Alex Murdaugh: Disgraced lawyer expresses ‘regret’ at emotional bond hearing: ‘I made a terrible decision’
‘I made a terrible decision that I regret and frankly I’m embarrassed about,’ Mr Murdaugh told the court. ‘I’m not in that place now’
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Alex Murdaugh, the former lawyer embroiled in a swirl of criminal investigations, has spoken up for himself in an emotional bond hearing appearance.
Mr Murdaugh has admitted arranging his own shooting in an attempt at insurance fraud, as well as a vast array of other financial crimes. On Monday, the disgraced attorney said he concocted the shooting scheme while he was “in the throes of withdrawal” from a 20-year opioid addiction.
“I understand there may be concern I may be a danger to myself,” Mr Murdaugh said, according to The Daily Beast. “I made a terrible decision that I regret and frankly I’m embarrassed about. I’m not in that place now.”
Mr Murdaugh has been charged with 48 counts of financial misconduct, 21 of which were added last week by South Carolina’s attorney general. In total, he is accused of stealing or misappropriating over $6.2m.
On Monday, Judge Alison Renee Lee granted Mr Murdaugh a $7m bond – one of the largest in the state’s history – on the conditions that he remain under house arrest, with GPS monitoring, while receiving treatment for his drug addiction.
In an eight-minute speech, Mr Murdaugh said he accepted responsibility for his actions.
“I want to deal with these charges appropriately and head-on,” he said. “I want to repair the damage I have done. I want to repair as many relationships as I can.”
Mr Murdaugh’s lawyers have mentioned his drug addiction before. In September, attorney Richard Harpootlian said it played a role in his client’s assisted suicide attempt.
“For the last 20 years, there have been many people feeding his addiction to opioids,” Mr Harpootlian said in a statement. “During that time, these individuals took advantage of his addiction and his ability to pay substantial funds for illegal drugs. One of those individuals took advantage of his mental illness and agreed to take Alex’s life, by shooting him in the head.”
The Independent has reached out to Mr Murdaugh’s lawyers for further comment.
Mr Murdaugh first made headlines last summer, when his wife and son were shot dead. Months later, Mr Murdaugh himself was shot, but later admitted that he had arranged the shooting himself in order to secure a $10m life insurance payout for his surviving son.
Meanwhile, police are taking a second look at Mr Murdaugh’s housekeeper, who died under disputed circumstances in 2018. Mr Murdaugh has said the maid, Gloria Satterfield, died in a trip-and-fall accident, but the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division says it has new information on the case, and has launched a criminal investigation.
Separately, Ms Satterfield’s sons have sued Mr Murdaugh to recover millions of dollars that they say he owed him from a lawsuit they filed after her death. In October, Mr Murdaugh was arrested in Florida and charged with “obtaining property by false pretenses” in the case.
After the arrest, Mr Murdaugh’s lawyers lamented that the charges took attention away from the unsolved murders of his wife and son.
“Alex intends to fully cooperate with this investigation, as he has with the investigation into the murder of his wife and son,” the two attorneys, Mr Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, said in October. “He deeply regrets that his actions have distracted from the efforts to solve their murders.”