Defendants in a defamation case brought by Buster Murdaugh against national media companies that allegedly accused him of killing a gay teen have removed the case from Murdaugh’s home county of Hampton to federal court in Charleston.
Buster Murdaugh is the son of ex-lawyer and convicted killer Alex Murdaugh,
The case is now before U.S. Judge Richard Gergel in the Charleston Division in South Carolina federal courts.
The removal, unless reversed by Judge Gergel, by Netflix, Warner Brothers Discovery Inc. and others, means that Buster Murdaugh won’t have a presumably friendly hometown jury at the Hampton County Courthouse hearing his case. Instead, jurors — if the case were to go to trial in Charleston federal court — would be chosen from a multi-country Lowcountry region.
Shaun Kent, Buster Murdaugh’s lawyer, was not immediately available for comment. He has the right to object to the companies’ position and ask Judge Gergel to transfer the case back to Hampton County.
For years, the Murdaughs — a four-generation family of lawyers based in Hampton County — have had the reputation of enjoying friendly juries when their cases came to trial on their home turf.
In June, Buster Murdaugh filed suit in Hampton County, alleging three separate documentaries by well-known media companies had defamed him by falsely suggesting that he murdered, or helped murder, a local gay man, Stephen Smith, 19, nine years ago.
Smith’s body was found with fatal head injuries on a rural Hampton County road in July 2015. Baseless rumors began to swirl on social media that the Murdaugh family and Buster, in particular, had a hand in Smith’s death.
For years, the State Law Enforcement Division and numerous journalists have investigated the case, but no one ever found any evidence that Buster Murdaugh was involved in Smith’s death. Buster Murdaugh issued a statement denying involvement. The death remains unsolved and no suspects have been named by law enforcement.
Despite the fact no evidence is known to exist to link Buster Murdaugh to Smith’s death, various media companies broadcast documentaries in which they falsely, to one degree or another, suggested that Buster was involved in Smith’s death, according to the lawsuit filed in Hampton County state court.
The documentaries were “Murdaugh Murders: Deadly Dynasty,” “Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty,” and “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.” They were viewed by millions on such platforms as HBO Max, Netflix and Discovery+, Buster Murdaugh’s lawsuit said.
Local newspaper editor also sued
The only non-documentary defendant in Buster Murdaugh’s lawsuit was Michael DeWitt, the longtime editor of the Hampton County Guardian and author of the book, “The Fall of the House of Murdaugh.”
The lawsuit alleged that DeWitt had made alleged defamatory statements when he appeared on a Netflix documentary about Buster Murdaugh’s alleged involvement in Smith’s death.
“It is clear that Mr. DeWitt is falsely accusing [Buster] of being involved in the murder of Stephen Smith,” Buster Murdaugh said in his lawsuit. “Mr. DeWitt’s false statements defamed the plaintiff and damaged his reputation.”
But in their notice of removal to federal court, the defendants asserted that DeWitt’s statements were not defamatory, were in fact true and were within the bounds of free speech.
“It is clear from the context that DeWitt was not stating any facts of which he had personal knowledge, but rather, speaking as a local expert about what he had learned about the law enforcement investigation [into Smith’s death] and heard from others in the community. Both DeWitt’s comments and the Series as a whole are focused on the power and influence of the Murdaugh family and how that may have impacted the course of justice in multiple situations, not making factual claims about who actually killed Stephen Smith,” the companies said in their federal filing.
The defendants asked that DeWitt be dropped as a defendant since everything he said was true and protected by the First Amendment.
DeWitt has declined to comment.
The defendants also said the only reason that DeWitt was included in Buster Murdaugh’s lawsuit was to make sure the lawsuit would be tried in Hampton County.
Since all the defendants except DeWitt are out-of-state, the proper and lawful place for a legal action against them by a South Carolinian such as Buster Murdaugh is in the federal courts, Netflix and the other companies said in their notice of removal to federal court.
“This case arises from three documentary series that reported on historical events and official investigations involving a well-known and influential family, the Murdaughs, that for years have been the subject of discussion, debate, and speculation by the populace of Hampton County, South Carolina, and that have been extensively covered in the local, state, and national news media,” the documentary companies said in their notice of removal.
Buster’s father, Alex Murdaugh, is serving two consecutive life sentences in state prison for the 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and his younger son, Paul, Buster’s brother. Alex Murdaugh has also been convicted in state and federal court of massive fraud involving millions of dollars against his clients, his former law firm and others.
The Murdaugh saga has for several years attracted swarms of media, documentary companies and journalists. At least nine books have been written about it, and documentaries are still in production.
Lawyers representing the documentary companies include John T. Lay, Marguerite Willis, Cheryl Shoun, Jessica Laffitte, David Dukes and Merritt Abney, according to federal court records.
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