New Murdaugh Charges, Abortion Debate, and an Alligator Attack - Week in Review 8/20/2022

FITSNews Week in Review

The FITSNews team was in full plague mode this week, with multiple members of the Folks brood catching a nasty case of Covid-19. Despite this, we were able to provide stellar coverage of the multiple Murdaugh developments, abortion legislation debate, a FOIA smackdown, and much more.

I begin the show by breaking down the Murdaugh developments from this week. Alex Murdaugh faces a new round of state financial charges and the feds have ratcheted up their prosecution of Russell Laffitte, who now faces additional charges for allegedly defrauding clients.

If you’d like to understand these financial crimes better I’d encourage you to check out the FITSNews Money Laundering 101 guide.

Earlier this week Murdaugh’s attorney state senator Dick Harpootlian held a press conference slamming the Attorney General’s office for alleged failure to produce evidence and for leaking information.
As house and senate legislators worked to craft abortion legislation this week, I provided coverage of deliberations and arguments at the house judiciary committee, and Will wrote about the potential this legislation has to split GOP legislators.

This week, Alan Wilson went to battle with the state’s second largest school district as he seeks to send a message regarding the sanctity of South Carolina’s open records laws. Wilson sent a scathing letter to the Charleston County school district’s board of trustees regarding their alleged failure to follow state transparency laws.

According to the letter (.pdf), district leaders have “repeatedly violated” the S.C. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by “failing to provide notice of agenda items for meetings.”
Graphic video was released on Tuesday in connection with the death of Jarvis Evans at the R. Eugune Johnson detention center in Laurens, South Carolina last summer.

Evans, 40, was a mentally ill black male who died in a holding cell at the detention center on July 30, 2021 after being repeatedly tased by deputies of the Laurens County sheriff’s office. Evans was arrested by deputies on the evening of July 29 after calling 9-1-1 on himself.

It should be noted that I reference the deputies as Greenville county deputies once in the video, although I correct myself verbally and on-screen, I’d like to take this opportunity to make it abundantly clear that the deputies were employed by the Laurens County sheriff’s office.