Suspended South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh has agreed to a $4.3 million settlement with the family of Gloria Satterfield, his former housekeeper, according to family attorney, Eric Bland.
During a bond hearing for Murdaugh on Monday, his attorney said he “agreed to confessing a judgment of $4.3 million” to her family.
Satterfield spent more than two decades with the Murdaugh family and died after suffering a fall at their home in 2018.
Murdaugh was arrested October 14, 2021, and jailed without bond on an arrest warrant for allegedly misappropriating funds meant for the Satterfield family.
According to affidavits released by the South Carolina Enforcement Division, “Mr. Murdaugh coordinated with (Gloria) Satterfield’s family to sue himself in order to seek an insurance settlement with the stated intent to give the proceeds to the Satterfield family to pay for funeral expenses and monetary compensation for Satterfield’s children.” Murdaugh deposited more than nearly $3 million into an account he owned, the affidavits said.
His attorney told Judge Alison Lee Murdaugh agreed to the confession of judgment and issued an apology to the Satterfield and Harriott families.
He then read from a brief apology statement from Murdaugh to the Satterfield family “for his financial transgressions committed in connection with the wrongful death settlement funds recovered in connection with the death of Gloria Satterfield and the pain it has caused.”
The judgment agreement must be approved by a receiver who currently controls all of Murdaugh’s money and assets before it can be finalized.
If he can post the $7 million bond assigned Monday, the following conditions will apply: he will be placed on house arrest with GPS monitoring, not be allowed contact with any witnesses or co-defendants, will have to receive mental health and substance abuse counseling and surrender his passport.
The once-prominent attorney, in custody in Columbia on other charges, has faced increased scrutiny since the renewed attention on the unsolved fatal shootings of his wife and one of his sons in June and the opening of an investigation in September into the 2018 death of his housekeeper.
September 4, a day after he resigned from his law firm amid allegations he had misappropriated funds, Murdaugh was shot in the head on a roadway, but survived.
He later admitted to authorities he conspired with former client Curtis Smith to kill him as part of a fraud scheme so his only surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance payout, according to an affidavit to support charges against the alleged gunman.
The shooting followed the June deaths of Murdaugh’s wife, Margaret, and son, Paul, who were fatally shot outside their home in Islandton. The case remains unsolved. Murdaugh has denied responsibility in the killings.
CNN’s Diane Laposta contributed to this report.
