Former solicitor, 3 others removed from fatal Beaufort County boat crash lawsuit
Months after 19-year-old Mallory Beach died in a Beaufort County boat crash, the wrongful death lawsuit filed by her mother has changed drastically with the recent removal of several defendants —including a former 14th Judicial Circuit solicitor — in the civil case.
Since Mallory’s mother, Renee Beach, filed the original wrongful death suit in Hampton County on March 29, Paul Murdaugh has been charged with three felony counts boating under the influence in the Feb. 24 fatal crash. He pleaded not guilty to those charges in early May.
Murdaugh, alleged to be the boat’s driver, has not been named in the original or amended lawsuit, filed May 24. But his father, grandfather and brother were defendants, along with the gas station alleged to have sold Murdaugh alcohol that day; the bar where Murdaugh allegedly drank that night; and two homeowners who held a party that evening where alcohol was allegedly served.
The latest suit drops the grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh III, the former solicitor, as well as the homeowners and the bar.
The suit blames Paul Murdaugh’s father, Richard Alexander Murdaugh, and his older brother, Richard Alexander Murdaugh Jr., for allowing the 20-year-old to use false identification to obtain alcohol before the crash that killed Beach early Feb. 24.
The recently amended lawsuit also accuses Parker’s 55 convenience store in Ridgeland of selling the alcoholic beverages to Paul Murdaugh on Feb. 23.
Beach’s attorney, Mark Tinsley of Gooding & Gooding law firm in Allendale, previously said he didn’t plan to sue the driver of the boat because he believed Paul Murdaugh lacked money.
Beach is no longer pursuing legal action against Luther’s Rare & Well Done on Bay Street, the bar that was previously accused of serving alcohol to two of the boaters who were under 21 at the time and allegedly intoxicated.
The new lawsuit
While the initial lawsuit painted a more detailed picture of the timeline of events that allegedly took place in the last hours of Beach’s life, the new lawsuit focuses solely on Murdaugh’s family members and Parker’s — eliminating all of the defendants who were accused of allowing the boaters drink on their properties.
In the new lawsuit, Beach’s lawyer expands on details against the remaining defendants, particularly focusing on the illegal sale of alcohol at Parker’s on Feb. 23.
The new lawsuit alleges that “the patron” (Paul Murdaugh) used his older brother’s ID that “was obviously not his own.”
If the Parker’s employee working that day “exercised any care,” the worker could “have looked at the license and ascertained it did not belong to the boy making the purchase,” the suit alleges.
The lawsuit accuses the employee of “failing to even look at the identification” and failing to question (Paul Murdaugh) on the ID, noting the “tremendous disparity in height and weight” between him and his brother.
While the previous lawsuit alleged that the boaters consumed the alcohol from Parker’s at Randolph Murdaugh’s property before the boat trip, the new lawsuit accuses the boaters of drinking the alcohol “throughout the evening.”
”At the time of the collision, the minor who was operating the boat was intoxicated from alcohol that was illegally sold by Parker’s,” the recent lawsuit alleges.
Paul Murdaugh’s father owned the boat that crashed into a piling of a small bridge around 2:20 a.m. just outside the main entrance to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the lead investigative agency.
Three generations of Murdaughs have held the elected position of solicitor for the 14th Judicial Circuit, which serves Beaufort, Hampton, Jasper, Allendale and Colleton counties, since 1920. Randolph Murdaugh, who succeeded his father in the post, served from 1986 to 2006. He continues to work as a contractor prosecuting criminal cases for the office. His son, Richard Alexander Murdaugh, voluntarily assists.
On June 14, Richard Alexander Murdaugh and his older son, Richard Alexander Murdaugh Jr., hired Charleston-based lawyers Amy Bower and John Tiller, who were both named to the 2019 list of South Carolina Super Lawyers, to represent them.
On June 8, the attorney for Parker’s gas station, Mitchell Griffith, answered the complaint, denying several actions of negligence alleged in the lawsuit. In the court document, Parker’s admits that Paul Murdaugh, referred to as “Richard Alexander’s son P.M.” used his brother’s license with the intent to break the law. Parker’s also notes that if the business were in any way a contributing proximate cause to the accident, its liability would be less than 50 percent of the total fault.
“The direct and proximate cause of the (Mallory Beach’s) injuries, if any, was due to the negligence, gross negligence, wanton and reckless conduct of some other person,” Parker’s alleges in its response. The gas station corporation also said Beach “voluntarily exposed herself” to the risk of danger on the day of her death.
The Murdaugh family’s prominence in the community has resulted in several officials stepping away from the case. Two judges have recused themselves from hearing the civil case. According to the Hampton County Clerk of Court, a judge has not been assigned to the case as of Thursday.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office recused itself from a criminal investigation into where the teens received or purchased alcohol on March 25. A “long-standing relationship with the Murdaugh family” was given as a reason.
A day after the crash, the 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone asked South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson to reassign the case should charges be filed because three of the boaters are related to employees of Stone’s office.
DNR file
Tinsley, Beach’s attorney, subpoenaed the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, asking for the investigative file, which he said includes hospital surveillance, along with police dash cam and body camera footage from the hours after Beach was ejected from the boat.
Tinsley said Tuesday that he has the file.
The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette have requested a copy of the investigative file from the Attorney General’s Office.
“We cannot release the investigative file because it’s an ongoing investigation and litigation,” said Robert Kittle, Attorney General’s Office spokesman, via email Wednesday.
Criminal Case
A trial date has not been set in Paul Murdaugh’s criminal case, according to Kittle.
A Beaufort County grand jury indicted Murdaugh on April 18 — what would have been Beach’s 20th birthday — on one count of boating under the influence causing death and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury.
Beach, also of Hampton, was ejected from the 17-foot boat Murdaugh is accused of driving when it crashed into a bridge around 2:20 a.m. in Archers Creek. Her body was found a week later in a marshy area about 5 miles from the crash.
The five surviving passengers in the boat, including Murdaugh, were injured, according to police reports. Law enforcement officers at the scene also noted that all five appeared to be “grossly intoxicated.”
Columbia lawyers Harpootlian and Jim Griffin are representing Paul Murdaugh.
At the scene of the crash, law enforcement officers did not give Paul Murdaugh a sobriety test.
He was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital, where SCDNR officers say Randolph and Alexander Murdaugh blocked investigators from questioning him and another boater who had also been identified as a possible driver, agency officials later said.
This story was originally published June 27, 2019 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Former solicitor, 3 others removed from fatal Beaufort County boat crash lawsuit."
%20Cropped.jpg)