COLUMBIA, S.C. — Out of great evil has come good was the theme of a gathering Thursday to announce a foundation to help the Hampton County’s needy at Christmas time.
The foundation, called “Gloria’s Gift,” will be funded with part of the $7 million-plus the Satterfield family — the first known financial victims of disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh — has gotten in legal settlements from various parties alleged to have helped Murdaugh carry out his alleged fraud schemes to fleece clients and others over a 12-year period.
“The Bible says, ‘Whatever things Satan as meant for evil, ... God will use for good,” said the Rev. Brian Hunter of Sandy Run Baptist Church. He was one of a dozen speakers at the event in downtown Hampton at the historic 75-year-old Palmetto Theater on the town’s main street.
The event was organized by Gloria Satterfield’s family and their lawyers, Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter. Its purpose was to show that Satterfield, the housekeeper who died after a 2018 fall at Murdaugh’s house, was far more than a housekeeper and that money derived from legal actions after her death should be used for good.
Although Murdaugh since November has been accused by a state grand jury of numerous financial crimes, it was the Satterfields, through Bland and Richter, who filed the first lawsuit against Murdaugh last September that launched the State Law Enforcement Division and the Attorney General’s office into action to uncover Murdaugh’s alleged misdeeds.
He has so far pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In their lawsuit, brought on behalf of Satterfield’s two sons, Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriott, Bland and Richter cited numerous documents aimed at showing Murdaugh and others had carried out a sophisticated financial fraud that deprived the sons of a $4.3 million inheritance after their mother’s death. Murdaugh has since signed a “confession of judgment” admitting to the theft.
“The family got sick and tired of hearing that she was just a housekeeper, that she was Murdaugh’s housekeeper,” Bland told approximately 100 people at the gathering. “She was far more than a housekeeper. She was someone who loved, lived, laughed.”
Ginger Harriott Hadwin, Satterfield’s younger sister, said that her sister was not rich and worked hard to provide for her boys, but she was wealthy in other ways.
“She has a full, pure heart of kindness and love for everyone she met,” Hadwin said. “She was so much more than just a housekeeper.”
Hadwin continued, “After having fought the good fight for justice, we choose to make sure that Gloria’s lasting legacy will not be that of a victim, but will be as a champion for love and charity. She was humble, she was a Southern lady filled with gratitude and grace.”
Christmas was special for Satterfield, and that is why the family chose to set up a foundation that will distribute gifts to needy families, she said.
The foundation is being started with a gift of $55,000 from the family and $20,000 from Bland and Richter, and is being set up to last for years, the lawyers and family members said.
The foundation will set up a web site. Its records will be open and transparent, founders said.
Michael DeWitt, longtime Hampton Guardian newspaper editor and county native, spoke Thursday, saying people all over the country have been watching the county “for the wrong reasons.
“One of our own took advantage of people who trusted him, and stole from the weak, the injured and even the dead,” DeWitt said. “But today, .... Alex Murdaugh has found his power stripped away. Today we are here to claim something even more powerful — Gloria Satterfield’s legacy.”
The creation of the foundation is a “turning point” in the sad Murdaugh saga, DeWitt said.
“By this announcement today, these victims have transformed an act of evil into something wonderful,” he said. “They have rewritten the narrative. As of today, this is no longer Alex Murdaugh’s story. This is Gloria Satterfield’s story.”
DeWitt’s remarks underscored one of the major ironies of the foundation’s creation — that the foundation symbolizes a victory by one of the community’s poorest over one of its wealthiest.
Hampton County Council Chair Buddy Phillips wanted the audience, which included television crews from Charleston and Savannah, to know that his county has different assets than wealthier places in South Carolina.
“Hampton County ... was born into poverty. Hampton County doesn’t have mighty Air Force bases and ... sea shores and sandy beaches,” Phillips said, but added it has people like the Satterfields who “think of others.”
Jordan Jinks, a county council member, said the county has plenty of needy people who will appreciate the Satterfields’ gift.
According to the census, 20% of the county’s population of 19,000 live in poverty.
“Today is about redefining Gloria’s legacy. Gloria loved Hampton County. She would never have done anything to bring this place into disrepute, and she never did,” Richter said. “It would break her heart to think that anybody, anywhere thought badly of Hampton because of something that happened to her.”
The event was originally supposed to have been held at Hunter’s church, but some members said that to do so might offend members of the Murdaugh family or law firm, nearly all of which had been pillars of the community for generations.
The Murdaughs are more than prominent in just their community.
Three generations of the family were known throughout the Lowcountry as chief prosecutors, or solicitors, and were powerful in political and law enforcement spheres.
Murdaugh, 53, was a well-to-do lawyer and a fourth generation member of that family.
So, because of worries about offending the Murdaugh family, the event was moved to the Palmetto Theater. The theater is just two blocks away from the family law firm where Murdaugh allegedly carried out his schemes for years. Murdaugh was fired by the law firm when it discovered early last September that he has been stealing from firm accounts.
Murdaugh faces more than 80 charges alleging he used banks and his law firm’s client trust account to fleece clients, partners and fellow lawyers of more than $8 million over a 12-year period.
Now in the Richland County jail and unable to post a $7 million bond, Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
However, he has signed a “confession of judgment” in connection with the Satterfield thefts, meaning the Satterfield family will be among those eligible for compensation if and when Murdaugh is determined to be civilly liable for stealing money. Numerous lawsuits are pending.
After the news conference Thursday, the S.C. Supreme Court ordered Murdaugh to appear on June 22 to show cause why he should not be disbarred. The court said there was so much evidence of Murdaugh’s dishonesty and misdeeds that it was dispensing with a lengthy investigation and giving him the opportunity to come before the court.
