Alex Murdaugh settles the wrongful death lawsuit that sparked his fall

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Alex Murdaugh has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a teen killed in a boat crash involving Murdaugh's youngest son that prosecutors said provoked the disgraced South Carolina attorney to later kill his wife and their son who wrecked the boat.

The agreement by an insurer to pay the $500,000 policy Alex Murdaugh had on the boat ends the wrongful death suit that ultimately pried open Murdaugh's finances and laid bare his schemes to steal millions from his clients and his law firm.

The family of 19-year-old Mallory Beach sued the Murdaugh family and others after authorities said the boat Paul Murdaugh was driving crashed into a Beaufort County bridge in February 2019. Beach was killed and several others were injured.

Paul Murdaugh, who was 19 at the time of the crash, was charged with felony boating under the influence. Investigators said he had a blood alcohol level over 0.28% — more than three times the legal limit.

Beach's family already received more than $15 million from a settlement with the Parker’s Kitchen chain of convenience stores and others, as well as lawsuits with a family that held an oyster roast the group on the boat attended, a bar that served Paul Murdaugh liquor just before the crash, and Paul Murdaugh's older brother, Buster, whose ID he used to buy the beer.

A snag with the insurer of the boat, Progressive, prevented the entire case from being settled last summer. Progressive wouldn't pay until Alex Murdaugh was dropped as a defendant in the Beach family's lawsuit, according to court records.

Once special receivers assured all Murdaugh's assets were paid out, Beach's family agreed to end the case and the insurer paid the $500,000, Judge Daniel Hall wrote in an order filed Monday.

Court records indicate the other passengers on the boat who were injured have also settled their lawsuits against Murdaugh and others involved in the crash.

Alex Murdaugh, 56, is serving life without parole for the June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at their Colleton County home. He has denied killing them and is appealing his murder convictions.

But even if his murder convictions are overturned, he will remain in prison. Murdaugh admitted stealing around $12 million from his family's law firm and from clients including a man who became a quadriplegic after a crash and from a trust fund intended for children whose parents were killed in a wreck. He was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.

Prosecutors said one of the last things Murdaugh did before heading home the night of the killings was work on a financial statement he would likely have to present at a court hearing for the Beach lawsuit scheduled three days later.

Murdaugh feared an investigation into his statement would show he stole millions from clients and his law firm, prosecutors said, and the killings were a sinister, methodical plan to buy time to straighten out his finances and derail the wrongful death suit over the boat crash.

The lawsuit, which became known in the true crime world as the “Boat Case,” showed both his family's longtime influence over Hampton County where for decades they controlled much of the criminal and civil courts and cracks in their control of their rural empire.

Nurses at the hospital where the injured teens were taken said Paul Murdaugh and his father tried to talk to them alone in the emergency room. One teen said it appeared the family was trying to convince them to say someone other than Paul Murdaugh was driving the boat.

Beach's lawyer Mark Tinsley testified at Alex Murdaugh's murder trial that he wanted him to pay $10 million, and Murdaugh’s lawyer said he was broke and might be able to scrape together $1 million.

Tinsley said that didn’t make sense with Murdaugh’s reputation and outward signs of wealth and asked for records of all of Murdaugh’s finances for the lawsuit hearing, which was postponed following the killings.

Alex Murdaugh killed his son Paul with two shotgun blasts and his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, with four or five rifle shots outside their home, authorities said.

Alex Murdaugh said he called 911 after finding the bodies following a brief visit to see his ailing mother.

He told investigators who arrived that he wondered if the anger toward his son over the boat crash led to the killings.

FILE - Witness Mark Tinsley, attorney for Mallory Beach's family, answers questions during Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse, Feb. 10, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - Alex Murdaugh is led to the Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff's deputies for sentencing, March 3, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C., after being convicted of two counts of murder. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Catholic priest in Belarus on Monday was convicted on charges of high treason for criticizing the government and handed an 11-year sentence, in the first case of politically-driven charges against Catholic clergy since Belarus became independent in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The conviction and sentencing of Rev. Henrykh Akalatovich comes as Belarusian authorities have intensified their sweeping crackdown on dissent ahead of the Jan. 26 presidential election that is all but certain to hand authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a seventh term in office.

The Viasna Human Rights Center said Akalatovich, 64, rejected the treason charges. The group has listed him among 1,265 political prisoners in the country.

“For the first time since the fall of the Communist regime, a Catholic priest in Belarus was convicted on criminal charges that are leveled against political prisoners,” said Viasna's representative Pavel Sapelka. “The harsh sentence is intended to intimidate and silence hundreds of other priests ahead of January's presidential election.”

Akalatovich, who has been in custody since November 2023, was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery just before his arrest. The priest from the town of Valozhyn in western Belarus, who was critical of the government in his sermons, has been held incommunicado, with prison officials turning down warm clothing and food sent to him.

Arkatovich is among dozens of clergy — Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant — who have been jailed, silenced or forced into exile for protesting the 2020 election that gave Lukashenko a sixth term. The disputed vote that the opposition and the West said was marred with fraud triggered mass protests, to which the authorities responded with a sweeping crackdown that saw more than 65,000 arrested and thousands beaten by police.

Catholic and Protestant clergy who supported the protests and sheltered demonstrators at their churches were particularly targeted by repressions. Belarusian authorities openly seek to bring the clergy into line, repeatedly summoning them for “preventive” political talks, checking websites and social media, and having security services monitor sermons.

While Orthodox Christians make up about 80% of the population, just under 14% are Catholic and 2% are Protestants.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for nearly 30 years and describes himself as an “Orthodox atheist,” lashed out at dissident clergy during the 2020 protests, urging them to “do their jobs,” and not fuel unrest.

Lukashenko is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, allowing Russia to use his country’s territory to send troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and to deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends the Supreme Eurasian Economic Union meeting at the Igora resort in the Leningrad region, about 54 km (33,75 miles) north of St. Petersburg in Igora, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (Alexei Danichev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)