Alex Murdaugh Wants to Be Judged By Charleston. What to Know About Friday’s Murdaugh Murders Hearing (TSP160)
Alex Murdaugh is due back in court for another hearing this week and investigative journalist Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell are more ready than ever. In today’s episode Mandy and Liz share the highlights from the stack of filings made by Team Murdaugh and the prosecution ahead of the Aug. 14th hearing in front of Judge Debra McCaslin. Team Murdaugh's surprisingly polished 26-page motion to move the second murder trial of the century out of the 14th Circuit, and the state's pointed response asking what's so special about the Holy City top the list. The co-hosts also dig into the state's bombshell request for a never-before-seen extraction of Alex's phone data citing former clients’ permission to waive privilege, the fight over the DNA under Maggie's fingernails, and so much more. Let's Dive In… 🥽 🦈 Join the LUNASHARK® Premium Community now on Patreon - Together we go further ☀️ 🩷🩷By Popular Demand, You Can “Help Journalist Mandy Matney Fight $176,500 Contempt Order” GoFundMe 🩷🩷 Lawyers & judges: email your insights or offer your expertise to legal@lunasharkmedia.com Episode Links Relisten to the OG podcast - Murdaugh Murders Podcast 🎧 SC State Constitution: Article I, Section 14 - Trial by jury; witnesses; defense ⚖️ SC Code of Laws: Title 17 - Criminal Procedures ⚖️ “This Day in History: Dec. 5, 2016: Judge declares mistrial in Michael Slager murder trial” - Live 5 News, Dec 5, 2025 📰 Urge SC Attorney General to PRIORITIZE the Re-Indictment of Michael Colucci - Change.org Petition ✍🏻 Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Learn more about LUNASHARK Premium Membership on Patreon or at lunashark.supercast.com to get bonus episodes like our Premium Dives, Wherever It Leads..., Girl Talk, and Soundbites that help you Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight. Plus BTS content from Murdaugh: Death in the Family AND Mandy's book Blood On Their Hands. Support Our Show, Sponsors and Mission: https://lunasharkmedia.com/support/ Quince - Hungry Root - Bombas https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email info@lunasharkmedia.com and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: lunashark.supercast.com Instagram.com/mandy_matney | Instagram.com/elizfarrell bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com | bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Distraction Machine: Becky Hill's Win and Gregg Roman's Supreme Court Detour, TSP #159 [Part Two]
Part Two of Two Some good news first: Judge Richard Gergel dismissed Alex Murdaugh's federal lawsuit demanding $600,000 from former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill, pointing to the "fatal flaw" sitting at the center of it.Investigative journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell explain why agreeing with the ruling isn't the same as defending Becky Hill — and why they always believed the suit was less about money than about spectacle, subpoena power, and keeping everyone's eyes off the double homicide case.Then, Gregg Roman. The Middle East Forum executive director hired by billionaire gas station owner Greg Parker now calls himself an investigative journalist in court filings, and the South Carolina Supreme Court has agreed to take his appeal to keep his bank records away from the Beach family. Mandy and Liz walk through South Carolina's autopsy photo laws, the Dale Earnhardt and Kobe Bryant precedents, and the one question buried under all the noise: who gave Gregg Roman photos of Mallory Beach's body?Let's Dive In… 🥽 🦈share the LUNASHARK® Premium Community on Supercast and now on Patreon - Together we go further ☀️🩷🩷By Popular Demand, You Can “Help Journalist Mandy Matney Fight $one hundred seventy Six thousand five hundred dollar Contempt Order” GoFundMe 🩷🩷Lawyers & judges: email your insights or offer your expertise to legal@lunasharkmedia.com Episode Links Who is Gregg Roman? + list of blog posts 🌐SC Code of Laws ⚖️ Section 17-5-535 - Persons authorized to view photographs or videos of autopsy Section 30-4-10 - Freedom of Information Act Referenced Episodes: TSP 158 [Part Two] 🎧 Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Learn more about LUNASHARK Premium Membership on Patreon or at lunashark.supercast.com to get bonus episodes like our Premium Dives, Wherever It Leads..., Girl Talk, and Soundbites that help you Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight. Plus BTS content from Murdaugh: Death in the Family AND Mandy's book Blood On Their Hands. Support Our Show, Sponsors and Mission: https://lunasharkmedia.com/support/ Quince - Hungry Root - Bombas https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email info@lunasharkmedia.com and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: lunashark.supercast.com Instagram.com/mandy_matney | Instagram.com/elizfarrell bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com | bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Was Mandy Matney Punished By The Court For Speaking Out Against The SC Judiciary? TSP #159 [Part One]
[Part One of Two] Investigative journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell walk through the motion to reconsider filed by Mandy’s attorneys to combat the unprecedented and arguably unconstitutional $176,500 civil contempt sanction. Mandy and Liz lay out how the process went sideways from the start: a rule to show cause with no verified petition, a hearing where her own compelled testimony was used to supply the missing foundation, and an order that cites her podcast and social media commentary as evidence against her — while conceding that speech was protected — it's a farce. Liz Farrell adds context on the five-star hotel bills, the fees no one gets to inspect, and the one person who predicted this outcome on the day of the deposition before any proceeding began. Let's Dive In… 🥽 🦈 Join the LUNASHARK® Premium Community now on Patreon - Together we go further ☀️ 🩷🩷By Popular Demand, You Can “Help Journalist Mandy Matney Fight $one hundred seventy Six thousand five hundred dollar Contempt Order” GoFundMe 🩷🩷 Lawyers & judges: email your insights or offer your expertise to legal@lunasharkmedia.com Episode Links Mandy’s FB announcement of motion to reconsider 📣 Meet Tristan M. Shaffer, Esq of Axelrod & Associates, PA 🔥 Evidence not allowed as evidence 🌐 The exceptional Pendry in Baltimore 🏨 “Legislative protection of news sources” from the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press 📰 Referenced Episodes: COJ 190 🎧 Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Learn more about LUNASHARK Premium Membership on Patreon or at lunashark.supercast.com to get bonus episodes like our Premium Dives, Wherever It Leads..., Girl Talk, and Soundbites that help you Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight. Plus BTS content from Murdaugh: Death in the Family AND Mandy's book Blood On Their Hands. Support Our Show, Sponsors and Mission: https://lunasharkmedia.com/support/ Quince - Hungry Root - Bombas https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email info@lunasharkmedia.com and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: lunashark.supercast.com Instagram.com/mandy_matney | Instagram.com/elizfarrell bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com | bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
TSP #158 [Part Two] - South Carolina’s Warning To Whistleblowers + What’s Happening In the Alex Murdaugh v Becky Hill Lawsuit?
Part Two of Two South Carolina fined journalist Mandy Matney $5,000 to “deter similar conduct in the future and promote respect for the law.” It fined Cory Fleming, $0. Becky Hill, $0. Alex Murdaugh — who stole more than $12 million from grieving clients — $0. Mandy opens Part Two of Episode 158 by laying that math out plainly, and asking what message it sends to every whistleblower in the state trying to change its broken systems. Then journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell turn to Murdaugh v. Hill, the federal suit in which Alex demands at least $600,000 from the former clerk of court for what his lawyers call “criminal jury tampering” — a charge prosecutors declined to bring, because the jurors telling the story couldn’t keep it straight. Plus: Becky’s motion to dismiss, Phil Barber’s savage briefs, another sealed discovery order, and why a sourdough starter metaphor explains this entire mess. Join the LUNASHARK® Premium Community now on Patreon - Together we go further ☀️ 🩷🩷By Popular Demand, You Can “Help Journalist Mandy Matney Fight $176,500 Contempt Order” GoFundMe 🩷🩷 Episode Links Lawyers & judges: email your insights or offer your expertise to legal@lunasharkmedia.com Judge Richard Gergel at Dick Harpootlian’s book signing - Facebook, Dec 18, 2025 📸 Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Learn more about LUNASHARK Premium Membership on Patreon or at lunashark.supercast.com to get bonus episodes like our Premium Dives, Wherever It Leads..., Girl Talk, and Soundbites that help you Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight. Plus BTS content from Murdaugh: Death in the Family AND Mandy's book Blood On Their Hands. Support Our Show, Sponsors and Mission: https://lunasharkmedia.com/support/ Quince - Hungry Root - Bombas https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email info@lunasharkmedia.com and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: lunashark.supercast.com Instagram.com/mandy_matney | Instagram.com/elizfarrell bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com | bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
True Sunlight #158 [Part One] - Debbie Barbier Tells on Herself + Why It Matters that John Monk’s Son Was Arrested for CSAM
Part One of Two Investigative journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell have some questions about a Spartanburg County Police report… made by none other than Debbie Barbier… When Greg Parker’s attorney Deborah Barbier told Spartanburg police she'd been “harassed” in a hotel lobby the morning of Mandy's contempt hearing on June 22, 2026, the department did something our team has never seen done so thoroughly for a harassment complaint made by a woman: it investigated. Multiple officers. Multiple weeks. Untold public monies. Search warrants signed by magistrate judges with no explanation of what probable cause existed — including a search of Mandy's Marriott room records and private guest information divulged over the phone. Hours of surveillance footage later, police could not locate the confrontation Barbier described, and the case is now listed as "inactive". We’re revisiting what South Carolina's harassment statute actually says, and ask why protected first amendment activities keep getting recast as crimes… and why behavior matching the statute is disregarded. Then we relook at McClatchy reporter John Monk’s coverage of Mandy's contempt proceedings through the prism of his 44 year old son’s federal indictment on child sexual abuse material charges — to which Monk Jr. has pleaded not guilty. We have questions… Let's Dive In… 🥽 🦈 Join the LUNASHARK® Premium Community on Patreon or Supercast - Together we go further ☀️ 🩷🩷By Popular Demand, You Can “Help Journalist Mandy Matney Fight $176,500 Contempt Order” GoFundMe 🩷🩷 Lawyers & judges: email your insights or offer your expertise to legal@lunasharkmedia.com Episode Links SC Code of Laws - 16-3-1700: Harassment and Stalking ⚖️ Read reactions to John Monk’s articles on Facebook: John Monk's Defamatory Article on Mandy's April 7th Hearing in Gaffney, SC - April 9, 2026 Another Article From John Monk Lobbing Ire At Mandy - April 30, 2026 Monk's Additionally Defamatory Article On Mandy's Contempt Proceedings - July 11, 2026 “Former Columbia Teacher Indicted for Attempted Production, Distribution, and Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material” - U.S. Attorney's Office, District of South Carolina, July 28, 2026 📰 Referenced Episodes: COJ 189 & TSP 12 🎧 Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Learn more about LUNASHARK Premium Membership on Patreon or at lunashark.supercast.com to get bonus episodes like our Premium Dives, Wherever It Leads..., Girl Talk, and Soundbites that help you Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight. Plus BTS content from Murdaugh: Death in the Family AND Mandy's book Blood On Their Hands. Support Our Show, Sponsors and Mission: https://lunasharkmedia.com/support/ Quince - Hungry Root - Bombas https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email info@lunasharkmedia.com and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: lunashark.supercast.com Instagram.com/mandy_matney | Instagram.com/elizfarrell bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com | bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices