SC - Paul Murdaugh & mom Margaret Found Shot To Death - Alex Murdaugh Accused - Islandton #27

[girlhasnoname]

Whoah Horse...Whoah!!! Calm down Creighton calm down.

He's fired up for sure. I love it.

 

[girlhasnoname]

Who in the actual heck is this defense person? A paralegal, a novice, a law student?

 

[makayla]

I really think they need someone to say on the stand, no way he spent all that money on opioid addiction. He'd have been a zombie on the job, he wasn't...and then he'd have been dead, he's not. AJMO

I agree, and I would guess it will eventually come up. I don’t know what other excuse the defense can put forward, but as I said earlier I think they might try to blame his behavior on an opioid addiction. The amount AM supposedly spent on drugs can’t possibly be for his own personal use, but that’s a whole different subject possibly for another day or another trial.

 

[arielilane]

Y'all stretch for a moment, will go for another 30 minutes and then break for lunch.

 

[BUF]

Alex isn’t looking like a happy camper

 

[Diddian]

Ooooooh. Knife to the heart of the defense -- basically saying he thought he knew Alex until the Sept. 4 theft issue. JMO.

Seems like this Ball‘s primary jobs on the witness stand are to criticize LE’s handling of the scene and continuing investigation AND to resurrect the reputation of the law firm from the damage that disclosure of AM’s thefts has caused.

It’s disgusting that the law firm’s internal controls were so lacking that they issued a substantial disbursement (twice) to the wrong payee and it took so long to discover it AND that one of their attorneys managed to misdirect nearly $10 million in settlement payouts to himself rather to legitimate trust accounts.

Responsible internal controls require serious analysis of risks about where funds might be misdirected and establishment of procedures to ensure that those risks are addressed WITHOUT reliance on the trustworthiness of the parties involved. And folks who are receiving and handling funds on behalf of others have a serious duty to ensure those controls exist. Depending solely upon the client‘s inquiry about missing funds as a control to make sure funds received are properly allocated is ridiculous given that the client’s communications occur with the attorney representing them and not with others at the firm. That should only be a last resort internal control, not one primarily relied upon.

Ball was plenty attentive to LE failures on the scene the night of June 7 and morning of June 8, but he and his partners seriously failed their own constituents (many of them vulnerable after injuries or accidents) for years. Good for them for finally paying what they OWED, but it should take more than that to make them trustworthy going forward.

Same with the SC Bar. Sure, AM has been disbarred now, but one would think the Bar would have some polices to ensure that attorneys among their membership receiving and handling funds for clients do so in accordance with the duties and care any other fiduciary must exercise. And if the Bar won’t do it, the state of SC should.

 

[meanddblj]

so sick of DH trying to run the courtroom - glad to see JCN stick it to him. He does this when he is not prepared

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks

The state's 6th witness is Charleston attorney Dawes Cooke Jr., who is now defending AM in the boat crash case. He is being questioned by defense attorney Maggie Fox, making her first appearance in this trial.

AM's initial civil defense attorney in the 2019 boat crash case was John Tiller, who died of cancer last summer.

I've never seen Maggie Fox question a witness, but she works in Griffin's firm. I'm told she is a legal scholar who provides a lot of the brainpower behind what Griffin does in court and in legal motions.

Apologies, this is the defense's 6th witness, not the state's. Got into the habit of typing "state" over the first 61 witnesses in this trial.

The defense is using Cooke to try to defuse the state’s notion that AM’s finances were at imminent risk of exposure ahead of a 6/10/21 hearing in the 2019 boat crash wrongful death case.

Cooke testifies the defense wasn’t concerned about plaintiff attorney Mark Tinsley’s motion to compel. Cooke testifies he doesn’t think Tinsley had any legal right to a detailed accounting of AM’s finances, at least until after a potential trial.

“There was not an existential threat to Alex,” Cooke testifies about the 6/10/21 hearing. Again, Cooke is disputing Tinsley's prior testimony that the fuse had been lit. Now we know why Mark Tinsley is here today.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters on cross-examination: Were you present at the trial lawyers’ convention when AM went up to Mark Tinsley and confronted him about the boat crash lawsuit? Cooke: “No, I don’t get invited to that one.”

Waters: When you were first getting onto the defense team in summer 2021, you didn’t know AM’s true financial condition, did you? That he was broke? That he had been stealing money? Cooke: “No.”

Waters: If that 6/10/21 hearing had gone forward, there could have been a ruling compelling AM’s financial condition to be revealed, right? Cooke: “Could have been.” Ultimately, the judge would decide what has to be produced and what doesn’t. Waters has no more questions

Fox keeps trying to ask Cooke if - based on his 40 years of experience - he believes it is likely the judge would have order AM to reveal details of his finances at the 6/10/21 hearing. Waters successfully objects.

Fox then establishes that AM wouldn’t have had to turn over the financial documents immediately. Waters clarifies that the process of turning the docs over would have begun. Cooke notes again that it would be the judge’s decision which docs had to be turned over. Cooke is done.

 

[Luna20]

https://twitter.com/Angenette5

This is the first time we're getting to see Maggie Fox question a witness.
@TheEricBland
and I talked about her on Sidebar yesterday. He said she's very capable and he was upset she wasn't being utilized. He said she's not "window candy."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1628443664270733313

As opposed to arm candy?? Arm is better than window. But I’m not impressed with her attorney skills so far.

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1628447749271130112

 

[clearskies1]

I don't think it matters that much whether he was addicted. Even if he claims he's a changed man after rehab, the murders occurred while he was allegedly addicted and before his last rehab stint. JMO.

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1628448409438007296

 

[Derph]

A Yankee forensic specialist! Ehhh I don't know about that. Might not play well with the jury. Just sayin'.

 

[sunshineray]

So this did this guy just call the swear in lady a "Sir" and said "Good Morning" to the judge?

 

[StarryStarryNight]

So whose this guy. An expert on dirt to say the victims were laying on dirt so therefore dead and not killed by AM, but by tiny cowboy twelve year old aliens with guns stolen from the Murdaughs.

 

[WichitaFalls]

Zerci's manner and tone of speaking is going to put me to sleep.

 

[Aquarian]

I need to turn my hearing aides up for these two. Talking over each other already.

 

[sunshineray]

Zerci's manner and tone of speaking is going to put me to sleep.

He sounds very timid and nervous

 

[Megnut]

I got this.

Defense case: yes, Alec was at the kennel. Left.

Sure he's a horrible person. Steals from the old, the young.

But nothing was blowing up that day.

He stole a lot of money, he didn't kill his family.

...
Spoiler:

Except that he did. Because he is a horrible person and he'd steal from his own mother -- and yours -- and it was all blowing up. Three people were at the kennels and only one left.

JMO

 

[Edvis]

Seems like this Ball‘s primary jobs on the witness stand are to criticize LE’s handling of the scene and continuing investigation AND to resurrect the reputation of the law firm from the damage that disclosure of AM’s thefts has caused.

It’s disgusting that the law firm’s internal controls were so lacking that they issued a substantial disbursement (twice) to the wrong payee and it took so long to discover it AND that one of their attorneys managed to misdirect nearly $10 million in settlement payouts to himself rather to legitimate trust accounts.

Responsible internal controls require serious analysis of risks about where funds might be misdirected and establishment of procedures to ensure that those risks are addressed WITHOUT reliance on the trustworthiness of the parties involved. And folks who are receiving and handling funds on behalf of others have a serious duty to ensure those controls exist. Depending solely upon the client‘s inquiry about missing funds as a control to make sure funds received are properly allocated is ridiculous given that the client’s communications occur with the attorney representing them and not with others at the firm. That should only be a last resort internal control, not one primarily relied upon.

Ball was plenty attentive to LE failures on the scene the night of June 7 and morning of June 8, but he and his partners seriously failed their own constituents (many of them vulnerable after injuries or accidents) for years. Good for them for finally paying what they OWED, but it should take more than that to make them trustworthy going forward.

Same with the SC Bar. Sure, AM has been disbarred now, but one would think the Bar would have some polices to ensure that attorneys among their membership receiving and handling funds for clients do so in accordance with the duties and care any other fiduciary must exercise. And if the Bar won’t do it, the state of SC should.

See it like a wildfire that broke out in the firm and all the lawyers running around trying to extinguish their own little part of the fire but in the meantime the fire has spread throughout the town, now everyone is aware of it.