taylor make a plan tailor made for you. Ross & Pines - Uncovering the truth and fighting police coverups is what Noah Pines and his team of lawyers at Ross & Pines do when defending you from being falsely accused, or wrongly convicted, of committing a crime.  Bevedu.com - Their mission is to help aspiring bartenders, mixologists, servers and those just wanting to learn; develop their skills & become knowledgeable in all things alcohol. Nectar Farm Kitchen - At Nectar Farm Kitchen, their group of distinguished chefs thoughtfully prepare every dish using ingredients made and grown throughout the Lowcountry and the South. For current and accurate updates: Twitter.com/mandymatney Buy us a coffee to keep us going at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MurdaughMurders Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't know if anyone killed Gloria Satterfield, but after attorneys Eric Bland and Ronald Richter uncovered a paper trail showing what Ellic Murdoch and Corey Fleming did in the aftermath of her death, I am absolutely disgusted. And I want to know how many people will be held to account for this despicable scheme. My name is Mandy Matney. I'm the news director for fitsnews.com and I've been investigating the Murdoch family for more than two years now. This is the Murdoch Murders podcast. I want to take a moment and say thank you to all the people who are supporting me out there. To our advertisers like Ross and Pines, Lauren Taylor Law, Nectar Farm Kitchen, The Vannons,

and all of the Momosa Donators, those who take to Twitter with some sense of moral compass, to my incredible sources for being on the right side of the story and sticking with me throughout all of this and believing in my mission to expose the truth wherever it leads. Thank you. I also want to share how much I appreciate my future husband David for helping me through the stress of making this podcast and handling the advertising producing and making sure that we're on the right track. For the last few months, David has been so busy planning a charity event called Polo for Heroes in Bluffton, South Carolina, which you might have heard ads for already. It raises money for two awesome charities,

the Low Country Foundation for Wounded Military Heroes and the 200 Club of the Coastal Empire. I am very proud of how much he cares for these groups and I care for them as well. I want to ask you to check out poloforheroes.com. Please look at the online auction page and bid on something or make a donation. There's also a really fun auction item, which I can't believe we're doing this, but you can bid on a lunch with David and I. And yes, you can ask as many questions about the Murdoch murders in this case as you want to during that lunch. And the lunch can also be virtual. These charities are making life easier for veterans and provide 100% tuition to the families of first responders who die in the line of duty. During my 10 years of journalism,

I have worked with so many veterans, police officers and first responders and I have so much respect for what they do every day to protect the rest of us. So please, please, please. If you want to give money this week, you guys are so great. Please head to poloforheroes.com and help in any way that you can. Go to poloforheroes, that's the number for heroes.com. We're back to Gloria Satterfield on this episode and we'll give you a quick recap. Previously on the Murdoch murders, on September 15, 2021, Eric Bland and his law partner, Ronald Richter filed a lawsuit alleging civil conspiracy and stolen funds and connections with the 2018 Gloria Satterfield settlement. Gloria dies February 26, 2018, after falling

February 2, 2018. At the funeral, Alex says to the aunts, uncles and the kids, I'm going to take you to go see a lawyer and that lawyer I know is going to bring a claim against me because I am going to admit that I was negligent, responsible for your mother's death because my dog tripped her and she fell down the stairs and he's going to bring a wrongful death claim and I'm going to turn it over to my insurance carriers and then I'm going to tell them I'm at fault and your guys are going to get money as a result of your mother's death. But you can't tell anybody that I'm kind of organizing this because I can get in trouble. Two months goes by, obviously the voting accident happened in February of 2019. March, they have a mediation and they settle

with a mediator from Charleston named John Austin and Corey's representing the estate and obviously Alex is the defendant and they go before the mediator and they compromise or whatever and they agree the total claims they're going to settle for four million three hundred and five thousand dollars. So what happened? The check went straight to Corey Fleming. How did Alec end up with the money? Alec told Corey, now Alex is the defendant. We're going to do a structure. We're going to buy an annuity for these kids through a company called Forge Consultants in Atlanta. The only problem is Corey never got any documents from Forge and he's taking direction from the defendant who tells him after you take your fees, write the

check to Forge and send it to a P.O. Box in Hampton, South Carolina. So the check is made out to Forge. Alec Murdoch gives him a P.O. Box where it's sent to. The check goes in the P.O. Box. Alec Murdoch opened up a bank account at Bank of America under the name of Forge. Got the check, cashed it and walked away with the money. And that brings us to now. This is October 9th, 2021. This week has been non-stop development in the Gloria Satterfield case. Attorney Eric Bland and I are going to walk you through every single step that has happened this week. I feel like I have spent an entire week on the phone with Eric. Bless his heart. As a Satterfield case unfolded so quickly, Eric is working tirelessly to get justice for his clients and him and his partner Ronald Richter have done more to

expose the bad actors in this case in the last three weeks than anyone has done in the last three years since Gloria Satterfield died. So we're going to rewind and go back to Sunday, October 3rd, when Eric Bland announced that Alec Murdoch's best friend Corey Fleming along with his law firm reached a settlement in this case. But before the new settlement was reached on Friday, Satterfield's two sons hadn't received a single dime from their mother's wrongful death settlement, which ended up being $4.3 million. He's not off the hook. He's going to pay every single dollar verified that he received and his law firm received by way of fees and costs for representing and recovering that $4.3 million. And his malpractice insurance policy is paying their full amount of

coverage for the firm. So the estate's going to get back from him a significant amount of money. It's significant dollars. So all you got to tell you the exact amount. But if you look at the order of mulling in his fees, and I'm telling you he's getting back every single dollar of what he received, he may not have received that total amount, but close. So all the fees and costs are being disgorged from him and his law firm, every single penny. They're not keeping one cent. Plus his malpractice insurance policy paid the full amount of coverage. And you can ask around and you'll know that law firms have anywhere from, I'll give you the low end of $500,000 and they go up into the millions. I will tell you it's not the full amount of the $4.3 million, but it's a significant chunk of it.

And the rest is going to come from, hopefully, Chad's Bank, the state, the Murdoch law firm, because now we have documents showing that the Murdoch law firm was involved representing the estate. But what took Corey Fleming so long to come forward after all of these years? After all, these were his two clients that were supposed to get $2.8 million in a settlement and never received a dime. Is he really doing the right thing here or is he just coming forward to save himself? Here's Eric Bland again. Overwhelming pressure by you, me, and other people that have been writing articles, he's got to try to save his law license. That's an issue he's got to be concerned about. Obviously, law enforcement is looking into this from both the state and the federal level as they've indicated.

And so I don't know his motivations or his lawyer's motivations, but I sense that, well, if we make restitution now, early on, we're first ones in, that's going to look good if I'm going to have any chance of saving my law license and my liberty because I totally disgorge myself. And then we actually paid more than what we received because the malpractice policy tendered its full limits. From a standpoint, shouldn't he have paid the entire $4.3 million? Some people may have said, yes, some people say no. Some people will say, well, Murdoch should pay and some of the banks should pay. And if the Murdoch firm was involved, they should pay, maybe Corey shouldn't have to pay the entire thing. But he paid Mandy every single penny in fee and cost that they took,

inappropriate costs. And he made a representation that he didn't receive anything on the back end from Alex. It's not like Alex got money and then kicked back from the Corey and the firm. So they paid every single dollar plus their malpractice policy. And you remember Moss, his partner, said in the Island Packet newspaper like two weeks ago, I think on the 16th of September, oh, we're going to countersuit for defamation. On September 24, Jim Moss, who is one of Corey Fleming's law partners, told the Island Packet newspaper that he was planning on filing a countersuit against Satterfields estate, claiming that the accusations made in the lawsuit were false. He is one of many players in this case who quickly ate his own words. On Tuesday,

Eric Bland published game changing documents that not only showed Alec Murdoch, Corey Fleming, and Chad Westendorf's involvement in this case through a paper trail, but also showed how Peter's Murdoch, Parker, Ellsworth, and Diedrich, also known as PMPED, the Murdoch law firm, was also alleged to be involved in this scheme to steal millions of dollars from Satterfields Sons. Now we have documents showing that the Murdoch law firm was involved representing the estate, because you're going to see a filing today in today's court. It will show all these documents that the Murdoch law firm sent out saying they were representing the estate. So the Murdoch law firm themselves was representing the estate and sending out documents. They had a duty to protect

the estate and its money. The documents directly contradict a statement published by PMPED on September 24, claiming that PMPED partners were stunned by media reports about the Satterfield fraud scheme. The statement on PMPED's website, which, when I was posted, one of my really good sources in this case told me that that statement would not age well, and I believed him or her. The statement says, we have read the media reports about the lawsuit and settlement resulting from the death of Gloria Satterfield. If these reports are accurate, we are stunned at what occurred. It's important for everyone to know that PMPED did not represent Alec's in that case. His insurance company hired counsel to represent him. Like many of you, we have lots of questions

about Alec's and what has recently come to light. We don't know the answers, but we will continue assisting law enforcement and other authorities in efforts to find the truth. PMPED is committed to our clients and community. You can count on us to operate our firm in an honorable and transparent fashion. So was PMPED really stunned by the accusation or did they know in hope that nobody would find out? Here's Eric Bland again. And the whole thing with the Murdoch firm, you know, it's hypocrisy at its best. You know, to come out and claim that they're victims of Alec's fraud, maybe if they did a better job of supervising their attorneys like the rule of professional conduct, say the partners supposed to do other partners, maybe this wouldn't have

happened. And maybe if they did a simple computer search, you know, when the whole Satterfield stuff came out, they would have come forward and said, you know what, we're, you know, we're in error. Our firm did send out letters of representation and they provide representation to these boys and to the estate. Documents filed on Tuesday, October 5th show emails and letters from Alec Murdoch and his paralegals acting as representatives of the estate of Gloria Satterfield in the wrongful death settlement. So that would be Alec Murdoch, the only defendant in the settlement claiming to represent Satterfield's sons who are the plaintiffs. Considering this egregious conflict of interest, how would that not raise major flags at PMPED?

On that same day, Eric Bland received a check for $30,000 from Chad Wessendorf. Wessendorf was a personal representative of Gloria's estate. He played a key role in the scheme to cut Gloria Satterfield's sons out of the settlement before he took $30,000. Here's Eric Bland again. They sent $403,500 to Forge. All Chad had to do was ask, hey, can you send me a copy of the structure so I could keep up with it because I was brought in to manage the money? That's the whole reason why they had Tony step aside and bring in Chad to be the PR was because he was going to manage the money. So if Chad just sent a letter that said, hey, you know, send me a copy of the

structure you're buying, it would have been over because Alec obviously wasn't buying any structures. He would take the money. So he's well sleep blind or he's the dumbest moron who ever lived. Chad Wessendorf is still the president of the independent banks of South Carolina, and he is still working at Palmetto State Bank. He has not apologized for his role in the Gloria Satterfield Settlement. On October 6, 2021, just a day after Eric Bland filed bombshell documents that revealed PMPED's involvement in the Satterfield scheme, PMPED pulled a fast one and filed a lawsuit against Alec Murdoch that appeared to be a damage control move. According to the lawsuit, which was filed by an attorney who doesn't appear to handle these types

of cases, PMPED uncovered Alec's fraud scheme on September 2, 2021, when they discovered a check made out to Alec Murdoch from another law firm and that check was laying unattended on his desk. According to PMPED's lawsuit, Alec Murdoch admitted to the fraud during a meeting with the firm's partners on September 3, 2021. At this meeting, he resigned from the law firm, which was built by his family and founded by his great grandfather. As my boss at Fitznews pointed out, it was a convenient discovery and it's very strange that they filed this lawsuit just a day after Eric Bland's motion. On Wednesday, October 6, Eric Bland issued a joint statement with Corey Fleming's were Fleming apologized. The joint statement was done as a part of Fleming's settlement agreement

with the Satterfield estate. In the statement, Fleming apologized and he claimed he was fooled by his friend Alec Murdoch, but he acknowledged that material mistakes were made at crucial times. Fleming claimed that until early September 2021, he sincerely believed that the settlement funds had been properly dispersed. And hold on one second. I have been writing about the sketchy Satterfield settlement since 2019 and Corey Fleming, who is a Buford lawyer, never once thought of the fact that his client's Satterfield sons never received a dime of their settlement. Come on. Also, his best friend Alec has been at the center of a national news saga and several investigations since June. Did he not once think back to all of his cases that

involved Alec and double check that everything was done right, considering the fact that he should have expected that no stone would be left unturned in this investigation? Why did he suddenly realize this after Sled opened up an investigation and Bland filed a lawsuit? At critical times, significant times in this litigation, I make crucial mistakes. A lawyer can't afford to do that. That's not what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to always be on the ball. We're supposed to look around the corner to prevent people from stealing. That's something that we have to guard against. That's why there's court orders. All Corey had to say to Alex is, I have a court order. I'm not going to violate it. This is my duty as a South

Carolina lawyer. I do not have the ability to violate a court order. Bland maintains that Corey Fleming failed his clients over and over in this case. The only thing that Corey Fleming did right is he recovered $4,300,000. Amazing job. Great job. But every single thing else he did was wrong, violated the rules of professional conduct, violated the standards of care, violated common sense, everything. Nothing he did right. The attorneys, the defense attorneys, they were appointed by the insurance companies. They didn't do anything right. Corey Fleming took a contingency fee. Under our rules of conduct, you've got to have a fee agreement in writing for a contingency fee. There's no fee agreement. He doesn't have a fee agreement. Neither does Chad

Westendorf. The question you should ask is, how much does the bar need to see? They've already suspended Alex Murlock. How much does the bar need to see before they suspend Corey Fleming? How many court orders do you have to disregard? How many rules of procedure do you have to not follow? Not only the bar, sled. What more does sled need? I gave them the document trail. They don't have to prove who shot Roger Rabbit. Did Paul die this way or did this guy die this way? I gave them the paper trail. The low-hanging fruit is to nail people, follow the money. That's the low-hanging fruit. On Thursday, October 7th, I wrote a story on fitsnews.com that ruffled a lot of feathers. In the article titled, Why Hasn't Alex Murdock Been Arrested in the

Satterfield Scandal, I pointed out that Bland and so many others are questioning where the accountability is in this case after he's provided law enforcement with an apparent pile of evidence. In the story, I asked, why isn't Alex Murdock in jail? After all, he's accused of devising a plan to steal millions of dollars from the Satterfield family. Why isn't Alex Murdock already charged with wire fraud? Forge, listen to me. Forge Consulting already put out a statement on their website. They had nothing to do with Alex Murdock or the Satterfield case. I've already shown the chips. They've already been negotiated. It's wire fraud. He stole the money. Please tell me why he's not being charged today. To be clear, Alec Murdock is allegedly in rehab right now,

following his September 17th bond hearing for his alleged role in the bizarre assisted suicide for hire insurance fraud scheme. His attorneys, who have lied to the public multiple times before, claim he is in rehab for an alleged opioid addiction. At Alec Murdock's bond hearing, a Hampton County judge ruled that Alec was not a danger to society and not a flight risk. But considering the fact that he allegedly concocted and pursued a made-for-hollywood scheme to get shot in the head all for a son to collect a $10 million insurance policy, is he really not considered to be a danger to society? He needs to be from the same trough of justice that every other citizen in our state needs from. And it's patently obvious exactly what happened through the documents that

are now in the public domain that he stole $3.6 million from my clients. More importantly, his own law firm in a public pleading has said he did it to other clients through the same exact method. So I gotta believe in our state. We want one system of justice and not two systems of justice, but the longer this guy gets to treat the facility and try to get himself better and could possibly still commit more crimes by getting rid of some of the money or figuring out a way that it can't be traced or found, then sooner or later somebody in our state is going to say, well, if you commit a crime with a pen, it's not as bad as if you do it with a gun. You don't have to prove every single crime committed before you arrest somebody and charge them with serious crimes.

Prosecutors all the time add conditional counts. It's called supercedious indictments. It's done all the time, but it will send a strong message to all those that he may be working with to get rid of this money or however he can commit these crimes. Our state is serious and we're arresting and going to hold these people accountable. But it's starting to be a joke. I mean, what more do you need? People go to jail when they utter a $100 man check. So it's $3.6 million not enough. It's $10 million from the Murdoch firm not enough. When isn't it enough if their goal is to get all these different co-conspirators or whatever? Well, then you arrest somebody and you put pressure on them and you make people roll. That's what they do, right? You charge them with everything

possibly do this lawfully permissible. Alex Murdoch, I could sit down with a law book and come up with 15, 20 crimes that he's committed that are serious felonies with law, cover, jail sentence. The eyes of the nation are on this case. It's elementary what he did and there's documents to prove it. This isn't trying to solve the crimes of how Nike and Paul died. Those are complicated. You know, there are circumstantial evidence cases. It's called circumstantial evidence. This is direct evidence. This is circumstantial. You got his hand writing on the check. You got him depositing in the bank of America. The money he gave to my client. He got a court order. He was a defendant in the case with a court order saying the money was to go to

my clients. I'm not even talking about the Murdoch stuff. I'm just talking about my case. It's direct evidence. It's good to know that I can go steal 3.6 million dollars and I'm not going to get arrested when I get caught. This week, I asked SLED officials that's a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the agency investigating most of these alleged Murdoch crimes, a lot of questions about the Gloria Satterfield Settlement and why ELEC or anyone else hasn't been arrested yet. Here is the statement that Tommy Crosby, SLED spokesperson, sent to me. I'm going to have David read it. On September 15th, SLED opened a criminal investigation into the death of Gloria Satterfield and the handling of her estate. Subsequently, agents met with Attorney Eric Bland, who represents

Gloria's sons, Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriott, and were provided with documentation that was gathered by Bland as part of a civil action. Since that meeting, agents have gathered additional information that requires significant further investigation. SLED agents continue to interview potential witnesses, collect and process potential evidence and investigate every lead in this case in all potentially related cases. This process has and will continue to take a significant amount of time. However, the investigative decisions we make throughout these cases must ultimately withstand the scrutiny of the criminal justice process. This investigation and all of the related investigations are complex and SLED will not rush them to meet arbitrary deadlines.

So in that same article on Thursday, I asked other questions about other alleged co-conspirators in this case and whether or not they will be held accountable. Why is Chad Westendorf still the president of the independent banks of South Carolina and still working at Palmetto State Bank? Will Carmen Mullen, the judge who has ties to the Murdoch family and approved the under-the-table settlement in 2019 and held two hearings in the case, ever have to tell the truth about her involvement and if she was involved, who will hold her accountable? And finally, I asked how is Corey Fleming, who was a Satterfield's attorney and failed on almost every step of his duty to serve his clients, still able to practice law in South Carolina? So that brings us to Friday, October 8,

2021, just a day after I published that story asking questions about who will be held accountable. The South Carolina Supreme Court suspended Corey Fleming from practicing law due to evidence of misconduct that is under investigation. According to the ruling signed by Judge Donald Beatty, Fleming was placed on suspension pursuant to Rule 17B, which states that the South Carolina Supreme Court can suspend any attorney upon receipt of sufficient evidence demonstrating that a lawyer poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the public or to the administration of justice. And yes, that is the same rule that got Ellick Murdoch suspended exactly a month before Corey's suspension. So of course, when I heard this news, I called Eric Bland to get his reaction.

Our Supreme Court, I am very proud and I'm very proud of the ODC because they acted with swiftness and with certainty. Now, I can't say that same thing for law enforcement when it comes to Ellick Murdoch, but as a lawyer, I am extremely proud of our Supreme Court and the disciplinary counsel because I filed a complaint against Corey Fleming when I filed my lawsuit. It's our practice. We're duty bound. If we are witness to lawyer misconduct or we know of lawyer misconduct, it violates the rules of professional conduct, we're duty bound to report it to the ODC. And so what we do is we provide a copy of our complaint to the bar. Well, we did that. And then we also obviously provided them with information along the way. And they don't tell us what they're

reviewing or anything as you and I discussed before. But they certainly acted with swiftness and certainty at least this week after I filed my motion with all the exhibits and you wrote a pretty stinging article. I think it's a ringing endorsement for them to do that on a Friday afternoon. And I just hope that law enforcement is working with the same sense of urgency that our bar gets. And what about Gloria's death? We have learned a couple more details about the incident that led to Gloria's death. Despite some documents stating that the accident took place in Hampton, South Carolina at the Murdoch's Holly Street home, the incident now is said to have taken place at the Moselle property in Colliden County. The same property

where Maggie and Paul Murdoch were found murdered on June 7th, 2021. Also, I learned from a Facebook post written by one of Gloria's sons that Gloria also suffered broken ribs in addition to her head injury in the incident. There are still more questions and answers in this case. We need answers from Sled. We need answers from Judge Carmen Mullen. We need answers from Chad Westendorf. We need answers from PMPED. We need answers from Palmetto State Bank and Bank of America. We need answers from Alec Murdoch. The law firms got liability and the banks have liability, but in terms of the receiving the money, Alex is the only one left. You can add up all my cases. I've sued over 175 lawyers and law firms. You can add them all up and it doesn't equal what's

going on here. Because this is top to bottom. This is, you know, judges, lawyers, money, everything. Why? You name it. There's so much to unpack in this case and Mandy works tirelessly to expose the truth. But the truth is she works hard and she does get tired. If you believe like I do that Mandy is the best in the business and I'm a little biased, visit murdochmurderspodcast.com and click the support the show link to learn how you can help. Leave a five star review to offset the haters. Refer an advertiser and get a finder's fee or advertise your company, product or service. We can geotarget across the globe and find the right audience to suit your needs. Help us get

Luna some treats so she doesn't interrupt the show as much. And absolutely subscribe to fitsnews.com. Mandy and Will are revolutionizing journalism and your subscriptions are invaluable to that mission. Plus, you get awesome content every day. Or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com slash Mandy, M-A-N-D-Y, Matney, M-A-T-N-E-Y. And don't forget to leave a five star review unless you're gonna be nasty and talk about my vocal fry. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me, Mandy Matney and my fiance, David Moses. Produced by Luna Shark Productions. Thanks for sticking around till the end. We're gonna do something fun in future episodes where we share an original song from one of our friends. This is the Low Country Boyle Bluegrass band doing

their original song, Summer Moon. Summer Moon is listening. Give our time, pray for the best. Summer Moon will decide where the sacred dawn takes us and where the eagle flies. It's our way of life. Summer Moon. Horn of plenty, empty in July, vultures by descending. Seas waiting, war with bitter tribes, a pipe of peace pending. Head for the shadows. With our women, they are strong. With the strength of numbers, pray that our prayers hurt all along. Summer Moon will decide where the sacred dawn takes us and where the eagle flies. It's our way of life. Summer Moon.

It's our way of life. It's our way of life. Head for the future. On a path the bear knows well. When the moon is glistening, a fire burns but not in hell. Summer Moon will decide where the sacred dawn takes us and where the eagle flies. It's our way of life. Where the sacred dawn takes us and where the eagle flies. It's our way of life. Where the sacred dawn takes us and where the eagle flies. It's our way of life. Where the sacred dawn takes us and where the eagle flies. It's our way of life. It's our way of life.