Murdaugh Saga: The State Strikes Back

“‘built by Creighton and me in 2021’ [Eric Bland] said.”
Apparently, Eric Bland is back to paying FITS, if that pay-to-play arrangement ever stopped.
The greater issue of pretend-lawyer-integrity is the use of criminal charges, true or false, to gain advantage in civil litigation.
No one, least of all Judge Clifton Newman, is calling Eric Bland, Joe McCullough, Mark Tinsley, OR Creighton Waters on that.
I quote directly and fully Rule 4.5 of the Code of Conduct for Lawyers IN SOUTH CAROLINA:
RULE 4.5: THREATENING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION
A lawyer shall not present, participate in presenting, or threaten to present criminal or professional disciplinary charges solely to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.
Comment
This Rule is not included in the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The language of this Rule is based upon DR 7 105 of the Code of Professional Responsibility.

Note that Rule 4.5’s prohibition is NOT limited to false “criminal or professional disciplinary charges,” meaning that EVEN IF the criminal charges were true, IT IS STILL UNETHICAL for the lawyer to participate in them “solely to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.”
Note also that the SOUTH CAROLINA RULE now says “AN advantage,” NOT “a decisive advantage,” or even “an unfair advantage,” in a civil matter.

Eric Bland did not only “participate in presenting” the prosecutions of Alex Murdaugh (“AM”), Corey Fleming, and Russell Laffitte, Eric Bland practically RAN those prosecutions AND BRAGGED ABOUT IT to his advantage in the theft of REPORTEDLY over ten million dollars from Bank of America and PMPED.

Before allowing them to speak at ANY sentencing, Judge Newman should ask Eric Bland and EVERY MEMBER of the Satterfield estate who got ANY MONEY from Bank of America and/or PMPED whether they have ANY PROOF that (1) AM’s dog, Bourbon, caused Gloria Satterfield to fall at Moselle on 2 February 2018; (2) Gloria Satterfield was at Moselle on 2 Febraury 2018 for ANY purpose OTHER THAN working for AM and his family at Moselle; AND (3) Gloria Satterfield’s death IN HOSPITAL on 26 February 2018 was due to that fall and NOT to her diabetis and coronary artery disease.

If they have NO PROOF OTHER THAN AM’s now-recanted say-so to the insurance adjustor, then this whole charade should be shut down. The entirety of Corey Fleming’s and Russell Laffitte’s, and even AM’s, prosecutions should be thrown out because infected with the participation of lawyer(s) with advantages to gain in civil litigation.

There just is no other way to enforce Rule 4.5 of the rules of lawyer conduct, WHICH ALSO APPLIES TO JUDGES WHO ARE LAWYERS, other than to throw out prosecutions infected with the participation of lawyers with advantages to gain in a civil matter. Just as there is no other way to enforce the prohibition against illegal searches and seizures other than to throw out the evidence obtained from such searches EVEN IF it means FEW guilty people walk.

In my own 22-26 February 2010 General Sessions jury trial (where thank God, I defended myself WITHOUT A LAWYER and the jury refused to convict me and ANOTHER judge later dismissed the false harassment charges against me WITH prejudice), none other than Judge Clifton Newman presided and heard DIRECTLY form the supposed “police investigator” who helped Hatchet-for-Hire Heather fabricate the false harassment charges against me that said investigator was in CONSTANT contact with several of the defendants in a civil suit I had brought, did NOT investigate any facts but took them as true because “Mr. Mason said so,” and was receiving faxes and photos from THAT Mr. Mason’s lawyer.
Yet, Judge Clifton Newman did NOTHING about that.
Judge Clifton Newman STILL does NOTHING about that EVEN after I presented him with transcripts comparing testimony and representations TO HIM in my trial with OFFICIAL transcripts and criminal records OBJECTIVELY DOCUMENTING that Hatchet-for-Hire Heather suborned 373 perjuries and forgeries and herself LIED about the criminal records of her witnesses, notably the criminal record of convicted-and-reconvicted durg dealer Cory/Corey Lamont Curry, who loudly threatened to rape me in my own parking lot and stood there grabbing his crotch at me and accosted me in my car with lewd gestures.

Judge Clifton Newman STILL does NOTHING about that and DID NOTHING to defend me, even after he complimented me ON THE TRANSCRIPT as “most pleasant and gracious” and “not frivolous at all, he DID NOTHING to defend me when Kaizar Kittredge, for corrupt reasons of his own, FALSELY castigated me as “frivolous and vexatious” all in order to force loser lawyers on me.

Judge Clifton Newman (who, BTW, is/was FaceBook friends with lawyers attempted to be forced on me) should believe that it is my compassion for him as a loving father that makes me say this TO him BEFORE History says it OF him:
Judge Clifton Newman, all those people fawning over you now because you (intentionally or not) satisfy their lust for blood will turn on you the moment you exercise any independent thinking. Heck, they will turn on you the moment you leave the bench. Then History will take a hard look at what you did AND WHAT YOU FAILED TO DO.
Sins of omission are as culpable as sins of commission. As a church-going person, Judge Clifton Newman should have read or heard the Epistle of St. James or should read it or re-reread it now.