Alex Murdaugh sued for fatal 2019 boat crash, accused of trying to cover for son Paul
One of the passengers aboard the boat piloted by Paul Murdaugh into a bridge in 2019 claims that dad Alex Murdaugh tried to avert all blame away from his son.
A lawsuit filed Monday by Connor Cook alleges that the Murdaughs tried to paint Cook as the one who is “criminally and civilly” responsible for the boat accident, according to WIS10.
“The Defendant’s intentional or negligent conduct in misdirecting law enforcement...was so extreme and outrageous as to exceed all possible bounds of decency and must be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the lawsuit reads.
Paul, then 19, was behind the wheel on Feb. 24, 2019, when he crashed the boat into Archer’s Creek Bridge near Parris Island. Mallory Beach, 19, was thrown overboard and found dead a week later.
He was eventually charged with three felony counts of boating under the influence, including one count that resulted in death, charges that were dropped after he was killed in June.
The Murdaugh family mysteries: a timeline of murders, cryptic deaths, scandals and power
But the lawsuit claims that his father, Alex, used a “whisper campaign,” “law enforcement misdirection” and “possible obstruction” to steer fault away from Paul.
Alex Murdaugh told Cook to “keep his mouth shut” about who was driving the boat, according to the lawsuit, even though Cook allegedly wanted to report Paul to police. Instead, Cook “gave vague explanations of the accident.”
“The investigation, stymied by possible obstruction and silence, would drag on for approximately two months,” the lawsuit reads. “During that period, Connor Cook and his family lived in fear and anticipation that Connor would be wrongly charged as the boat operator.”
The lawsuit also points out that the Murdaughs urged the Cooks to hire Cory Fleming for legal representation without telling them about their personal connection to the lawyer.
The sons of the Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper and nanny, Gloria Satterfield, have made a similar complaint, saying that the South Carolina legal family pushed their friend on them after Satterfield died following a fall at their house in 2018. Her sons have since sued the Murdaughs, claiming they never received the settlement money from her death.
In a deposition about Beach’s death, Cook previously told police that there was a rumor “Paul had pushed his (house maid) down the stairs and she died and nothing ever happened.”
Alex Murdaugh is currently in drug rehab, days after turning himself for a botched assisted suicide plot, an insurance scam to give his $10 million life insurance policy to his eldest son, Buster.
Paul Murdaugh and mom Maggie, 52, were found murdered on the family’s Hampton County property in June, fatally shot near the dog kennels. No arrests have been made yet, but Murdaugh’s lawyer previously said he had a suspect in mind.
State law enforcement officials have also reopened the investigation into the 2015 hit-and-run death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, citing information gathered during the search for Paul and Maggie’s killer.
