MORNING NEWSBREAK | Disbarred Lowcountry attorney and convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has been dropped from a wrongful death lawsuit following an insurance payout to the family of a teen boating death victim, according to media reports.
Court documents confirm the family of Mallory Beach will receive a $500,000 payout from Murdaugh’s insurance company under the condition that he was dropped from the suit.
Murdaugh’s younger son Paul allegedly crashed a family boat into a Beaufort County bridge after a night of drinking in February 2019, killing 19-year-old Beach and injuring several friends.
Beach’s family and the other passengers filed lawsuits against the Murdaugh family and Parker’s Kitchen, a Savannah-based chain of convenience stores accused of selling Paul alcohol hours before the crash. In a previous settlement signed in July 2023, Parker’s agreed to pay $15 million to the Beach family.
The charges against Paul Murdaugh were dropped after he and his mother were discovered gunned down in 2021 at their Colleton Co. hunting lodge. A Colleton County jury convicted Alex Murdaugh of murdering his son and wife, Maggie. State prosecutors argued mounting scrutiny brought in part by the Beach family’s lawsuit drove Murdaugh to kill.
In headlines over the weekend:
CP NEWS: 10 candidates running for 4 Charleston Co. school board seats. The Charleston County school board has been a hotbed of controversy since five Moms for Liberty–backed candidates took the majority of the board’s seats two years ago. Now, opponents of the national right-wing political group have the opportunity to break the hold the faction has over the county’s education system.
Early voting in S.C. kicks off next Monday. Charleston County voters will be able to cast their ballots as early as next Monday through seven different early voting locations.
Charleston Co. holds first discussion on cellphone ban. The conversation and changes are necessary as the State Board of Education approved a model policy to ban cellphones for students in South Carolina public schools back in September.
Charleston business eyes taproom after hard kombucha launch. Dalai Sofia recently added four hard kombucha cans to its lineup of nearly a dozen products, capitalizing on a growing trend in the drinks industry. A new fermentory and taproom could be next, said the owner.
Land donated by North Charleston for affordable housing remains vacant. More than two years since the city of North Charleston donated land to a nonprofit with the promise they would build affordable housing units, funding continues to be a barrier.
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