HAMPTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – Attorneys representing Alex Murdaugh have filed a motion calling on a judge to issue a gag order against Eric Bland, a South Carolina lawyer who is representing the estate of Gloria Satterfield.

Satterfield was a housekeeper who died in a slip and fall accident at the Murdaugh home in 2018. It sparked a recent wrongful death lawsuit against Murdaugh and allegations that he stole money owed to the estate and Satterfield family.

Bland, of the Bland Richter Law Firm, said in the latest barb Tuesday that Murdaugh would have been better served to have filed a motion to gag his own counsel, which includes Sen. Dick Harpootlian, “before Mr. Harpootlian admitted on national television that Murdaugh was guilty of the very financial crimes with which he has been charged and that he was resolved with the fact that he would be spending extended time in jail,” he said in a statement.

His comments reflected an interview on Good Morning American in which Harpootlian said, “He has indicated clearly that he is going to try to right every wrong – financial wrong – and others that he may have committed. Look, he’s reconciled to the fact he’s going to prison.  He understands that.  He’s a lawyer.” 

Bland’s full statement reads:

“To suggest through a motion that seeks desperately to walk back the harm inflicted on Mr. Murdaugh by his own legal team on Good Morning America (not to mention like comments made to Craig Melvin of NBC Today’s Show, during the press gaggle after the October 19, 2021 bond hearing,  at Mr. Murdaugh’s original bond hearing regarding crimes committed in connection with the Cousin Eddie alleged assisted suicide incident) that somehow something Eric Bland said on a podcast or in a news article has prejudiced the defense of Alex Murdaugh is at best a revisionist’s view of the history that the moving party himself has authored.  More pointedly, the motion is an illusionist’s attempt to distract attention away from harm that he has inflicted upon his own client by his very attorney.  A thorough response in opposition to the motion is forthcoming.”