Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #69 - Alex Murdaugh’s Biggest Loss Yet? Buster Triples Down on Defamation Claims + Police Kept Public Info from Mica Francis Before Her Death

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Investigative reporters Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell celebrate Alex Murdaugh’s biggest loss yet … one that will effectively keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. Also on the show, Buster Murdaugh triples down on his defamation claims against Netflix and Hampton County reporter Michael Dewitt. In a federal filing this week, Buster argues that — though he left out the context of Dewitt’s words in his original filing in South Carolina — including all of Dewitt’s interview on “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” actually helps strengthen his claim. Plus, the drama outside Solid Rock Ministries church in Myrtle Beach has NOT calmed down. On Sunday, pastor JP Miller was accused of assaulting a protester dressed as Jesus, and protesters were accused of harassing JP’s alleged paramour by shouting “demeaning” comments at her.  Mandy and Liz also took a look at the FOIA logs for Myrtle Beach and Horry County police departments to see who was seeking information on Mica Francis. And what they found was shocking: Before her death, Mica was seeking public information from the police … and they gave her next to nothing. Premium Episode Resources Liz’s Tweet about Alex Murdaugh’s Appeal Dismissal David Weissman’s Arthur Badger Article from the Myrtle Beach Sun News Mica Francis Timeline Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Join Luna Shark Premium today at Lunashark.Supercast.com. Premium Members also get access to searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. What We're Buying... Hungry Root - https://hungryroot.com/mandy to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies.. Hungry Root is the easiest way to eat healthy. They send you fresh, high-quality groceries, simple, delicious recipes, and essential supplements. Task Rabbit - Use promo code "mandy" at https://www.taskrabbit.com/ for 15% off your task. Task Rabbit connects you with skilled Taskers to help with cleaning, moving, furniture assembly, home repairs, and more. Here's a link to some of our favorite things: https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn And a special thank you to our other amazing sponsors: Microdose.com, PELOTON, and VUORI. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email [e-mail] and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thank you for supporting our mission to expose the truth wherever it leads by listening to Lunashark Media's Murdock Murders, Cup of Justice, and True Sunlight podcasts. I get messages all the time from people asking how they can help us with our mission. And now, there are great ways to do that. If you want to go the extra step, we invite you to learn more about Lunashark Plus for ad-free listening on Apple Podcasts or even better, join Lunashark Premium, a membership community for exclusive content like members-only live and virtual experiences and ad-free extended audio episodes, case documents, articles,

transcripts, video episodes, and highlights, plus early access to everything as soon as it's ready. Join Lunashark Premium at lunasharkmedia.com slash membership. Our members are helping us fund new journalists, explore more investigations, and expand our reach, helping more victims, producing meaningful content to hold agencies accountable and change our systems for the better. Visit lunasharkmedia.com slash membership to learn the best way you can stay tuned, stay pesky and stay in the sunlight. I don't know how much longer we're going to have to talk

about Elick Murdoch's legal system trickery. But for the first time since June 2021, I think this good old boy has finally reached his first dead end. And that is a big deal. My name is Mandy Matney. This is True Sunlight, previously known as the Murdoch Murders Podcast. True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. ["True Sunlight"] First of all, our hearts are with everyone in the Southeast working to recover from Hurricane Helene.

Just the images from the aftermath are alarming and heartbreaking, and I encourage every person listening to this who can donate to donate to organizations who will help survivors such as the Red Cross, Samaritan's Purse, or World Central Kitchen. We are working on donating through our Merch with a Mission campaign, and we will update y'all soon on that. If you cannot donate, spread the word to those who can. Today's episode will be slightly different, because today I am speaking at the University of Missouri, and on Monday I'm speaking at Indiana University of Missouri and on Monday I'm

speaking at Indiana University and doing a book signing there. See lunasharkmedia.com slash events for more details on that. Anyway, I have been dedicating my energy to that this week and Liz Farrell carried a huge weight of this episode for the team. Thanks Liz, as always, and take it away. So, big news. On Tuesday afternoon, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Ehrlich Mardoch's appeal of his 40-year sentence for the financial crimes, meaning Dick and Jim lost again. And yeah, we're gonna include Dick in this loss even though he never signed his name to any of Alex Federal of Heal filings

and sent his associate Phil Barber in his stead. Dick's chicken prints were still all over this. Year after year, we kept getting told that Team Murdock was going to dazzle everyone. Don't underestimate them, Liz and Mandy. They work magic. They play chess where other attorneys are playing checkers. Well, guess what?

These guys can't even win a game of Connect Four at this point. And thank God for that because Elick Murdoch will never be free ever again. In 2023, Elick pleaded guilty to 22 federal counts involving more than nine million dollars in thefts from his clients and his law firm. Much to his chagrin, he was then sentenced to 40 years in prison by Judge Richard Gergel. Ehrlich definitely did not anticipate this even after Judge Gergel

announced that he was going to give him more than the Bureau of Prisons had recommended in its sentencing report. So that was fun to watch. But not as fun as watching this. If Alec ever planned to live a life beyond prison walls before he died, this pretty much ends those dreams. As you all know, we strongly believe Elec had a multi-phase, let's say a 10-year plan to get out of prison in his late 60s and reclaim his Hampton County throne. Getting his federal sentence reduced was a critical component of that.

We believe Elec was counting on his murder conviction getting overturned if not in the state Supreme Court than in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Once he got that overturned, he could then delay a retrial until the state's case eroded enough through the increasingly foggy memories of witnesses and maybe even the deaths of some witnesses. Then, Ehrlich could give it another go, this time with perhaps a better chance of winning, especially now that he knows what the state's case against him looks like from the inside out. We also believe that Ehrlich would eventually seek to reduce his 27-year state sentence from the financial crimes by using the substantial

assistance law. That's that same law that was used in the secret closed-door meetings with a judge in the Draud Price case, the one that allowed for that murderer to have his sentence reduced to time served based on virtually nothing. We really believe Ellick regarded his state sentence in the financial crimes as an easily fixable irritant. Then, with those two things out of the way, he'd be moved to better facilities in federal prison for a short period of time before getting released. The only problem to that plan was that unexpected 40-year decision from Judge Gergel. Hence, while Elec was appealing it, he wanted it vacated completely or he wanted to get a redo. And now it's over. The court rejected his argument that he

hadn't waived his right to appeal. Why? Because he totally waived his right to appeal. But remember, in Eleick's mind, he apparently just gets to say something is true with the expectation that the people around him will find a way to make it true. Elick had also argued that because the 40-year sentence was tantamount to a death sentence, then he was due a proportionality review and that it was a violation of his Eighth Amendment rights that he didn't get one. The Eighth Amendment protects us against cruel and unusual punishment. Also, Ehrlich argued that Judge Gergel had improperly given him this 40-year sentence

because Judge Gergel was, in essence, sentencing him for the murders of Maggie and Paul. That was Ehrlich's theory. Ehrlich's appeal made it seem like Judge Gergel wanted a bite at the Murdoch fame apple and that's why he dug in. It was pretty insulting actually. The U.S. Attorney's Office response was basically, um, you don't have the right to appeal because you gave that away when you agreed to a plea deal instead of a trial, you dum-dum. And also, lol, ain't nothing cruel and unusual here except you dog. And here we are. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals was more convinced by the U.S. Attorney's Office's argument. I cannot tell you what a relief this is. Not only does it eliminate some of the future nonsense from Team Murdoch, it means that no one has to worry about

ELEC returning to Hampton County ever again, including us. It means that the people who have had to silently mourn Maggie and Paul as two victims of family annihilation, because to mourn them as Ellic's victims would be an affront to Ellic and the Murdoch family, they no longer have to consider a world in which Ellic might try to convince them otherwise face to face. Believe us, that is something he would do. The bottom line is this. No matter what happens with Elec's murder appeal, he is always going to be a

prisoner. And we have Judge Gergel to thank for that. He had the wisdom to consider the what if of Elec's murder conviction. He knew that Elec belonged behind bars for the rest of his life and his sentence would serve as a backstop to that. Well now that backstop is actually a nice brick wall and no matter how much Eric and Dick and Jim huff and puff, they can't blow it down. There is one thing though, after Paul's death, Alex seemed more intent on clearing Paul's name in the boat crash than

finding out who had killed him. I mean, we know why. Alex already knew who killed Paul. Literally, he could visit Paul's killer in the mirror every day. But it was so telling of how Alex thinks. It was highly important for him to clear his family's name to be able to say to himself that Paul didn't do it. And hey, look, they dropped the charges. We have no doubt that Ellic has the same frame of mind when it comes to his own murder conviction. We think that this is likely something that might even be more important to him than reducing his time behind bars. Ellic doesn't want anyone thinking he killed Maggie and Paul, even though he did kill Maggie and Paul.

So even though the murder conviction getting overturned doesn't represent a threat in terms of Ehrlich being let free, it still represents something. Ehrlich should be labeled a killer. Officially. If his conviction gets overturned on appeal, will the state have enough incentive and political capital to retry Elick now that they know he's behind bars for life? I know it's sort of a chicken little, the sky is falling kind of question, but we know Elick Murdoch. He will recover from this loss and put all his energy

into making this label go away. And we really, really hope that doesn't happen. And we really, really hope that doesn't happen. Okay, speaking of ELEC, we want to catch you up on the Badger case, which continues to get lost in the shuffle, even though it's one of ELEC's biggest thefts. It is interesting because we continue to grapple with Myrtle Beach and Horry County over their lack of adherence to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act and the sloppy and increasingly shady regard they seem to have for transparency in general, which we'll talk about in a bit. Needless to say, their behavior is bad and it's really something we would expect to see in a small town with no journalist. However, Myrtle Beach is a big town when it comes to South Carolina, and it is home to

a McClatchy newspaper, The Sun News. We both used to work for McClatchy, so it surprises us that law enforcement in their coverage area wouldn't be better trained on compliance. As you know, we're both super cynical about mainstream journalism, so when we talk about the non-compliance issues that we're seeing, we talk about it in conjunction with wondering whether journalists there have pushed hard enough over the years. That said, we have got to give credit where it's due. The Myrtle Beach Sun News is responsible for bringing sunlight to a very corrupt practice

in South Carolina, one that affected the Badger family. And that's the practice of convincing plaintiffs, typically vulnerable plaintiffs, who have faced great trauma, including traumatic brain injuries and the deaths of their loved ones, who receive sizable structured settlements to compensate for their losses, to sell the future payments from their structured settlements to a third party for pennies on the dollar. It is a scheme that exploited a loophole in state law and involved a multitude of companies

and required the help of unscrupulous attorneys and judges. In these shady deals, the benefit to the plaintiff is that they get fast cash now, rather than smaller payments over the course of their lives. A structured settlement is a tax-free way to maximize the bottom line of a settlement. You might remember from the Hakeem Pinkney case how little Russell signed off on the creation of a structured settlement for Hakeem in the form, how little Russell signed off on the creation of a structured settlement for Hakeem in the form of a life insurance policy that would have provided a five-figure

monthly income to Hakeem had Hakeem been alive. It's that kind of payment that would then go to these companies after purchasing them for next to nothing. So with the help of Palmetto State Bank, NEPO baby, Russell Lafitte, Alex stole more than a million dollars from Allendale resident Arthur Badger, whose wife was killed in 2011 in a crash with a UPS truck. Arthur and his wife, Donna, had six kids.

The youngest was about a year old at the time of her death. Arthur was also injured in the crash. But that wasn't the only issue at hand. In September 2022, Sun News reporter David Wiseman published a four-part investigative series called Cashed Out. In it, he wrote, each year, hundreds of South Carolinians who receive structured settlements sell their future payments and forfeit their stable financial futures. In the most worrisome cases, the lightly regulated companies, often called structured settlement factoring companies, buy the payments from sellers who have traumatic brain injuries or other debilitating injuries and rely on the settlements to make ends meet.

Weissman found that South Carolina judges were signing off on these predatory deals 94% of the time and that even though these deals were legal, they should have been more heavily scrutinized and reviewed by judges, which is their job. Also, these factoring companies were intentionally bringing their cases to courts in areas where the people selling their future payments didn't live in an effort to reduce that scrutiny, which sure does seem like a sign that the parties involved knew they were doing something dirty. Weissman found that more than $228.6 million in future payments from these structured settlements were sold for less than $58

million. And that, in many cases, the people selling their future payments ended up in worse financial shape than they were before. Immediately after the series ran, then Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Beatty signed an order preventing masters in equity and special referees, those are the judges who were signing off on nearly all the deals analyzed by the newspaper, from hearing these kinds of cases moving forward.

Instead, they would be heard by circuit court judges. Then in 2023, the state legislature and Governor Henry McMaster took action and added protections to the existing Structured Settlement Protection Act to help prevent people from being taken advantage of moving forward, which is so great. We love seeing journalism like this result

in meaningful change. And that's not even the end of it. Last week, Weissman published another update to his series. Attorney Mark Tinsley, who you know as Tinsley the Tiger or Zero Dark Tinsley from Alexrial, and who is representing Arthur Badger in recovering the money that was stolen from him, plus interest, was able to reach a settlement with the attorneys who helped facilitate the sale of the Badger Children's future payments from their structured settlement.

According to the Sun News, once a judge signs off on the settlement this month, the Badger Children's original future payments will be reinstated and the defendants will have to pay an additional $2.3 million in exchange for the Badger kids releasing them from any future liability. Of course, the defendants aren't admitting fault here, but as Mark Tinsley said in the Sun News story,

people don't pay millions of dollars to settle a case they think they're going to win. Now, who are those people, right? Well, we have Ryan Blank. According to the Sun News, Blank did two deals with the Badger family. One with Arthur's oldest daughter, who was 21 at the time, and later with Arthur Badger for his other kids' accounts. The newspaper says that Blank paid for Arthur Badger to come visit him in DC where he, quote, whined, dined, and lavishly entertained him to, quote, convince him to quickly sign off on deals selling his daughter's future payments. The deal was for Arthur to sell those future payments for 7 cents on the dollar. 7 cents. Blank and his companies settled the Badger

case for $700,000. Then there's attorney Richard Steadman from North Charleston. He represented the factoring companies in the Badger deal. He is paying $250,000 to make this go away. After him is Taylor Peace of Chapin, a Bowtide fellow who, according to the newspaper, had clerked for Stedman in the past and was being paid by Stedman to represent Arthur Badger in the deal. Yeah, the lawyer who was advising Arthur in this deal was apparently being paid by the guy advising the company that stood to greatly profit from Arthur's signature, according to the investigative report. My guess is that these guys would answer no if anyone asked them if they knowingly

took advantage of Arthur in this deal. But I think this arrangement for legal representation speaks for itself. So Taylor and his firm are paying $650,000 to settle this case. And now for the grossest part of this gross, gross behavior. Attorney Martin Harvey from Barnwell, who was the guardian ad litem for the Badger Girls in this deal, the man who was supposed to be protecting the girls by representing their interests, will pay $700,000 to settle this case. Why? Because according to the Sun News, instead of advocating

for the Badger Girls, ol' Martin Harvey told the court that this deal, the seven cents on the dollar deal, was in the girls' best interest. According to the Sun News, Harvey told the court that this deal would help them move into a safer home in a more desirable neighborhood. Quote, but the girls continued to live in the same home, which Harvey admitted he never visited, while the money received in the deals was used to purchase a rental property to supplement the family's income.

So Richard Steadman, Taylor Peace, and Martin Harvey are all listed as members in good standing in the South Carolina Bar Association Directory, which forces us to once again ask the State Bar and the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, what is it that they stand for? What is it they're responsible for? Because if that's behavior coming from members in good standing, then what are we to make of the others who are listed as in good standing? The Bar Association wants us all to believe that bad behavior from lawyers was isolated to

Ellic and Corey Fleming and that, see, they were well dealt with. But we continue to see evidence of the ODC and the Bar sticking their heads in the sand. What is it going to take for them to see evidence of the OTC in the bar sticking their heads in the sand. What is it gonna take for them to see that the issue is them? Being a lawyer is one of the most consequential jobs in South Carolina. They shouldn't be allowed to police themselves because they're terrible at it and that's by design, plain and simple. This whole thing is further proof of that. Anyway, congratulations to reporter David Weissman for his coverage on this, and congratulations to Mark Tinsley

for continuing to fight the good fight. Obviously, this is a separate issue from Arthur Badger's 2022 case in Allendale County against Ellic, Russell, and Palmetto State Bank, but it's a huge win. We hope to see more cases like this. If anyone out there knows of any other lawyers pursuing justice like this for clients who got taken advantage of by these factoring companies, let us know.

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Go to quince.com slash mandy for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns that's q u i n c e dot com slash mandy to get free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com slash mandy okay the next thing we want to talk about briefly is Buster Murdoch and his defamation case. As y'all know, the defendants in this case are trying to get it moved from Hampton County Court to federal court. There are two motions in front of Judge Gergel. One is arguing that Hampton County reporter Michael DeWitt is a sham defendant, added by

Buster for the sole purpose of keeping the case out of federal court. I'll explain. In order for a case to be heard in federal court, there has to be subject matter jurisdiction, which is a phrase that always reminds me of Legally Blonde and I literally cannot help myself when I say, I'm taking the dog. That said, subject matter jurisdiction means the case must pertain to a question of federal law. Another way to get a case in front of a federal judge is to exercise

diversity jurisdiction, which exists when the parties live in different states. Buster believes that three documentaries that aired since his father murdered his mother and brother, defamed him by implying that he killed Stephen Smith. He is suing Warner Brothers and Netflix as well as their related production companies along with DeWitt and DeWitt's newspaper company, Goodnet. It's the inclusion of DeWitt that serves like an anchor to state court and not just state court but Hampton County Court, Buster's family's home turf. So the defendants are arguing that Buster has no actual claim against DeWitt. They say that DeWitt was expressing an opinion but also that the fair report privilege applies

here. The fair report privilege protects accurate reporting from being subject to defamation cases. In addition, they say that Buster misrepresented DeWitt's comments in the Netflix docuseries and left out important context as well as misattributed one of DeWitt's comments in the Netflix docu-series and left out important context as well as misattributed one of DeWitt's comments to being about the Stephen Smith case when it was actually about Ellic stealing from his client, something Ellic has admitted to doing twice. For instance, in Buster's original complaint, one of the things he says that DeWitt said that he considers defamatory is the phrase,

there's some truth to it. That's one of the four bullet points, just that sentence alone. Turns out that DeWitt wasn't saying definitively that there was truth to the rumor that the Murdochs were involved in Stephen's death. He was saying that as a reporter, you pay attention when you hear the same rumor from completely different and unrelated sources that you begin to think there might be something there to report on, that it might not be a rumor. So that's important context, right? The second motion in front of Judge Gergel is from the Warner Brothers defendants. If Judge Gergel decides to send Buster's case back to state court, they want him to

first sever them as defendants. In other words, they want to be tried separately from DeWitt and Netflix. They don't want to be lumped into all that. In that motion, they also make a point of saying that Buster doesn't even live in Hampton County. There was a third motion too, but Judge Gergel has already ruled on it. That motion was from Buster. He wanted Judge Gergel to put a hold on the second motion in anticipation of the

case being sent back to state court. Basically, they were like, until you rule on the first motion, we don't want to have to respond to the second motion. And Judge Gergel was like, nice try, but no. Late Tuesday afternoon, Buster filed his motion to have the case sent back to Hampton County, and he has tripled down on his DeWitt arguments. Now, the main question is whether Judge Gergel will keep the case or send it back, obviously. According to Buster's motion and to other sources we've spoken with, it comes down to this.

Does Buster have a glimmer of a chance of winning this case against a wit in state court? If the answer is yes, then the case belongs there. Buster maintains that case law and the rules dictate that Judge Gergel must give all benefit of the doubt to the plaintiff, him, in deciding this case and that case law also prevents him from exploring the merits of the case,, the case law says that the court can't consider whether or not the claims against the defendants are true or not when deciding on whether it belongs in federal court or state court. Which is interesting, because on Monday, Judge Gergel ordered Netflix to produce a full transcript of their series to the court. And that looks a lot like someone who is interested in learning

the truth about a claim, right? To help him along, Buster included a transcript of Michael DeWitt's quotes with his filing. At any rate, there are pieces of Buster's filing that are convincing, but much of it seems like a stretch. A well-researched stretch, actually, but still a stretch. In his filing, he tries to fortify his claims against DeWitt from all angles. He even cites a 1968 case in which he says the court upheld that a true statement can even be considered defamatory, which is a weird point to argue. But what he's trying to show is that he has a glimmer of a hope in winning his case against DeWitt. Especially when you look at the case he was referring to. It's Jones v. Garner. In that

case, a wealthy man had a number of tax liens filed against him in Myrtle Beach. The Sun News ran a headline saying the man was facing tax evasion charges. The paper maintained that he was being charged money for not paying taxes and therefore the headline wasn't libelous. I totally get why Buster is making that argument but DeWitt didn't do anything like that. And shame on that editor who allowed that headline back in 1967 or whenever it was and then tried to split hairs on it. We all know there is essentially one meaning to tax evasion charges. What's really interesting about Buster's filing though is that he refers to his Hampton

County filing as containing quote, inadvertent omissions, which I guess is how he's explaining why that complaint contained quotes from DeWitt absent important context. But then Buster, like we said, triples down. He says that by including the full transcript of DeWitt's words, it actually strengthens his arguments. Here's David with what Buster now says DeWitt said, i.e. what DeWitt actually said. Within one month of his body being found, we were all hearing these rumors about a possible Murdoch connection. And I've learned as a reporter that if you hear the same rumors from different groups of people wherever you go, It's either a very good rumor or there's some truth to it.

So we did a story in the Thanksgiving 2015 paper, and Sandy Smith, Stephen Smith's mother, basically appealed to the community. My son was killed. If you know something, please come tell us. We just want answers. We want closure. So we could not put the Murdoch name in a story

unless we wanted to face lawsuits. We said a prominent, well-known family was rumored to be involved. Everybody knew who we were talking about. We published the story and we waited. People would come up to me in the piggly wiggly, pat me on the back. We're so thankful you ran the story. So proud of you to have the courage to do it. I mean, we did everything but put the Murdoch name in the story, but the story did no good." And here's how Buster wants the court to interpret that, the same court that he also says isn't

supposed to be considering this stuff when deciding whether to send the case back. Specifically, DeWitt's statements concerning Mr. Murdoch asserted that one, DeWitt had heard rumors about a possible quote Murdoch connection with Mr. Smith's death. We all heard that rumor. Even people in law enforcement were saying it back then. But at this point, in November 2015, no one knew what was contained in the investigation. It wouldn't be for another six years before the state police would release that. As y'all know, the Murdoch name was mentioned dozens of times throughout. So is it a little dodgy that the paper wrote a well-known family? Kind of. Which,

sorry, we always thought that was a little much. Two. DeWitt had learned as a reporter that if you hear the same rumors from different groups of people wherever you go, that there may be some truth to it. Buster is trying to get the court to see this as nefarious, but it's just how things go. If you keep hearing the same thing, yes, as a reporter you're going to see if there is any truth to it. There's a word for that actually. It's called reporting. 3.

As a reporter, DeWitt, he published that a prominent well-known family was rumored to be involved with Mr. Smith's death. So DeWitt wasn't the reporter of that story. At Stephen's Gravestone dedication in 2022, DeWitt spoke and he mentioned that he didn't write that story because he said he was scared of the Murdochs. He did say that he was an editor on it, though. I know it's just semantics. We just want to point out that it's not fully accurate. 4.

Everyone knew DeWitt was talking about the Murdochs. So yeah, this is the part that struck both of us as troublesome. If everyone knew it was the Murdochs, then there seems to be an argument that saying prominent well-known family had the same effect as saying their name outright. And five, DeWitt did everything he could to inform his readers that there was a quote Murdoch connection, except put the family name in the story. DeWitt also later stated in the Netflix series that he began to, quote, have a bad taste in his mouth about the members of the Murdoch family. And right there is why Buster is making the argument that by including the entirety of

DeWitt's interview in this Netflix show is actually helping to prove his point. It's definitely weird to say we did everything we could but put their name in it, but the story did no good because that raises the point of were you hoping the story would out the Murdochs? Regardless, we think an argument could be made that despite the sloppiness of those comments, they weren't defamatory so much as they were a statement about the kind of power the Murdochs had in Hampton County. It feels more like DeWitt was speaking about what it was like to be presented with a story and the dilemma of it. Beyond that, another argument could be made that in 2015, if everyone knew the paper was referring to the Murdochs, then presumably the Murdochs thought that too, right? So why didn't they file a claim of defamation back then? The lack of a complaint filed back then might be an indicator that no harm came of the story. Of course, that was then and this is now.

At any rate, Buster also says his defamation claim is supported by the fact that DeWitt didn't also say Patrick Connolly and Sean Wilson were listed in the investigation as potential people of interest in Stephen's death. He also maintains that even though DeWitt didn't mention him by name, which is one of the defendant's arguments as to why DeWitt is a sham defendant, that it doesn't matter. He argues that the Murdoch family is small enough and well known enough that these comments still apply to him and have damaged him and have caused him great mental anguish. And he says that when you take all of this together,

the juxtapositioning of DeWitt's words and the context in which he said them, that it all adds up to the implication that Buster killed Stephen. So like we said, this is going to be an interesting case. Buster and his lawyer, Sean Kent, definitely did their research before filing this motion to remand

and it's really a fascinating read. This case is a big deal. First, we continue to hope it ends up helping Stephen's case because obviously these defendants are going to go full steam ahead with discovery and who knows what they'll knock loose. And second, the case has some in the entertainment industry rattled. But again, one way to tell this story in a non-defamatory way would be to stick to the facts, be clear when you're expressing your opinion, and maybe don't hire a redheaded background actor and give him a bat to depict Stephen's murder. Now, finally today, we want to talk about a few things happening in the world of J.P. Miller in the Micah Francis case.

First, there was a report on Sunday of a physical altercation between a protester outside of Solid Rock Church and J.P. Miller. According to an incident report from Myrtle Beach Police Department, there were about 25 protesters on the scene around 1120 that morning. A Myrtle Beach officer was on the scene. Their patrol vehicle was parked in the median with the lights on. According to a video that was posted online, it appears that JP left the church and then returned. He appears to approach the police vehicle and a protester who happens to dress like Jesus and is at most, if not every protest at the church, was next to him. By the way, we believe the man he dresses like Jesus is James Bingham.

James is who was questioned by police in May when JP called 911 to report a woman following him in a Volvo brandishing a gun. It turned out to be Jesus, James, and a Volvo and there was no gun. In the video, it appears that JP elbows Jesus out of the way. According to the police report, the officer on the scene saw things escalate. The report describes boisterous behavior. Additionally, the officer wrote that they were concerned about whether there were trespass concerns because parishioners were leaving the church at the time. The officer said that they considered JP's actions to be

de minimis force as opposed to an attempt to harm Jesus. They said Jesus had quickly approached JP and that JP held his arm out to repel him. No charges have been filed, but according to the report the investigation is ongoing. And we'll be right back. It's not the only thing that happened. According to reports, including one from the police department, Suzie Skinner reported feeling harassed by protesters who were yelling at her. According to an affidavit filed this past spring by JP's ex-wife, Suzie is alleged to be JP's paramour and alleged to be someone with whom he was carrying on an affair while he was married to Micah and while Suzie was married to her husband. Suzie's husband, as a reminder, was a quadriplegic

who was found dead in September 2021 at the bottom of his community pool. According to the affidavit from JP's ex-wife, this man's death occurred weeks after he allegedly told JP to stay away from his wife and family. According to the police report from this past Sunday, the officer could hear a minimum of three protesters, quote, offering unwelcomed comments to Suzy. But they didn't hear profanity or threats, quote. Instead, the statements could be categorized as derisive and demeaning. JP told the officer that the comments instill fear in Susie, according to the report. No charges were filed in this incident either,

and the report lists the investigation as ongoing. Okay, second, we foiled for the Horry County Police Department and Myrtle Beach Police Department FOIA logs. This is something we used to do when we worked at the paper. We would check the FOIA logs to see what people were asking for. Not only because it would help us identify potential stories, but specifically in the Murdoch case, it told us which lawyers were sniffing around and what they were looking for. In Micah's case, we were interested in a few things. One was the volume of FOIAs. There were a lot. Two was again, we wanted to see who was asking

for Micah related information, what they were asking for and when. Why? Because we're sick of getting partial returns on our FOIA requests. Over and over we found where Ory County Police Department in particular holds back reports that should have been responsive to earlier requests. And sadly, they did this same thing to Micah. Yes, to Micah. months before her death and three days after she was released from being involuntarily

hospitalized and right smack in the middle of her trying to get the police to help her. Micah foiled for security footage from the lobby of Horry County Probate Court from February 6th between 1 and 2 p.m. No footage was provided to her because apparently there was none. But this is interesting, right? February 6th is the day JP got the order signed by a therapist to have Micah involuntarily hospitalized, a form where the therapist misspelled multiple words and had checked just about every box indicating why Micah needed to be picked up and taken to a hospital right away, including having homicidal thoughts. So what was Micah looking for?

Was she trying to see who was with JP when he filed the form with the court? Did something happen in the lobby? Was Micah there? It's so telling though that Micah emerged from the hospital knowing that she needed to get her ducks in order, that she had the presence of mind to think about information that she could FOIA

to help make a case against JP and to possibly prove her allegations that he was mentally abusing her and was using her health as a weapon against her. And this wasn't the only FOIA from Micah. On February 26th, Micah requested any police reports with her name on them from the past three years as well as any police report filed for JP. She included their address and she noted that she had a court date on March 5th. That court date was her commitment hearing where JP was trying to get the state of South Carolina to declare her mentally unstable and in need of institutionalization. As you know, the court disagreed with JP's

assessment. Now, what did Horry County return to Micah? A single report, the one filed around the time of her November 2022 hospitalization. What she should have gotten was at least eight reports, including one from December 8th, 2023, when police were called to JP's house because his brother-in-law reported that JP wouldn't give him his baby back in a custody dispute with JP's sister. One from February 7th when Micah called 911 from Buckees in Florence when she was trying to get away from JP and his goons who were trying to put her in a hospital for what she described at the time was a panic attack. One from February 9th when Micah called 911 from her hospital to ask cops to get stuff from

her house, including her notary public stamp. One from February 14th when the church first reported her for allegedly stealing money. One from February 15th when she called 911 to report that JP was manic and had put his hands on her the previous week. One from February 22nd when the fire department responded to JP's house about his burn pit, and one from February 25th when JP called 911 to report that Micah and her father were allegedly trying to break into the house. They gave Micah one report. Why? Well, who knows? Is it incompetence or is it corruption? JP has repeatedly bragged about his law enforcement connections. Is that why? Or do they simply not care about being thorough and responsive and communicating

according to the FOIA law? Because no matter what, they should have told her what existed and why they weren't giving them to her. And at the end of the day, even if they can't give her the report because it's an open investigation, they can certainly give her the initial incident report per the law. At the very least, they should have done that. Another thing we learned over the past week is just how differently the police treated JP than they did Micah, which we already knew, of course, but we have it in black and white now. On June 19th, JP reported that he had found a tracker on his truck. This of course was after Micah died and at the height of the public reacting to JP's sermon and subsequent odd public behaviors. Was the tracker really placed

on his truck or was this some sort of stunt of his? Unclear. What we do know is that the police took the tracker as evidence and put in the report the serial number as well as the brand name and the model name of the device, something they never did with Micah in any of her numerous reports on trackers being found on her cars. The officer wrote, item was photographed and placed into evidence. Victim had already handled the tracker without gloves. Officer will email evidence to see if they can process the tracker itself. So what do they mean by process? Well, they meant collect forensic evidence from it. Let me tell you, when I say we are disgusted by

this, we are disgusted. Shall we review how Micah was treated? In her March 11th motion for a restraining order against JP, Micah mentioned that she had found a tracker on her car that same day, that she had found three razor blades in her tire, that her car was keyed, and that JP had left a letter on her car accusing her of having an affair with a teenager. However, the March 11th report from Horry County PD doesn't mention anything about the tracker, the key of the car or the letter. Instead it says, quote, evidence was not sufficient to prove that JP placed the razor device under the tire. Not a lick was said about processing evidence. On March 11th, that

same day, an officer did warn JP that if he tried to contact Micah further, it could result in warrants getting written up, something that does not appear to have happened after any of the subsequent reports. On March 13th, Micah found a tracker on her roommate's car which she was using at the time. When Micah found the tracker, she, like JP, removed it. Here's how the police characterized that, quote, prior to arrival the tracker was removed from the vehicle and tampered with by Micah. However, on the back bumper, there was a hand print that appeared to be male and being that the victim who was Micah's elderly roommate and Micah were the only drivers and

female, the hand print appeared to be out of place. The officer noted that there was another male on the scene, Micah's brother, and that his hand appeared smaller than the print on the vehicle. Is there any indication that the officer brought in the crime scene unit to collect forensic evidence such as fingerprints off of this handprint? Of course not. Not a damn word. Then there was March 22nd when Micah found another tracker. This report contains few details but says that the quote tracking device will be collected as evidence at this time and that was it. There was no other information about what they found on the

tracker if they even looked. On April 8th Micah reported that JP had posted a nude image of her on Facebook. Here's what the officer wrote about that quote the complainant was further advised that once a photo was sent, the person who the photo was sent to is now the owner of the photo. And there is no way to prove he was the one who actually posted the photo, which, false and false. One, sending a photo to someone doesn't change the copyright. It belongs to the person who took the photo, always.

Two, the police could have treated this seriously and sought JP's IP address and subpoenaed Facebook. Did they do that? No. Instead, Micah was lectured by a cop who doesn't even know the law. Then there's April 15th, just 12 days before she died, when Micah contacted police about another tracker, which the police described as heavy duty.

Here's what the officer wrote, quote, this is considered a civil issue. This is not the first time the complainant has found a tracker on her vehicle. Officer advised that the tracker is her property. Tracker remained with complainant. Cool, right? She had to keep a tracker as if she could ever use it without the accompanying app for it. When Micah made the complaint, it was a civil issue. When Micah made the complaint, it was a civil issue. When Micah made the complaint, it was a civil issue.

When JP made his single complaint about this, the officer treated it like JP was under siege and being tracked by a foreign nation. I would love to see the body cam footage on this, but it's not considered public information. Without seeing the body cam footage, we can only assume that the cop carried the tracker off on a silken pillow after giving JP a deep courtly bow with the promise of bringing all the King's men in on the investigation. It is sickening.

Micah was seen as a nuisance to these officers, who repeatedly told her there was nothing they could do about the alleged harassment by a man who has documented history of alleged harassment and bizarre behavior. Micah was labeled as a mental patient, coloring all her interactions with police. She was told over and over again that she was on her own. There was nothing that they could do. And in the meantime, JP just has to twirl his fingers in the air and the entire department snaps to attention and marches to his house in formation. I'm being hyperbolic, but I am angry. And I'm heartbroken.

The thought of Micah, in the constant chaos in her life, in the pressure that she must have been feeling in those last few months, the thought of her feeling alone and helpless is sad enough. But the thought of her fighting the good fight, and doing what she could to get out from under this monumental problem she was having with her husband, the thought of her learning how to FOIA documents and being proactive, the thought of her getting handed one single report when she knew damn well there were

others. It is too much. I can feel her desperation. I can feel her helplessness and her hopelessness. Whenever I think I'm going too hard on Horry County Police and Myrtle Beach Police, I'm going to need y'all to remind me of this episode. Because everything we suspect about them minimizing Micah and dismissing her but taking JP's complaints seriously? Well, all of that seems to be true and they should be ashamed. Micah's blood is on their hands.

And I urge every Horry County and Myrtle Beach taxpayer to raise their voices about these shady police departments before there are more women who end up dead after repeatedly being dismissed by local police. Shame on them. We will be taking off next week from True Sunlight and Cup of Justice for a much-needed fall break. But on the next episode, barring any breaking news or new developments, we will be back

with our reporting on the rest of Micah's medical records and about the day she allegedly tried to kill herself for the first time. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky. The justice system can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. We all want a drink from the same cup of justice, and it starts with learning about our legal system. My name is Mandy Matney, and together with journalist Liz Farrell and world-renowned

attorney Eric Bland, we create the perfect trifecta of legal expertise, journalistic integrity and a fire lit to expose the truth wherever it leads. We all encounter a part of our justice systems at one point, so why not get prepared while being entertained with tales from the newsroom and the courtroom? Cup of Justice has amazing special guests like Sheryl Crow, Benny Politan, Emily D. Baker, and other experts to share their take on the bright side of the truth. Lunashark Media invites you to gain knowledge, insight, and tools to hold your own or hold public agencies accountable.

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