Son of Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill charged with wiretapping, records show

Jeff Hill, the son of embattled Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill, was arrested on Tuesday by South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents on charges related to listening to other peoples’ telephone calls, according to court records.

SLED formally charged Hill with wiretapping — “intentional interception, use, or disclosure of any wire, oral, or electronic communication” — and he was released Wednesday on a $20,000 personal recognizance bond, according to court records. County Magistrate Roosevelt Jenkins set his bond.

Jeff Hill, 34, was the technology director of Colleton County government. The charges have to do with his alleged repeated misuse of county equipment, a source familiar with the case said. The arrest came after a long investigation, and one alleged victim in the case is a top-ranking county official, sources said.

Hill has been fired from his $90,537-a-year job, said Kevin Griffin, Colleton County administrator on Wednesday.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit from SLED, the agency alleges that around July 20, Jeff Hill “did willfully and feloniously intercept electronic phone communications” between two victims. The affidavit alleges that Jeff Hill was employed as Colleton County’s information technology director at the time, and that he used his position to “intercept and listen” to a conversation between the victims. Neither victim was identified.

The SLED document said that the conversation was recorded by a computer IP address that is assigned to Jeff Hill’s computer. The victims were not aware they were being recorded, nor did they give their permission to be recorded, SLED said.

A source also said the cellphone of Becky Hill has been seized pursuant to a search warrant and is now in SLED custody.

Jeff Hill did not answer his county phone Wednesday morning. Court records did not list a lawyer.

As clerk of court earlier this year, his mother, Becky Hill, had a high profile role in the Alex Murdaugh double-murder trial, which was watched by millions on live-stream Court TV. An outgoing person, Becky Hill was a popular figure with the media and officials at the trial and her duties included oversight of the comings and goings of the Murdaugh jury.

A Colleton County jury deliberated less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of the June 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at the family’s 1,770-acre rural estate in the western part of the county.

After the trial, which lasted six weeks and ended March 3, Becky Hill published a book full of inside details of her interactions with the Murdaugh murder jury, court officials and law enforcement officers at the trial. The book is called “Behind the Doors of Justice.”

Since then, Murdaugh’s lawyers have accused her in court documents of jury tampering — allegedly influencing the jury behind the scenes to bring back a quick guilty verdict so she could publish her book with a neat, cut-and-dried ending. The Attorney General’s office has investigated those allegations and is contesting them in court. Hill has also denied the allegations in an affidavit.

Murdaugh’s attorneys — Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin — have made the jury tampering allegations a key part of their effort to overturn Murdaugh’s conviction and seek a new trial for him.

Attorney Will Lewis, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who represents Becky Hill with Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg — declined comment Wednesday.

According to the Colleton County’s internet site, the Colleton County technology department is responsible for all the county computers as well as telephones, conferencing and mobile cellular services.

At this point, SLED’s arrest of Jeff Hill is not believed to have anything to have anything to do with the jury tampering allegations, a source familiar with the case said.

A SLED press release said SLED was working on the case with the Public Integrity Unit of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, which covers Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties. The unit is made up of senior attorneys and investigators who review use of force cases involving police officers, as well as alleged public corruption.

Reporter Chris Trainor contributed to this report.

This story was originally published November 22, 2023 at 11:56 AM.