A South Carolina judge on Tuesday opted not to lower the bond amount for Alex Murdaugh following a contentious hearing a week earlier.
Judge Alison Lee said Tuesday afternoon in a written order she will not lower the $7 million bond amount for Murdaugh she previously ordered in December.
Judge Lee said the $7 million bail amount is reasonable because Murdaugh remains a flight risk, a danger to himself and to the community.
Tuesday's decision follows nearly an hour and a half of attorney arguments and witness impact statements made Monday, January 10 in hearing.
Judge Lee, the presiding judge for the state grand jury, originally set the staggering $7 million bond at a mid-December hearing for the four-dozen criminal charges levied against Murdaugh.
The charges were secured by prosecutors with the South Carolina Attorney General's office after making their case to the state grand jury against the troubled attorney.
So far, prosecutors say they've uncovered evidence Murdaugh stole north of $6.2 million from clients, colleagues and friends using deceitful practices as part of a years-long fraud and money laundering scheme.
In addition to the $7 million bond amount, Judge Lee last month denied Murdaugh the right to only pay 10% of the bond amount in order to leave jail, an option available to defendants at the judge's discretion in most criminal cases.
In the January 10 hearing, Murdaugh attorney Dick Harpootlian asked Judge Lee both to reduce the bond amount, and to reinstate the 10% option. His arguments, while impassioned, didn't sway Judge Lee.
Harpootlian repeated arguments he's made since September when his client first was criminally charged: that Murdaugh no longer has access to substantial money in the form of liquid cash assets, despite the millions of dollars he's accused of stealing.
The first person Harpootlian called to testify was attorney John T. Lay, who was appointed by circuit judge Daniel Hall in October alongside former U.S. Attorney Peter McCoy to serve in a receivership essentially freezing and overseeing Murdaugh's finances and assets.
Lay and McCoy's obligations are to protect the interests of victims to whom Alex Murdaugh might owe money related to several civil lawsuits pending in state court. Lay and McCoy were appointed after Murdaugh and his son, Buster, were observed appearing to divest themselves of assets, which alarmed attorneys for victims in the civil cases.
Since then, Lay and McCoy have been going through Murdaugh's finances with the proverbial fine-toothed comb, sending just shy of 50 subpoenas and numerous public records requests, attorneys said Monday.
So what have they found? When asked that questionby Harpootlian Monday, Lay confirmed so far he and McCoy have only located roughly $10,000 in cash in any of Murdaugh's holdings, with no known liquid assets outside of those funds.
Harpootlian used that fact to assert Murdaugh essentially has no money, and bond should be reduced.
Lay, however, said Murdaugh has substantial non-cash assets worth millions of dollars, including a retirement account worth approximately $2.2 million, plus another seven-figure inheritance trust currently in probate bequeathed by his late father, Randolph Murdaugh III, in June 2021.
Randolph Murdaugh III died only days after Alex's wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were Murdered at the family's home in Colleton County's Moselle community. Their murders remain unsolved. No life insurance policies existed for either, Lay said in court.
Of note, Lay did say Maggie Murdaugh left all of her estate to Alex. The primary asset of her estate was the Moselle property where she died. Paul Murdaugh's estate will go to Alex, as well, but Lay said it has very little value.
Lay further stated Alex Murdaugh has substantially valuable real estate assets both individually and jointly through LLC's and family holdings. His personal real estate includes four parcels of land in Berkeley County, a house on Edisto Beach and several small islands in Beaufort County.
But Harpootlian rebuffed Lay by saying little of that matters, arguing the assets were essentially frozen via Lay and McCoy's receivership to begin with, and also that many are held in mortgages that would need to be paid off before the assets could be liquidated — which Harpootlian again argued his client doesn't have the cash to do.
Harpootlian took things a step further, getting Lay to say on the record both he and McCoy would formally object to any request by Murdaugh to access his assets for the purpose of liquidating them, further hampering Murdaugh's access to bond.
Based on all that, Harpootlian argued Judge Lee shouldn't realistically factor Murdaugh's non-cash assets into his overall financial status — even though state prosecutor Creighton Waters rightly pointed out Murdaugh technically does have the ability to request access to the assets by petitioning Judge Hall.
Harpootlian went on to argue Murdaugh is no longer a danger to himself, and not a flight risk. Additionally, the means by which he's accused of stealing the millions from clients to begin with is no longer available to him, since he's no longer allowed to practice law.
"Murdaugh is going to be disbarred. He'll never be allowed to practice law again," Harpootlian said.
Waters, meanwhile, argued Murdaugh remains a unique danger to society should he be released from jail, and the prosecutor claimed he remains unconvinced Murdaugh isn't a flight risk.
"Murdaugh is unique because of his power and influence. The danger is very palpable to the community," said Waters, who claims Murdaugh's alleged victims have been getting threats, with one being called a snitch and another fearful to come forward at all for their family's safety.
Following Judge Lee's order Tuesday refusing bond reduction, Murdaugh co-counsel Jim Griffin issued a statement to WCIV.
"Alex is unable to post a $7 million bond. He will remain in jail while these charges are pending," Griffin said. "Going forward, we hope that the Attorney General will put as much energy and effort towards solving the murders of Maggie and Paul as his office has done with investigating Alex financial affairs."