Authorities in South Carolina have opened two separate investigations into Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill, who was accused of tampering with the jury in the high-profile double murder trial of disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh.
One investigation involves Ms Hill’s alleged interactions with the jury during the trial in early 2023, according to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) spokesperson, who confirmed the investigations to The State on Tuesday.
The second investigation has to do with allegations that Ms Hill used her elected position for personal gain.
After six weeks of harrowing testimony back in March 2023, the jury took just three hours to convict Murdaugh in the June 2021 murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul. It was Ms Hill who read the verdict.
Over the last few months, Ms Hill has been thrust into the spotlight after Murdaugh made a series of bombshell accusations about her conduct at his trial.
Rebecca ‘Becky’ Hill has been thrust into the spotlight after Alex Murdaugh made a series of bombshell accusations about her conduct at his trial
Two ethics complaints were filed against Ms Hill alleging that she had misused her position as clerk of court.
One of the complaints alleged that she had improperly allowed a documentary crew to film in the courthouse and had misappropriated a donation, The State reported.
In September, Murdaugh defence attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian filed a motion requesting a new trial while accusing Ms Hill of tampering with the jury in order to secure a guilty verdict.
The motion was filed a month after her memoir of the trial, Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders, was published, further escalating accusations that she was driven by fame and a desire to secure a book deal.
The team also accused the court clerk of telling jurors not to trust Murdaugh when he testified in his own defence, having private conversations with the jury foreperson and pressuring jurors to come to a quick verdict.
The request filed by Murdaugh’s lawyers in September also accused Ms Hill of giving jury members business cards from reporters during the trial. After the verdict, she traveled to New York City with three of the jurors to do interviews.
Ms Hill has denied the allegations. In a sworn statement filed in November, the state branded the allegations as “a sweeping conspiratorial theory” and said that “not every inappropriate comment made by a member of court staff to a juror rises to the level of constitutional error”.
In November, Ms Hill’s son, Jeffrey Colton “Colt” Hill, 34, was arrested on a felony warrant following allegations that he illegally recorded conversations during his work for Colleton County, according to FITS News.
Jeffrey Hill was arrested in November on a wiretapping charge— (Colleton County Inmate Records)
Mr Hill, who works in the county administration’s technology department, was accused of recording conversations involving deputy county administrator Meagan Utsey.
The local outlet reported earlier that month that the SLED had launched an investigation into the claims.
Mr Hill works as the technology director for Colleton County – the same administration where his mother Becky Hill is employed as the court clerk.
It is unclear if there is any link between the arrest of Mr Hill and his mother – or the high-profile Murdaugh case.
