Passenger sues Alex Murdaugh, gas station over injuries from 2019 fatal boat crash
READ MORE
Alex Murdaugh Coverage
The Murdaugh family saga has dominated the news after another shooting, a resignation and criminal accusations — with Alex Murdaugh at the center of it all. Here are the latest updates on Alex Murdaugh.
Expand All
A passenger aboard the boat that crashed and killed Mallory Beach in 2019 filed suit Monday against embattled Hampton lawyer Alex Murdaugh, his older son Buster and the gas station that sold his younger son Paul alcohol the day before the crash.
Connor Cook, in the personal injury lawsuit filed in Hampton County, alleges that Alex Murdaugh and “others were orchestrating a campaign” to blame Cook for the crash instead of Paul Murdaugh, who was ultimately indicted.
The civil suit, filed by Columbia attorneys Joe McCulloch and Kathy Schillaci, is the latest development stemming from the Feb. 24, 2019, crash that killed 19-year-old Beach and implicated the prominent Murdaugh family. Beach’s mother filed a similar wrongful death suit in March 2019.
Cook’s lawsuit recalls the hours leading up to and after the moment when Paul Murdaugh allegedly crashed his boat into a bridge along Archer’s Creek near Parris Island while drunk. It also describes how Alex Murdaugh attempted to “control the narrative” of what happened and told Cook not to speak with officers investigating the crash.
The suit claims Alex Murdaugh started a “whisper campaign” in the Hampton County community, attempted to misdirect law enforcement and potentially obstructed the investigation so Cook would be held criminally and civilly responsible for the crash.
It says Alex Murdaugh was also negligent in his decision to recommend Cook hire Beaufort attorney Corey Fleming shortly after the crash. Fleming was Alex Murdaugh’s former college roommate, one of his best friends and Paul Murdaugh’s godfather, the suit says.
Alex Murdaugh’s behavior the morning of the crash is laid out in documents recently released by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
Cook is suing Parker’s, the Georgia-based convenience store chain, and the Parker’s employee who allegedly sold Paul Murdaugh alcohol for negligence and dram shop liability.
He’s suing Alex Murdaugh for negligent entrustment, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
And he’s suing Richard Alexander “Buster” Murdaugh Jr. for negligent entrustment and negligence. The suit claims Buster Murdaugh was negligent in providing his younger brother his driver’s license.
The suit asks for actual and punitive damages from each of the defendants. It also asks for a joint award from the defendants for actual, special and punitive damages, costs and treble damages — which multiply damages up to three times — for an Unfair Trade Practices violation.
Cook, according to the suit, lost consciousness in the 2019 crash and sustained a “serious cut” to his face and multiple jaw fractures.
Since the crash, Paul Murdaugh and his mother, Maggie, were found shot to death in June in a murder mystery that has drawn international interest. And then, last week, Alex Murdaugh, father and husband of the victims, was arrested and charged for his role in trying to fake his own murder earlier this month.
In August, Cook filed a civil petition claiming law enforcement officers may have known about intentions to hamper the boat crash investigation and shift blame from Paul Murdaugh to Cook. The petition sought access to law enforcement officers’ work and personal cell phone records.
McCulloch, Cook’s attorney, did not return a call for comment Monday night.
‘Extreme and outrageous’
Cook’s lawsuit alleges that Paul Murdaugh’s family and friends knew he operated family vehicles, including boats, while drunk and was allowed “unrestricted use” of his mother’s credit card to purchase alcohol.
The lawsuit describes how Paul Murdaugh bought about $50 worth of alcohol at a Parker’s along Okatie Highway using his older brother’s driver’s license and the family’s credit card in the hours before the crash.
Alex Murdaugh, the lawsuit alleges, knew Paul Murdaugh used his boat to drink alcohol with his friends.
The lawsuit alleges that Parker’s should have known Paul Murdaugh was underage when he attempted to purchase alcohol. It says the gas station company and its employee are liable for Cook’s injuries because the company allowed Paul Murdaugh to illegally buy the alcohol.
Alex Murdaugh, according to the suit, knew his son “was either addicted to alcohol or was a habitual drinker of alcohol to the point of intoxication.” Alex Murdaugh owned the boat and was negligent in entrusting his son to drive it drunk, the suit says.
Alex Murdaugh, according to the suit, failed to prevent his younger son from repeatedly “misusing” the family credit card to buy alcohol.
Documents recently released by SCDNR revealed how Alex Murdaugh burst into Beaufort Memorial Hospital and attempted to intercept other boat crash passengers in the early morning hours of the investigation.
“Mr. Murdaugh seemed to be trying to orchestrate everyone getting on the same page,” one police document notes. Alex Murdaugh, and his father Randolph Murdaugh III, the former state solicitor, forbade police from obtaining any statements from Paul Murdaugh, according to witness statements and interviews released this summer.
The documents showed police asked only Cook to provide a sobriety test — which he refused. Paul Murdaugh was not asked by police to submit to any sobriety tests.
In separate sworn testimony filed in civil court last month, Cook said he was scared to tell police Paul Murdaugh was driving the boat because of the Murdaugh family’s influence — three generations of whom served as state prosecutors for over 80 years.
Cook, in his testimony to attorneys from Beach’s separate wrongful death suit, appears to reference two other deaths — Stephen Smith and Gloria Satterfield — rumored to be connected to the Murdaugh family.
“I mean, just anything they get in, they get out of,” Cook said, referring to the Murdaughs. “I’ve always been told that.”
Cook, in the suit filed Monday, alleges Alex Murdaugh was attempting to misdirect law enforcement and orchestrate a scheme to silence Cook.
He alleges that Alex Murdaugh encouraged him to hire Fleming as his attorney and never disclosed his personal relationships with Fleming. After hiring Fleming, the lawsuit says, Cook was instructed not to speak with law enforcement about the crash.
“Such advice was to the advantage of Paul and [Alex] Murdaugh and against the interests of Fleming’s new client, [Connor] Cook, increasing the potential that Plaintiff Cook would continue to be a suspect and potentially face criminal charges as operator of the boat,” the lawsuit says.
Alex Murdaugh’s behavior, the suit says, 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.”
This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 9:34 AM with the headline "Passenger sues Alex Murdaugh, gas station over injuries from 2019 fatal boat crash."
_fitted.png)
