South Carolina officials have filed 76 counts of ethics violations against the court clerk who handled the Alex Murdaugh murder trial, which ended in two life sentences for the former small town lawyer.
The 25 pages of allegations accuse former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill of allowing a photo of Murdaughin a holding cell to be taken to promote her book on the trial, giving herself bonuses, and using county money to buy dozens of lunches for her staff, prosecutors and a vendor.
Hill also struck a deal with a documentary maker to use the county courtroom in exchange for promoting her book on the trial, which later she admitted had plagiarized passages, according to the South Carolina Ethics Commission complaint earlier this month.
The ethics commission will hold a hearing in December on these accusations unless Hill and her lawyer are able settle the case before then. Hill could have to pay back the roughly $20,000 in expenses and face thousands of dollars or more in fines. And if the commission thinks she broke any laws, they can forward the information to prosecutors.
A criminal investigation into whether Hill tampered with the Murdaugh juryor misused her office continues, the State Law Enforcement Division said Thursday.
Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill is sworn in before taking the stand to testify during the Alex Murdaugh jury-tampering hearing at the Richland County Judicial Center in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 29, 2024
Alex Murdaugh, convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in June 2021, listens during a hearing on the motion for a retrial, Jan. 16, 2024, at the Richland County Judicial Center
Hill resigned in Marchduring the last year of her four year term, citing the public scrutiny of Murdaugh's trial and wanting to spend time with her grandchildren.
She hasn't publicly addressed the ethics allegations. Her lawyer, Justin Bramberg, has previously said that her resignation had nothing to do with the pending investigations against her, Fox News reported.
It took a jury less than three hoursto convict Murdaugh of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, after a six-week trial last year.
The case involved power, coverups, suspicious deaths and an attorney whosefamily practically ruled with an iron fist in the small South Carolina county for nearly a century.
Murdaugh is appealing his conviction and double life without parole sentence, arguing that Hill triedto sway jurors toward a guilty voteand being biased against Murdaugh in her book.
Hill is pictured during the announcement of her resignation as county clerk, a position she had served in since 2020
Murdaugh was convicted of the murders of hisson Paul and wife Maggie at their South Carolina hunting lodge in June 2021
DailyMail.com revealed last September that Hill wrote in her book that she and the jurors 'knew that Alex was guilty.'
The new ethics allegations against Hill say she bought lunches for prosecutors and then paid herself back with county money.
She spent $543.89 for food and alcohol for a going away lunch for an employee in a local prosecutor's office, according to the complaint.
None of the allegations mention spending for public defenders or defense attorneys.
Hill gave herself nearly $10,000 in bonuses from federal money meant to improve child support collection but has few rules on how it is spent, the complaint alleges
The former clerk also allegedly used public money to buy meals for her staff, her family, judges, court employees and others 36 times.
She reimbursed herself for gifts bought for jurors and her staff on Valentine's Day and for her employees on on several holidays, the complaint said.
Expenses included $481 for a 50th birthday party for a staffer and dog food, bones and a pet bed for another, ethics officials said.
In all, Hill is accused of spending nearly $20,000 in county money in ways she shouldn't, according to the complaint.
Alex Murdaugh reacts as he addresses the court during his sentencing for stealing from 18 clients on Tuesday November 28, 2023
Hill is pictured with Judge Clifton Newman, the judge who sentenced Murdaugh to life for the murders of Maggie and Paul
Legal experts had previously told DailyMail.com that Murdaugh could win a second trial based on some of Hill's supposed improprieties butJudge Jean Toal rejected his initial appeal in January.
Still, the judge saidshe wasn't sure Hilltold the truthabout her dealings with jurors and was 'attracted by the siren call of celebrity.'
However, even if Murdaugh is eventually granted a new murder trial, he's still serving40 years in prisonfor stealing millions of dollars from clients of his law firm, a punishment that will be served at the same time as his 27-year sentence for his separate state fraud convictions.
The 40-year sentencewill run consecutively with the disgraced lawyer's pair of life sentences for the murders of his family members.
Murdaugh appears irritated as his financial crimes were described in court, which included stealing $9 million from vulnerable clients
Murdaugh maintains his innocence in the killings, even though a cop testified that he admitted to it on day 6 of the trial. The jury heard Murdaugh say in a recording: 'I did so him bad,' three days after his wife and son were killed.
Leading up to the murders, Alex and Maggie's marriage was reportedly on the rocks, with Maggie constantly haranguing her husband over money and his alleged drug use.
The murders were brutal, and jurors were shown pictures of a bloody crime sceneat the family's hunting lodge from June 7, 2021.
Nowadays, as Murdaugh plots his next legal maneuverer, the infamous family annihilator spends his days in maximum security prison reading fan mail, writing letters, playing games and watching television.
