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Embattled South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh was denied bond Tuesday as he faces charges for allegedly pocketing settlement money meant for his late housekeeper’s children.
Murdaugh, a 53-year-old scion of a South Carolina legal dynasty, was ordered by the judge at the Richland County Courthouse in Columbia to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before his release could be up for consideration.
“There is no way this court can set a bond at this time,” Judge Clifton Newman said.
Prosecutors allege that Murdaugh misappropriated portions of $3.4 million for his former maid, Gloria Satterfield, that should have gone to her sons after she died as the result of a 2018 “slip and fall” accident at his home.
He allegedly told his maid’s family they would be financially taken care of before he conspired with another attorney “to deprive the Satterfield family of insurance settlements owed to them by converting [the money] to Mr. Murdaugh’s own use,” according to an arrest warrant.
But prosecutors allege that used the money to pay off his father, personal credit card bills and checks to himself for nearly $750,000.
Murdaugh — whose wife and son were killed in an unsolved slaying this summer — was arrested last week on two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses.
The case comes after Murdaugh was busted for allegedly arranging for a hitman to kill him as part of a life insurance scheme to collect $10 million for his older son, Buster.
With Post wires
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