A South Carolina Circuit Court Judge has issued several rulings and set a timeline, including a potential trial date, in the case of a second lawsuit involving the death of Mallory Beach in 2019 and its aftermath.
In a civil court legal battle that has lasted nearly four years, several significant rulings and important dates were set in the case of Renee S. Beach, plaintiff, et al., versus Gregory M. Parker, defendant, et al.
In the 2021 civil conspiracy case filed by Beach, of Hampton County, and several of her family members on April 11, alleging social media harassment and other “outrages,” Spartanburg County Judge R. Keith Kelly set a “date certain” trial for the week of May 4, 2026, in Hampton County Court of Common Pleas unless the case is resolved by mediation or settlement prior to that date.
A fatal crash involving this boat, owned by Richard “Alex” Murdaugh and allegedly driven by his son, Paul, would spark a series of events that would bring the Murdaugh family into the national spotlight.
What is the Beach civil conspiracy and social media harassment case about?
Mallory Beach, the 19-year-old daughter of Renee Beach, was killed in an alcohol-fueled February 2019 boat crash involving Paul Murdaugh, the late son of now-notorious former Hampton lawyer Richard “Alex” Murdaugh, who is serving multiple prison sentences for fraud, conspiracy and murder in a case that continues to rock the South Carolina legal system.
The Beach family and estate filed a 2019 wrongful death lawsuit against members of the Murdaugh family, Gregory Parker/Parker’s Corporation, which reportedly sold the alcohol to the underaged boaters, and other parties.
That civil suit was settled for $15 million in July 2023, but during that legal battle, several members of the Beach family claimed early on that they were harassed and bullied by detectives and other parties working for Parker’s defendants.
This second suit, “Renee S. Beach, Phillip Beach, Robin Beach, Savannah Beach Tuten and Seth Tuten vs. Gregory M. Parker, Gregory M. Parker, Inc. d/b/a Parker’s Corporation, Blake Greco, Jason D’Cruz, Vicky Ward, Max Fratoddi, Henry Rosado and Private Investigations Services Group, LLC,” was filed in Hampton County Court of Common Pleas on Friday, Dec. 3, 2021 (Ward was later dropped from this suit.).
This suit alleged “Civil Conspiracy and Outrage/Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress” and was filed by Allendale, S.C., attorney Mark Tinsley, of Gooding and Gooding PA, who also represented the Beach estate in the wrongful death suit.
Mark Tinsley, Allendale-based personal injury attorney takes the stand in Alex Murdaugh’s trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday, February 9, 2023. Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post and Courier/Pool
The original civil action alleged that Parker, owner and CEO of Parker’s, and his attorneys Greco and D’Cruz, conspired with journalist Ward, as well as Fratoddi and Rosado of Private Investigations Services Group, to launch “…a social media campaign to inflict severe emotional distress upon the Plaintiffs to diminish their resolve to prosecute Parker’s for contributing to causing the death of Mallory Beach in the Civil Action and arranged for or participated in the distribution of the confidential mediation and other private materials… “
The suit alleges that, prior to Sept. 14, 2021, Parker, Greco, and D’Cruz hired “social media knife fighters” and others to devise a plan to emotionally harm, harass, and discourage the Beach family from prosecuting the wrongful death suit by creating fake social media posts.
This conspiracy was allegedly done by Parker and his attorneys, providing videos and photos, which were reportedly confidential images to be used in the wrongful death, civil mediation process, to Ward, a New York-based journalist.
These confidential images included photographs of Mallory Beach’s dead body as it was discovered on a mud flat in a Beaufort County river, a week after the fatal boat crash, the suit contends. These images also include other members of the Beach family, which they say were stolen for the profit of others as well as being an invasion of their privacy.
In 2022, Ward was dismissed from the lawsuit after giving an affidavit clarifying her role.
What other recent rulings were made in the second Beach case this week?
Judge Kelly handed down several other rulings on April 11, including denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss, a motion to disqualify plaintiff attorney Mark Tinsley, and a motion to “stay discovery.”
The lengthy legal battle centered on what work-product materials or evidence possessed by detectives and other parties hired by Parker’s were to be deemed protected by client-attorney privilege.
Judge Kelly ruled that any materials not deemed privileged by previous judges in the case must be turned over to Tinsley within 30 days.
Kelly also set the following scheduling order timeline for the case:
All discovery shall be completed by Nov. 1, 2025.
Mediation efforts shall be conducted no later than Dec. 31, 2025.
If mediation fails, all pre-trial matters shall be filed by Feb. 28, 2026.
All pre-trial matters shall be heard on the week of April 6, 2026.
This case shall be set for a certain date on the week of May 4, 2026.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Second suit related to Mallory Beach’s death gets potential court date