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2009, Horror/Mystery & thriller, 1h 49m
What to know
Critics consensus.
Director Christian Alvert has a certain stylish flair, but it's wasted on Case 39 's frightless, unoriginal plot. Read critic reviews
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- Rating: R (Violence and Terror|Disturbing Images)
- Genre: Horror, Mystery & thriller
- Original Language: English
- Director: Christian Alvart
- Producer: Steve Golin , Kevin Misher
- Writer: Ray Wright
- Release Date (Theaters): Oct 1, 2010 wide
- Release Date (Streaming): Jan 4, 2011
- Box Office (Gross USA): $13.2M
- Runtime: 1h 49m
- Distributor: Paramount Pictures
- Sound Mix: SDDS, Dolby Digital, DTS
Cast & Crew
News & interviews for case 39, critic reviews for case 39, audience reviews for case 39.
- Apr 26, 2015 The strangely enticing opportunity to see comedic actress Renée Zellwegger as the stressed and confused foster parent of a contemporary Omen child cant save the disappointment that is met upon finishing the film. Unfortunately, Case 39 just isn't very memorable whatsoever. Alot of the scenes featured in the picture such as the repetetive circling on an office chair by the demonic child become quite grating and annoying. Whilst the film does have its fair share of genuinely intriguing twists and turns (the Hornets scene for example) and the performance by the young Jodelle Ferland is gripping enough to attain our attention throughout the duration, the film is generally a letdown. Super Reviewer
- May 19, 2013 While a Zellweger fan (and she does well here) this story about innocent looking and acting DEMON CHILD! has been done before and better, and hoping and wishing for a new wrinkle here won't make it real. Ahh, well ... better luck next time. Super Reviewer
- Jun 14, 2012 Edward Sullivan: They say when you're born you're given your eternal soul. The part of you that lives on, lives again. Whatever evil she is,didn't come from us. It was already there. From the moment she came into being, she brought something with her. Something older, destructive. Soul of a demon. "Some cases should never be opened." Not as terrible as I expected, but I expected the worst. Case 39 is still just recycled parts from better evil kid horror movies, like The Bad Seed and Orphan. It ends up playing like a more entertaining form of The Good Son. It also has a lot of things that just don't add up when examined closely, but that is the least of its problems. The biggest problem the film has is that its target audience is going to hate it and find it repetitive in the least. The target audience for this film are the people who enjoy the evil kid horror genre. And guess what; we've seen them all. So this isn't going to cut it. When you try to make a movie like this, you have to come up with something new, strange, and terrifying to add to the formula. If you can't, the result will be a failure, like Case 39. The sweetness of the little girl is played off terribly. I don't know if that is a result of her acting skills or bad writing. It may just be a combination of the two. To be honest though, the movie does have a decent start. It all goes downhill quickly though, because the writing is terrible and stuff just doesn't add up. Why would the little girl be afraid of telling the social workers about her situation because the father gives her a nasty look? She's the evil one. I know we aren't supposed to know that then, but damn have some foresight in your fucking script. There is some entertainment value in the movies awfulness. I can say I was never bored by the movie. I can also say that a lot of the entertainment I got from it came from me laughing at the ridiculousness of some of the scenes. I could talk about everything I hated in the movie, but that would take all day. Let's just leave it by saying it's bad. Maybe if you have never seen another movie in the sub genre, you will find it intriguing; but if you have, I would suggest skipping it. Super Reviewer
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A social worker fights to save a girl from her abusive parents, only to discover that the situation is more dangerous than she ever expected. A social worker fights to save a girl from her abusive parents, only to discover that the situation is more dangerous than she ever expected. A social worker fights to save a girl from her abusive parents, only to discover that the situation is more dangerous than she ever expected.
- Christian Alvart
- Renée Zellweger
- Ian McShane
- Jodelle Ferland
- 305 User reviews
- 170 Critic reviews
- 25 Metascore
- See more at IMDbPro
- 3 nominations
- Emily Jenkins
- Detective Barron
- Lilith Sullivan
- Edward Sullivan
- Margaret Sullivan
- Javier's Wife
- Custody Judge
- Plainclothes Cop
- (as John Carroll)
- Chief Psychiatrist
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
More like this
Did you know
- Trivia This movie was completed in 2007, and was initially scheduled for an American release in August 2008, but was delayed twice before its final release date on October 1, 2010, three years after completing production.
- Goofs (at around 1h 35 mins) Gasoline will vaporize when pouring over a large surface area, such as the hall and walls. The gasoline vapor should have exploded all around Emily when she ignited the lighter.
Douglas J. Ames : Everybody has fears... now, what scares you?
Lillith Sullivan : Me.
Douglas J. Ames : You scare yourself?
Lillith Sullivan : Sometimes.
Douglas J. Ames : Why? What about yourself scares you?
Lillith Sullivan : I have bad thoughts.
Douglas J. Ames : About what?
Lillith Sullivan : People.
Douglas J. Ames : People in general or... certain people?
Lillith Sullivan : Certain people.
Douglas J. Ames : Like who?
Lillith Sullivan : You.
Douglas J. Ames : You have bad thoughts about me? Why?
Lillith Sullivan : I just do.
Douglas J. Ames : Did I do something or say something that upset you?
Lillith Sullivan : It's just... the way you are.
Douglas J. Ames : How am I?
Lillith Sullivan : Facile.
Douglas J. Ames : Facile? Pfff... do you even know what that means?
Lillith Sullivan : Easily comprehended, often lacking sincerity or depth. You're smug too... want me to tell you what that means?
Douglas J. Ames : Uhm, If I... seem smug or facile, I want...
Lillith Sullivan : Don't apologize.
Douglas J. Ames : Why not?
Lillith Sullivan : You're a grown-up... it's embarrassing.
- Connections Featured in Phelous & the Movies: Phelous Is on Case 39 (2010)
- Soundtracks Like Dat Written by Stat Quo (as Stanley Benton), Gerald Griffin & Lt. Mo (as Todd Moore) Performed by Stat Quo Courtesy of Interscope Records Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
User reviews 305
- bob-rutzel-1
- Jan 13, 2011
- What is "Case 39" about?
- Is 'Case 39' based on a book?
- Why did Lily keep falling asleep during class?
- October 1, 2010 (United States)
- United States
- Official site
- Đứa Con Của Quỷ
- Portland, Oregon, USA (flyover shots)
- Paramount Vantage
- Misher Films
- Anonymous Content
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- $26,000,000 (estimated)
- $13,261,851
- Oct 3, 2010
- $28,190,603
Technical specs
- Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
- Dolby Digital
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Common Sense says
Dull "killer kid" tale features violence involving children.
Parents say
Based on 5 reviews
Based on 23 reviews
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A lot or a little.
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Case 39 is part of the "killer children" horror subgenre, in which children are shown to be evil and homicidal; it's a psychologically effective and scary idea, but this movie is mainly out for shocks rather than exploring anything deeper. There's lots of violence, including some scenes involving children (in one particularly disturbing sequence, adults push a girl into an oven and light it), as well as other deaths and injuries. Language includes a few uses of "f--k" and "s--t," while sex, drinking, and drugs aren't prevalent.
Community Reviews
- Parents say (5)
- Kids say (23)
Another edge of your seat movie
Report this review, worth watching....
This title has:
What's the Story?
Stressed social worker Emily Jenkins ( Renee Zellweger ) is assigned one more case in addition to the 38 she already has, a young girl named Lilith ( Jodelle Ferland ). Emily visits the home and discovers that the girl's parents are showing signs of abuse. Emily decides to take Lilith in until a good foster home can be found -- but unfortunately, everyone around Emily quickly begins dying, starting with her psychologist friend, Doug ( Bradley Cooper ). Emily starts to believe that maybe Lilith is the problem, rather than her parents. Can she get anyone to believe her before it's too late?
Is It Any Good?
The "demon child" subgenre of horror movies is an old one, stretching from The Bad Seed to The Omen to the more recent Orphan , and Case 39 doesn't have anything fresh to add. Completed in 2007, CASE 39 sat around for a long time before being unceremoniously dump in theaters in 2010; in the meantime, director Christian Alvart went on to make the effectively moody Pandorum , but this movie is a dud.
In these movies, the horror springs from the concept that the purest and most innocent of all creatures -- a child -- can harbor murderous evil. But Case 39 doesn't seem to understand this; there's no real emotional draw to the characters, and they don't seem connected to one another. Alvart counts on jump shocks and sudden noises for his scary scenes, and none of it works very well. The movie never digs deeper into its premise.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the movie's violence . How did it affect you? Why do you think it affected you that way?
As a horror movie, is Case 39 scary ? Which scenes worked the best? In general, what's scarier -- blood and gore, or long, slow build-ups?
What makes "killer kids" like Lilith scary?
Movie Details
- In theaters : October 1, 2010
- On DVD or streaming : January 4, 2011
- Cast : Bradley Cooper , Ian McShane , Jodelle Ferland , Renee Zellweger
- Director : Christian Alvart
- Studio : Paramount Vantage
- Genre : Horror
- Run time : 109 minutes
- MPAA rating : R
- MPAA explanation : violence and terror including disturbing images
- Last updated : February 23, 2023
Our Editors Recommend
Remake of Japanese horror film is terrifying and creepy.
This scary movie is too creepy for little kids.
The Orphanage
Decent old-school ghost story, Spanish-style.
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Entertainment
Case 39 ending explained: the true side of lillith sullivan.
An American movie catering to the supernatural and horror genre is Case 39. This movie hit the cinema screens back in 2010, more than a decade ago. It got a rating of about 7 which is fairly enough for a movie. The critics and fans of the horror and supernatural genre had mixed views of the making of this movie. The writer of this amazing movie is Ray Wright and the director is Christian Alvart.
The star cast of ‘Case 39’ includes Renee Zellweger, Ian McShane, Jodelle Ferland, and Bradley Cooper. The cast also includes many other talented actors in the supporting role. You can binge-watch ‘Case 39’ on Amazon Prime Video. The movie did well at the box office and earned more than its budget.
The movie ‘Case 39’ was released in New Zealand in the year 2009 but it was released in 2010 in the United States of America. The making of the movie ‘Case 39’ was delayed due to an outbreak of fire that devastated the entire set and studio of the movie. Luckily, no one was present at that time on the set and nobody got injured. All this led to delays in the release of the movie.
‘Renee Zellweger as Emily Jenkins in Case 39’
Page Contents
What is the Plot of the movie ‘Case 39’?
Renee Zellweger who is acting as Emily Jenkins is a social worker who is looking out for Lillith Sullivan, a ten-year-old kid. Lillith Sullivan’s grades declined in her studies due to the bad emotional conditions in her family. Emily Jenkins doubted that the parents of the kid abused and beat her. Emily tries to get to know the kid more and asks her to reach out to her in case she wants to talk or wants any help. Lillith calls Emily late in the night and informs her that her parents are going to kill her. Emily reaches at the time and captures her family members before anything happens to Lillith.
Watch the movie ‘Case 39’ on Amazon Prime Video to find out more!
‘Case 39’ Ending Explained
Parents plan to murder their child and a social worker saves the child. Emily saves Lillith with the help of Detective Mike Barron. Her parents were about to trap Lillith in an oven and bake her alive. In the beginning, it is decided that Lillith will be sent to the children’s home but she requests Emily to not leave her alone. Emily promises to take care of Lillith.
Why does Diego move in with Emily Jenkins?
After two weeks when Lillith moves in with Emily in her home, a boy named Diego also moves in with them. Emily is taking care of both the kids. Later one fine night, Emily gets to know that the boy killed his parents. Detective Mike Barron informs Emily regarding the crime committed by Diego.
‘Emily Jenkins and Lillith Sullivan in the movie Case 39’
How does the psychiatrist, Douglas die?
Emily asks her best friend Douglas who is a psychiatrist to conduct a psychiatric evaluation of Lillith Sullivan. She questions Douglas back regarding his fears during the session. Lillith makes a judgment for Douglas and Emily expresses his discomfort to Lillith and also Douglas tells them to book a specialist for the morning. At nighttime, Douglas kills himself.
What reveals the true side of Lillith Sullivan?
Emily went to see Lillith’s parents in the asylum. Edward reveals to her that Lillith is dangerous and can only be killed when asleep. Emily tries to mix sedatives in Lillith’s tea and also blaze the house, but she remained unharmed. They both are given a different place for shelter. Emily took Lillith on another route at high speed and drowns the car in the lake. She locks the car and swims away. She gets relieved at the end of the movie that Lillith is gone and she got rid of her.
‘Case 39’ is a package of psychological suspense and thriller. If you are a psychological thriller movie fan then do watch it if you have not already!
Also Read: Spenser Confidential Ending Explained: Fate of Driscoll
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Case 39 Movie
Some Cases Should Never Be Opened.
A social worker rescues a young girl from abusive parents but begins to suspect the girl may not be so innocent after all.
Who's Involved:
Bradley Cooper, Ian McShane, Renée Zellweger, Steve Golin, Callum Keith Rennie, Lisa Bruce, Adrian Lester, Ray Wright, Kevin Misher, Christian Alvart, Kerry O'Malley, Hagen Bogdanski
Release Date:
Friday, October 1, 2010 Nationwide
Plot: What's the story about?
"Case 39" is a horror film starring Renée Zellweger as family services social worker Emily Jenkins. Emily thinks she has seen it all until she meets her newest, most mysterious case, troubled 10-year old Lilith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland). Emily's worst fears are confirmed when the parents try to kill Lilith, their only daughter. Emily saves her and decides to take her in herself until the right foster family comes along.
3.87 / 5 stars ( 94 users)
Poll: Will you see Case 39?
Who stars in Case 39: Cast List
Renée Zellweger
Cinderella Man, The Whole Truth
Ian McShane
Shrek Forever After, Snow White and the Huntsman
Kerry O'Malley
Bradley Cooper
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Maestro
Callum Keith Rennie
Jigsaw, Into the Forest
Adrian Lester
Euphoria, Spider-Man 3
Who's making Case 39: Crew List
A look at the Case 39 behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director Christian Alvart last directed Pandorum . The film's writer Ray Wright last wrote The Crazies and Pulse .
Christian Alvart
Screenwriter
Production Company
Anonymous Content
Misher Films
Morgan Creek Productions
Watch Case 39 Trailers & Videos
No trailer available.
Production: What we know about Case 39?
Filming timeline.
- 2009 - April : The film was set to Completed status.
Case 39 Release Date: When was the film released?
Case 39 was a Nationwide release in 2010 on Friday, October 1, 2010 in around 2,211 theaters. There were 8 other movies released on the same date, including The Social Network , Let Me In and Speed-Dating .
Case 39 DVD & Blu-ray Release Date: When was the film released?
Case 39 was released on DVD & Blu-ray on Tuesday, January 4 , 2011 .
Q&A Asked about Case 39
Seen the movie? Rate It!
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- Sat., Mar. 2, 2019
- mentioned in Is 'Greta' based on a book?
- Sat., Dec. 11, 2010
- added the US DVD release date of January 4, 2011
- added the US Blu-ray release date of January 4, 2011
- Fri., Sep. 17, 2010 from MovieTickets.com
- added a running time of 109 minutes
- Sat., Aug. 21, 2010 from Paramount Pictures
- added photos to the gallery
- Fri., Aug. 20, 2010 from Movie Poster Awards
- added the tagline: "Some Cases Should Never Be Opened."
Looking for more information on Case 39?
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S hlocky and ridiculous it may be, but this horror-thriller really is gleefully gruesome and undeniably entertaining: smart work from German director Christian Alvert – who made the stomach-turning serial-killer nightmare Antikörper, or Antibodies. Renée Zellweger plays Emily, a concerned social worker confronted with the toughest case of her career. She suspects 12-year-old Lily (Jodelle Ferland) is being abused by her sinister, taciturn parents. One night, Emily gets a desperate phone call from the child: mum and dad are about to bundle her into the oven and roast her alive. Emily's desperate attempt at rescue is just the beginning of her problems. Zellweger's pouty performance works very well, as her dainty composure disintegrates. For sheer, sustained nastiness, this could hardly be beaten, channelling the spirit of Damien: Omen II and the Japanese Ring movies.
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The Curious Case of ''Case 39''
Join us, if you will, on a trip back to 2006. It was the year Renée Zellweger starred in Case 39 , her first horror film since 1994’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation . Just two years after winning an Oscar for Cold Mountain , she played a social worker who rescues a little girl from what she thinks is an abusive household. But the tyke might just be evil incarnate. Bradley Cooper — then best known as Owen Wilson’s jerk rival from Wedding Crashers — costarred as a kiddie shrink.
You’ve never heard of this movie? Neither has most of America. After wrapping production in early 2007, Case 39 spent the next three and a half years in Hollywood purgatory, awaiting a U.S. release. First it was scheduled to open in February 2008. Then April 2009. Then…nothing. But last month, following a successful overseas run that yielded $15 million in grosses, Paramount announced that Case 39 will really, truly hit American theaters on Oct. 1. ”It’s a big relief. It’s been frustrating, obviously,” says director Christian Alvart. ”If you make a movie, you make it at a certain time in your career and you want it to come out close to that time, not when you’ve already moved on.”
As Alvart understands it, the $26 million-budgeted Case 39 fell through the cracks because it was never a priority for the studio. ”We are a very small film for them,” he says. ”So when they reshuffled their schedule, we always went to the back of the line.” (The execs who greenlit the project also left the studio in 2009.) Paramount declined to comment on the film’s delayed release, other than to say that the $7 million earned by Case 39 in Spain and Mexico over the past year persuaded the studio to target Hispanic audiences in the U.S. That might sound strange — it’s not as if the movie was written with that particular audience in mind. But Latino moviegoers historically respond well to the horror genre. ”Not so much the slasher things, but really the supernatural is what we’re drawn to,” says Gabriel Reyes, a marketer who works with studios on Hispanic outreach campaigns. ”So based on the international box office, if they do a good job on the marketing, they have a good chance to build from the Latin audiences up.”
Even if Case 39 is a hit, its costars aren’t likely to revel in the success: Both declined to speak about the film, which suggests they might not share Alvart’s joy over its resurrection. In the years since the film wrapped, the actors’ fortunes have flip-flopped. While Cooper’s career has exploded thanks to The Hangover , Zellweger’s has cooled off considerably. (The stars also became a couple last year.) As for the German-born Alvart, he’s made two movies in the interim: last year’s Dennis Quaid box office fizzler Pandorum and the German thriller 8 Uhr 28 . At the moment, he hopes Paramount will stick to the release plan this time. ”It looks good, but I’ve thought that many times before,” Alvart laughs. ”I won’t believe it until it’s in the theaters.”
More Films That Are Coming Off The Shelf — And to a Theater Near You I Love You Phillip Morris Wrapped Summer ’08 Release Date: Dec. 10, 2010 A black comedy from Sundance 2009, Morris stars Jim Carrey as a gay con man who meets his soul mate (Ewan McGregor) in jail.
All Good Things Wrapped Summer ’08 Release Date: Dec. 17, 2010 The based-on-a-real-life mystery features Ryan Gosling as a New York real estate mogul who’s a prime suspect in the disappearance of his wife (Kirsten Dunst).
Kids in America Wrapped Spring ’07 Release Date: March 4, 2011 Twentysomething twins (played by Topher Grace and Anna Faris) endure a night of misadventures in this ’80s-set comedy.
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Horrifying 'Case 39' plays on fear of possessed children
- Nick Schuler
- Oct 12, 2010
- Oct 12, 2010 Updated Aug 19, 2020
Case 39 is a horror film about a social worker (Renee Zellweger) who adopts an abused child, only to find out this poor little girl is an evil demon or something. The child begins to violently and cruelly murder associates of the social worker via supernatural means, such as spawning millions of wasps, or somehow convincing a young boy to beat his parents to death with a tire iron. The little girl tortures the social worker with fear until she snaps, resulting in the little girl's untimely death.
This movie is vaguely frightening. There are jump scenes and creepy images, but in the end it relies too much on individual perception. The people who will be most affected by the movie are the people who are trapped inside of mental asylums, utterly certain that there are wasps just behind their eyelids struggling to get out. The whole movie is written like the paranoid delusions of a murderous lunatic, perhaps one who killed his own daughter out of fear.
This raises questions about the apparent fears of America's moviegoing audience and whether they are prominent enough to warrant this movie. Is there really a sizeable portion of us afraid that our children are murderous demons? How many people are out there that are one visit from a social worker away from taping their child into the oven? The very existence of Case 39 bothers me.
The little girl in this movie is named Lilith. Lilith, as some know, was Adam's mythical first wife in the Garden of Eden, who refused to become his slave and was later turned into a demon. In Case 39, Lilith's parents talk about how after she was born their brothers and sisters began dying untimely deaths. Naturally, they assumed this was all Lilith's fault, especially after she manifested herself as a monster to them. This all begs the question: who would name their child Lilith? They were practically begging for her to become a demon. If they had a son, would they have named him Satan?
The plot to the movie is much better if you choose to interpret it a certain way. You have to assume that insanity is contagious, and that Zellweger's character falls victim to the same delusions Lilith's parents held. She hallucinates that Lilith is trying to kill all of the people she had helped in the past, so she drives them both into an harbor with Lilith trapped in the trunk after burning down her own house. Presumably she ends up in an insane asylum, though the movie cuts off with her breaking the surface in relief. It's a significantly more depressing interpretation, but at least it doesn't fuel paranoid delusions that children are the enemy and something to be feared.
There's a moment at the beginning of the movie, as Zellweger pulls up to Lilith's house, where you hear the canned laughter of children. It's the same foley effect you've heard a million times before, usually in horror films. This encapsulates the movie very well; people are so used to seeing children presented as monsters in horror films like Case 39, or Orphan, or Children of the Corn and so many others, that the fear has become integrated into our society. So I'm going to stick to my belief that Case 39 is a deconstruction of this fear.
(Nick Schuler is a freshman at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. He is majoring in film studies. )
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Voice in the Dark (theater)
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Case 39 is the perfect example of how to annoy, aggravate, and incense an audience to the point that its members intend to hunt down all involved and reenact the film using the filmmakers as props in the death scenes.
When the selfless, loving, over-worked social worker reached out to a girl in danger, she didn’t know she was reaching out to the danger as well. Case 39 is the perfect example of how to annoy, aggravate, and incense an audience to the point that its members intend to hunt down all involved and reenact the film using the filmmakers as props in the death scenes.
Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) is juggling the cases of thirty-eight families when her boss Wayne (Adrian Lester) dumps a thirty-ninth case on her. Someone suspects that Lilith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland), the only child in the Sullivan family, is being abused by her parents Edward (Callum Keith Rennie) and Margaret (Kerry O’Malley). Emily finds reason to remove the child. Not finding a suitable placement, she brings Lillith into her home. She doesn’t know she isn’t just bringing a little girl but a big problem.
Case 39 succeeds only in its ability to be a complete and utter failure. Not a single aspect of this flick fails to fail: it would be generous to call the writing sub par (the writers could not even be bothered to get the basic facts about foster care correct); the acting is as flat as a pancake run over with a steam roller; the directing may have been done by a baby chimp; and the excellence of the visuals would not even register if measured molecularly.
The dialogue, the plot, and the character interactions seeped such idiocy they could have made an owl roll his eyes. The movie could only be fixed by complete, merciless abandonment, like a puppy left in a box on a freeway divide. I wondered if I could do a better job writing the outline of a plot if I used the Firefox extension StumbleUpon (a program that selects a new website for you to visit based on your predetermined interests) as the direct feeder of plot points, so I decided to experimentally do so. My hypothesis was that StumbleUpon would produce a plot of higher caliber that would be more interesting the average moviegoer. My StumbleUpon plot would go something like this: Amazing domino video for restless legs showed this cat who is going to fuck somebody up as naked women sit in front of a window and discover the web as they go . Case 39 ’s plot: Selfless social worker in Oregon is distrustful of abusive parents when demon child should have been the true focus of distrust. I believe if anyone recreated this experiment, they would come up with the same conclusion: StumbleUpon produces better, more interesting plots than Case 39 ’s writer Ray Wright.
Until I see the results of genetic testing indicating otherwise, I will stay convinced that Christian Alvart, director of Case 39 , is a chimpanzee or other hairy primate. It is the only conclusion that I can draw based on the quality of his direction, especially when it comes to acting and visuals.
Keeping “pace” with Wright is the acting team, captained by Renée Zellweger. Zellweger’s acting efforts extend to ten percent of her face. The rest of her either couldn’t be bothered to show up to work, or Zellweger couldn’t be bothered to do anything with it. For some reason Zellweger thought acting only using her lips was sufficient. By lips I don’t mean voice, tone, verbal expression; I mean just lips. She presses them together, smiles with them, and pulls them apart, but because they do not seem connected to the rest of her face or her body language, this comes across a minimalist effort. Zellweger is just the queen bee of this thespian nest. Except for Jodelle Ferland, who was sufficiently “creepifying” and shiver-inducing, the acting team was just varying levels of horrendous.
The only saving grace for the actors was the shoddy and nearly unintelligible camera work. The shots bounced and jiggled like a Jell-o cube on the stomach of a sumo wrestler. Actually, that is not really fair to sumo wrestlers and Jell-o: both are entertaining and one is delicious (which one is really a matter of personal taste). Case 39 ’s visuals are neither.
I’m sure that people don’t decide to be foster parents based on what they see in movies (at least I hope they don’t). Still, I think it is as important for writers to take as much care to get their facts right about the foster-care system as it would be if they were using medical terminology. It can be appropriate for a movie to stretch the truth a bit, but to ignore the facts of its subject completely brings the validity of the rest of the plot in question. The characters in Case 39 make blatant violations of the law, violations of confidentiality, and violations of ethics. Even those who haven’t spent nearly fifteen years of their lives in or advocating in the foster-care system would know that some of the actions of the child welfare professionals portrayed in this movie are complete and utter hogwash.
The topping on the cake of this failed movie is its vague and frustrating demonology. The ending, in which the demon is revealed physically, is the perfect exemplification of the entire movie: only one area is clear, and the audience is excluded from everything else.
If the lack of acting, plot, and visual stimulation are not enough to turn viewers off, it will become perfectly clear at the movie’s end why removing one’s cuticles is a better decision than seeing Case 39 .
LaRae Meadows
LaRae Meadows is bent on investigating important topics, contorting herself to discover new views, and sharing her discoveries. Her dangerous lack of self-preservation makes writing on controversial topics fun for her. She has a background in legislative and policy advocacy for foster children in California and owns a small business.
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Alex Murdaugh trial: What to know about the case of the South Carolina attorney convicted of killing wife and son
By Elizabeth Campbell
March 3, 2023 / 12:08 PM / CBS News
Watch "48 Hours" "The Trial of Alex Murdaugh"
A South Carolina jury has found disgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife and son at their country estate in 2021.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours Thursday before returning the four guilty verdicts in connection with the murders of Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh. Alex Murdaugh was also found guilty on two counts of possession of a weapon during a crime.
He was sentenced Friday to life in prison .
Here's what to know about case and the 28-day trial leading up to the verdict.
Who is Alex Murdaugh?
Alex Murdaugh is a former law partner at P.M.P.E.D. law firm — where the "M" was for Murdaugh (the firm has since been renamed), as his great-grandfather was its founder. The 64-year-old graduate of the University of South Carolina's law school was part of his family's legal powerhouse, which goes back generations in South Carolina's Lowcountry region. A portrait of Murdaugh's late grandfather once hung in the very courtroom where Murdaugh's trial is taking place, but was removed by order of the judge for this trial. Most of his legal work was as a personal injury lawyer until he was forced out of the firm and then disbarred in July last year.
Murdaugh has been in jail at the Richland County Detention Center since October of 2021 as he was unable to post his multimillion-dollar bond. During the trial, he was able to see his surviving son Buster, 26, who attended each day along with Murdaugh's siblings most days.
Murdaugh faces a number of other accusations that are not part of this murder trial — including allegedly arranging his own death for an insurance payout. He faces nearly 100 charges against him for various financial crimes , including fraud, money laundering , tax evasion and forgery. He admitted to many of these crimes on the stand in this trial but legal proceedings on the other charges won't continue until after the conclusion of the murder trial.
What happened the night of the Murdaugh murders?
Shortly after 10 p.m. on June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 from his property in Islandton, South Carolina, to report that he had found his 22-year-old son Paul and his wife Maggie, 52, murdered.
"I need the police and an ambulance immediately. My wife and son were just shot badly," Murdaugh told emergency dispatch on the road.
He said he found the pair out near kennels on the more than 1,700-acre property and checked both of them to see if they were breathing. When officers arrived on the scene they reported finding both Paul's and Maggie's bodies in pools of their own blood.
"Any reasonable person would have assumed they were dead," first responding officer Sgt. Daniel Greene testified.
Greene's body camera footage of the night shows that Murdaugh was quick to offer Greene an explanation for why this might have happened. "This is a long story, months back he was in a boat crash, my son has been getting threats, mostly beginning stuff, but he's been getting punched," Murdaugh says on the video.
That is a reference to a 2019 boat crash that killed South Carolina teen Mallory Beach . Paul Murdaugh was allegedly driving the boat the night of the fatal crash and the Murdaugh family was being sued by a group of the other passengers on the boat.
What was the prosecution's argument?
The state's team of prosecutors, led by Creighton Waters, painted a picture of a desperate Alex Murdaugh. They argue that the numerous pressures upon Murdaugh for his decades of alleged financial crimes created a perfect storm that led him to kill Paul and Maggie in order to obtain sympathy and end investigations into the money he's accused of stealing .
"We couldn't bring you any eyewitnesses because they were murdered," Waters said in his closing statement. "But common sense and human nature can speak on behalf of Maggie and Paul. Look at this in its totality."
The state's main points of evidence include a video taken by Paul minutes before he died on which multiple witnesses testified to hearing Alex Murdaugh's voice — despite Murdaugh claiming he was never at the kennels that night. Neither Paul nor Maggie showed any defensive wounds on them despite being shot at close range. A Snapchat video also taken by Paul shows Alex Murdaugh wearing a different set of clothes than the ones he was wearing when police found him on the night of the murders. The earlier set of clothes has never been found and the later set was "freshly laundered," as one witness testified, with no blood on them — even though Murdaugh claimed he checked the bodies of both Paul and Maggie for signs of life.
The prosecution's argument also hinged on making the jury believe Murdaugh was desperate, and a liar who lied to cover his tracks in the murder.
"People lie because they knew they did something wrong … and just like always, when confronted with evidence he can't deny, he backtracks and pivots and tells another new lie … the one thing you know is a constant is he is lying to them," Waters said in his closing.
The prosecution is not seeking the death penalty but instead asking for life in prison without parole if convicted.
"On behalf of the state of South Carolina, I ask you to return a guilty verdict against Alex Murdaugh for the murder of his son Paul and his wife Maggie and his possession of firearms during this malicious crime," Waters asked the jury.
How did the defense approach the case?
The defense, led by Richard Harpootlian, argued that Alex Murdaugh is a victim in all of this. They frequently refered to Murdaugh as a family man who deeply loved Paul and Maggie. When asked by the defense, multiple witnesses testified that Alex Muradugh would always pick up the phone if one of them called.
"It's not believable that he executed him an hour after the bonding Snapchat," Harpootlian told the jury.
Video from an officer's interview with Murdaugh on the night of the murders shows his emotional reaction to finding Paul's body.
"That's my boy over there. I can see— [begins to cry] I can see his brain," he told officers.
Harpootlian claims that law enforcement was so convinced of Murdaugh's guilt from the start they ran a sloppy investigation focused only on Murdaugh as a possible suspect. The defense filed multiple motions to try to exclude various pieces of evidence or testimony, ranging from Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes to blood splatter examinations, from the trial and frequently question any law enforcement witnesses about the methods they used.
Murdaugh's attorneys worked to poke holes in the prosecution's case against him. Murdaugh's son Buster testified , and then Murdaugh took the stand in his own defense . In testimony that stretched across two days, he denied hurting his wife and son but did admit to lying during the investigation and to financial impropriety.
"I have lied many times, facts I can't deny," Murdaugh testified. "I would disagree I did all the time but I lied to people who trusted me."
The prosecution finished its cross-examination of him the following day.
The defense also challenged investigators' timeline of the night of the murders, with attorney Jim Griffin saying, "he'd have to be a magician to make all that evidence disappear," in the 17-minute window proposed by the prosecution.
"He's got no blood on him. He's acting normal as every day. He is the same old Alex. Yet their theory is he just blew the people he loved the most in the world, blew them away," Griffin said.
The defense offered a counter-theory that the two guns were fired by two shooters. Criminals, they argue, are still missing because of a biased investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, known as SLED.
What was going on with the jury?
The original jury from rural Colleton County consisted of 12 members and 6 alternates but by the end was down to only one alternate after several were dismissed for medical reasons and one was dismissed for discussing the case — a direct violation of the judge's order.
The dismissal came a day after the jury visited Moselle , the Murdaugh's sprawling hunting estate and the scene of the crime. Jurors were able to see the distance between the house and the kennels and shed, where Maggie and Paul were killed, and the size of the shed.
During closing arguments, Waters asked the jury to rewatch the police interviews. The jury — five women and seven men — was under no obligation to do so but they did have access to all of the evidence for review.
In the end, they took less than three hours to reach a unanimous verdict of guilty on all counts.
CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman said it was "shocking" that the jury made a decision so quickly. Jurors also did not ask to have any testimony re-read or see any evidence again.
"It was one thing for them to come to a rather quick decision, meaning a day or two, if they were going to find Alex Murdaugh guilty," Klieman said. "It's another thing to come to the decision within three hours."
What happens next?
While the judge in the case dismissed the defense's motion for a mistrial, saying the "evidence of guilt is overwhelming," the defense team may choose to appeal, Klieman said.
"The defense may have grounds for an appeal on a variety of legal issues, but this was also a case that was very, very well tried on both sides," she said.
This article has been updated to correct the spelling of attorney Richard Harpootlian's name.
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Where is Buster Murdaugh, son of Alex Murdaugh, now?
Buster Murdaugh seen for first time since father’s conviction
The stunning downfall of Alex Murdaugh , the disgraced former South Carolina lawyer and convicted killer, was capped Friday, March 3, when he was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife and youngest son.
His oldest son, Buster Murdaugh, sat silently behind his father for weeks as dozens of witnesses gave their testimonies, and put his head in his hands when the jury's verdict was read on March 2.
Buster not only made an appearance on the witness stand, but he is mentioned several times in the Netflix documentary, "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal," which charts his father's fall from grace as the scion of a multi-generational South Carolina legal dynasty to a man facing nearly 100 criminal charges.
Before Alex Murdaugh was disbarred by the South Carolina Supreme Court in July 2022, he was a personal injury attorney. The South Carolina Attorney General's Office alleges Alex Murdaugh stole nearly $8.5 million from his clients at his law firm over 11 years, accounting for 99 charges across more than a dozen indictments. He acknowledged fraud in during his testimony.
Alex Murdaugh's father, grandfather and great-grandfather all held positions as top prosecutors in the southern part of the state, giving the family large power over several counties in South Carolina for almost a century.
While Buster Murdaugh doesn’t appear in the documentary and declined to comment for the series, viewers of the show and the trial may be curious to know Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son.
More about the Murdaugh trial
- Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison for murders of wife and son
- Where is Alex Murdaugh from Netflix's 'Murdaugh Murders' now?
- Alex Murdaugh’s surviving son speaks publicly for first time about murders of mother and brother
Buster was in law school
Buster Murdaugh graduated from Wofford College in 2018, according to his Instagram bio, and appeared to be following in his family's footsteps by enrolling at the University of South Carolina School of Law.
However, by spring 2021, he had been kicked out of law school for plagiarizing, according to court documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal .
The Post and Courier, a local South Carolina newspaper, obtained jailhouse phone calls from Alex Murdaugh, in which he said the Murdaugh family had paid a well-connected lawyer about $60,000 to secure Buster Murdaugh's re-admittance to the school.
In a phone call published by The State , Buster Murdaugh speaks to his father about the efforts the lawyer, Butch Bowers, had gone to: “He was supposed to be getting in touch with (William) Hubbard (Dean of the University of South Carolina School of Law), and Hubbard had to run it by admissions to be able to set the record clean.”
“You need to get ready for this law school, now OK,” Alex Murdaugh told his son in a later phone call recorded from the prison, and published by the Post and Courier. “I mean, you’ve got to really buckle down. You’ve got to treat it like a job. You’re going to have to read these cases two and three times if you don’t fully understand them.” He added, “Because you know there’s not going to be another chance.”
But Jim Griffin, an attorney for Alex Murdaugh, told the Post and Courier in September 2022 the university and Buster Murdaugh had come to an agreement that he wouldn't yet return to school.
"He has put his desire to go to law school on hold for now," Griffin said. "There is no plan for him to start school in the fall or in the spring."
His connection to 2019 boat crash
As depicted in "Murdaugh Murders," Buster Murdaugh's younger brother Paul Murdaugh was facing three felony counts of boating under the influence at the time of his death stemming from a boat crash on Feb. 23, 2019.
On the night of the crash, then 19-year-old Paul Murdaugh took his family’s boat out for a night of partying on the Beaufort River. Before getting into the boat, Paul Murdaugh used his older's ID to purchase alcohol for the night, as shown in footage played during the first episode of "Murdaugh Murders."
Survivors of the boat crash said in the documentary Paul Murdaugh was steering the boat when it crashed into a bridge, ejecting 19-year-old Mallory Beach from the vessel.
It took investigators eight days to find Beach's body, NBC reported in a 2022 "Dateline" episode .
The charges against Paul Murdaugh were dropped in August 2021 after the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office received his death certificate, NBC affiliate WSAV reported , and a settlement was reached between Beach’s parents, other survivors of the crash and two of Murdaugh’s family members in January 2023, according to court documents published by NBC affiliate WTOC .
"Murdaugh Murders" also mentions the mysterious 2015 death of Buster Murdaugh's friend from high school, Stephen Smith, which remains unsolved. Investigators reopened the case into Smith's death after the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, S.C. Law Enforcement Division spokesperson Tommy Crosby said in a June 2021 statement.
His connection to Alex Murdaugh's botched murder-for-hire plot
Alex Murdaugh made national headlines on Sept. 4, 2021, just months after the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, when he was found with a gunshot wound to the head in Hampton County, South Carolina, NBC News reported .
Murdaugh's attorney Jim Griffin told news outlets at the time Murdaugh had pulled over after his vehicle got a flat tire, and then a person inside a pickup truck passed by and opened fire.
Authorities described Murdaugh‘s injury as a "superficial" head wound on Sept. 5, and said he was expected to recover, NBC News reported .
But by Sept. 14, authorities had different version of events: Murdaugh allegedly arranged for his former client, Curtis Edward Smith, to kill him so that Buster Murdaugh could collect on his $10 million life insurance policy, NBC News reported .
Dick Harpootlian, one of Murdaugh’s attorneys, said on TODAY on Sept. 15 his client’s addiction to opioids led him to create the plot to have a Curtis kill him so Buster Murdaugh could make a claim his life insurance policy.
Murdaugh turned himself in to authorities on Sept. 16 after he was charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report, NBC News reported .
Buster testified in his father's defense
Buster Murdaugh was the first witness the defense called to the stand , and he testified on Feb. 21 his father was barely able to speak the first time he saw him after the killings.
"He was destroyed, heartbroken," Buster Murdaugh told jurors.
He also spoke of their loving, "close-knit" family, which caused Alex Murdaugh to break down in tears several times during the testimony.
Alex Murdaugh was convicted of killing Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on March 2, and was sentenced to two life terms to be served consecutively — the maximum penalty — on March 3.
Buster Murdaugh put his head in his hands after the jury's verdict was read, and was seen hugging people in the courtroom after Judge Clifton Newman announced his father's sentence of life in prison .
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What’s next for alex murdaugh about 100 fraud charges and a coming appeal.
Alex Murdaugh will spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of murdering his wife and son, but his days in court are far from over.
Murdaugh, the 54-year-old disbarred attorney, is still charged with 99 counts of embezzlement, computer crime, money laundering, conspiracy and more for what prosecutors say was a wide-ranging scheme to bilk his law firm, clients and the government out of about $9.3 million.
He further faces several charges in a September 2021 shooting, in which he allegedly arranged for a man to kill him so that his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect a life insurance payout.
In addition, an appeal on his murder conviction is ahead, particularly around the question of whether the judge was too permissive in allowing evidence of his past financial wrongdoing and lies.
And there is also a reopened investigation into the death of his longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
For now, though, Murdaugh will be behind bars. He is being held at the Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, according to inmate records . He will begin intake and evaluation processing, which generally lasts about 45 days, according to the South Carolina Attorney General’s office.
Here’s what’s ahead for the former attorney.
Murdaugh faces over 100 other charges
Even with the murder convictions, prosecutor Creighton Waters told CNN he still plans to aggressively pursue what he called the “white collar” charges against Murdaugh.
In a separate case that has not yet gone to trial, Murdaugh has been indicted on 99 charges in six different counties for allegedly defrauding victims of $8.8 million and the state of about $490,000, according to the state attorney general’s office .
According to CNN’s tally, the charges are made up of 32 counts of embezzlement, 21 counts of computer crime, 14 counts of money laundering, 11 counts of obtaining signature or property by false pretenses, nine counts of tax evasion, seven counts of conspiracy, three counts of false statement or misrepresentation and two counts of forgery.
Alex Murdaugh's risky testimony ultimately brought him down
The allegations include brazen schemes to defraud his clients and partners at his namesake law firm. As just one example, he is accused of stealing at least $1 million from the family of a client, Hakeem Pinckney, who was severely injured when a tire tread on the car he was riding in came off, causing the car to overturn. Pinckney’s family hired Murdaugh to sue the tire company, and Murdaugh claimed the winnings as his own, according to the indictment .
During his testimony in his murder trial, Murdaugh admitted to stealing from clients and the firm.
“I took money that was not mine and I shouldn’t have done it,” he testified. “I hate the fact that I did it. I’m embarrassed by it. I’m embarrassed for my son. I’m embarrassed for my family.”
Murdaugh is additionally charged with conspiracy, false claim for payment and filing a false police report in the alleged botched suicide plot on September 4, 2021.
In the bizarre incident, Murdaugh was shot in the head on the side of a road a day after he was forced to resign from his law firm. He initially told police an unknown man shot him, but he later admitted he conspired with a former client to kill him as part of a fraud scheme so that his only surviving son could collect a life insurance payout, according to the indictment .
Murdaugh has not entered a plea on the charges, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office told CNN last month.
Appeal likely to focus on financial evidence
Murdaugh’s defense attorneys said they plan to file a notice of intention to appeal the murder convictions within 10 days.
Murdaugh maintained his innocence throughout the trial and at his sentencing. “I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son Paul,” he told the judge at sentencing.
An appeal would likely focus on the question of whether Judge Clifton Newman ruled appropriately in allowing the prosecution to present evidence about Murdaugh’s extensive financial wrongdoing.
Prosecutors said investigations into that wrongdoing were the motive for the murders and were relevant to this case. However, the defense argued the fraud accusations were not relevant to the killings and were unfair to Murdaugh.
Newman sided with the prosecution and ruled that the financial evidence was “so intimately connected” with the explanation of the state’s theory “that proof of it is essential to complete the story.” After that ruling, prosecutors spent more than two weeks going over Murdaugh’s extensive financial crimes and lies to those around him.
The fall of the prominent Murdaugh family: A timeline of deaths, alleged embezzlement and an insurance scam
Prior to deliberations, Newman instructed the jury to only consider the evidence of financial crimes insofar as it fit the motive, but not as to how it reflected on Murdaugh.
Defense attorneys said they were skeptical jurors followed that.
“Once they got that character information – ‘he’s a thief, he’s a liar’ – then this jury had to think that he’s a despicable human being and not be believed,” defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said. “So it was about character, it wasn’t about motive.”
He added in an interview with CNN: “Human nature is human nature and after you’ve listened two and a half weeks about what a monster he is … you’re not going to be inclined to come to his defense.”
Fellow defense attorney Jim Griffin said the evidence of financial wrongdoing, which Murdaugh was “obviously guilty of,” also impacted the seriousness of deliberations.
“The weight of their decision is just not as great under that situation because the guy’s going to jail, the guy has been in jail, so is the outcome of our decision going to be life changing for him? No,” Griffin said. “I think that was a problem in the jury deliberations. That’s why it did not get as serious a deliberation as we expected.”
Waters, the prosecutor, told CNN he was confident the judge appropriately weighed the issues.
“I’m certainly not going to speak for the state Supreme Court, but Judge Newman considered all of that and issued a very detailed and well-thought-out ruling, so we’re confident that will be upheld,” he said.
Gloria Satterfield death investigation
Satterfield, a longtime housekeeper for the Murdaugh family, died in 2018 in what was described as a “trip and fall accident” at the Murdaugh home, according to attorney Eric Bland, who is representing her estate.
But there are questions about the nature of her death.
In June 2022 , South Carolina law enforcement officials announced they sought and received permission to exhume her remains. The exhumation stems from a Hampton County coroner’s request that led to the state law enforcement division opening a criminal investigation into Satterfield’s death.
“The decedent’s death was not reported to the Coroner at the time, nor was an autopsy performed. On the death certificate the manner of death was ruled ‘Natural,’ which is inconsistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident,” the coroner’s request to the law enforcement division said.
Relatedly, Murdaugh was arrested in October 2021 on a warrant for allegedly misappropriating funds meant for the Satterfield family. In December of that year, he agreed to a $4.3 million settlement with her family, according to family attorney, Eric Bland.
CNN’s Randi Kaye, Dianne Gallagher, Dakin Andone, Alta Spells and Aditi Sangal contributed to this report.
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What’s next for Alex Murdaugh after guilty trial verdict and life prison sentence?
Whatever the verdict had been in the murder case, murdaugh was never walking out of court a free man, article bookmarked.
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Disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh will spend the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of the brutal murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
The once-powerful attorney was convicted of two counts of murder and two weapons charges after a dramatic six-week “trial of the century” inside the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina .
Jurors took less than three hours to reach the verdict after hearing how he had gunned down his wife Maggie and son Paul on the family’s sprawling 1,700-acre Moselle estate in Islandton, South Carolina, back on 7 June 2021. He continued to claim his innocence as he received two consecutive life sentences on 3 March.
But this is far from the end of the scandals, criminal cases and unanswered questions surrounding Murdaugh.
Whatever the verdict had been in the murder case, Murdaugh was never walking out of court a free man, as he is being held on bond on more than 100 charges in cases including a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme and a botched hitman plot.
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Here’s what’s next for the disgraced attorney:
A new prison cell
Murdaugh was handed two consecutive life terms at his sentencing on 3 March, hours after the guilty verdict came down. The sentence will be served at one of the state’s seven maximum security prisons, which only house violent criminals.
Upon leaving the court, he was to be handed over to the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDOC) and taken to the Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia.
All male inmates are originally taken to this facility after sentencing, which is one of the state’s maximum security prisons.
Once there, he is expected to have a two-month evaluation including mental and physical health checks.
This evaluation – together with the inmate classification system – will be used to determine which of South Carolina’s highest-security prisons Murdaugh will be sent to spend the duration of his sentence.
The evaluation process takes about 45 days, the SCDOC said in a statement following Murdaugh’s sentencing.
700 years for financial crimes
Separate to the murder case, Murdaugh is facing a staggering 99 charges from 19 separate indictments for a string of financial fraud schemes.
He is accused of stealing at least $8.7m from settlements from dozens of legal clients he represented through his law firm PMPED.
Part of the plots involved Murdaugh negotiating wrongful death and other settlements for his clients and then stealing the money for himself, according to prosecutors.
The alleged schemes date back as far as 2011 but were on the brink of being exposed at the time of the murders.
Alex Murdaugh, centre, is handcuffed in the courtroom after a guilty verdict of his double murder trial was read aloud at Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina
During his trial, prosecutors said that Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from his financial crimes.
Among the slew of charges are counts of: fraud, attempted tax evasion, money laundering, embezzlement, obtaining signature or property by false pretenses, forgery, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
But, in court during his murder trial, he confessed under oath to stealing from PMPED and at least 18 law firm clients.
Among the victims are the family of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family housekeeper who died in a mysterious trip and fall death back in 2018.
He faces up to 700 years in prison on these financial fraud charges.
Charges over botched hitman plot
Murdaugh is also facing charges over a bizarre September 2021 botched hitman plot.
On 4 September 2021 – three months on from the murders and one day after he was ousted from his law firm for stealing funds – Murdaugh was shot on the side of a road in Hampton County.
He survived and called 911, claiming he was ambushed in a drive-by shooting while changing a tire on his vehicle.
He was treated at a hospital for what police called a “superficial gunshot wound to the head,” but his story quickly unravelled.
Curtis Eddie Smith appears in court on charges related to Murdaugh
Mr Murdaugh’s version of events rapidly fell apart and he confessed to asking Curtis Eddie Smith to shoot and kill him in an assisted suicide plot so that his surviving son Buster could get a $12m life insurance windfall.
Mr Smith, 62, is Mr Murdaugh’s alleged drug dealer, distant cousin and former law firm client.
Both men were arrested and charged over the incident and are currently awaiting trial on the charges.
They were both later hit with fresh charges of narcotics and criminal conspiracy over an alleged drug and $2.4m money laundering ring.
Investigation into Gloria Satterfield’s death
An investigation is still ongoing into the death of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family’s housekeeper of two decades who died in a mysterious trip and fall death at the Moselle estate.
Satterfield worked for the influential Murdaugh family for more than 20 years when she was found at the bottom of the steps leading up to the family’s home. She died weeks later from her injuries.
At the time, her death was regarded as an accidental fall – though her death certificate cited her manner of death as “natural” and no autopsy was performed.
Gloria Satterfield died in a ‘trip and fall’ at the Murdaugh home in 2018
After her death, Murdaugh reached an agreement to pay her family $4m in a wrongful death settlement – but then allegedly stole the money as part of his fraud scheme.
On 15 September 2021, days after Murdaugh’s crime schemes were exposed, SLED announced it was reopening an investigation into Satterfield’s death.
In early 2022, officials announced plans to exhume her body.
It is not clear what evidence may have led investigators to do so – or where the investigation may be headed.
Investigation into Stephen Smith death
SLED has reopened an investigation into another mystery death with a tie to the Murdaugh family.
Stephen Smith, 19, was found dead in the middle of a road in Hampton County back in 2015.
He had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his car was left down the road.
His death was officially ruled a hit-and-run but the victim’s family – and investigators who worked on the initial case – have long doubted this version of events.
There have long been murmurings in the community that a “Murdaugh boy” may have been involved and the Murdaugh name came up 40 times in documents in the initial case, reported Live5News.
Just days after the murders of Maggie and Paul, SLED announced that the investigation into their murders had led them to reopen an investigation into Smith’s death.
It is not clear what may have prompted the launch of that investigation.
In January 2023, SLED said it had “made progress” in the case but no other details have been released.
Mounting lawsuits
Murdaugh is also facing a growing number of lawsuits from victims of his financial fraud schemes as well as survivors on a 2019 boat crash.
In February 2019, Paul was allegedly drunk driving a boat when he crashed it, throwing his friend Mallory Beach to her death.
He was charged with boating under the influence and faced up to 25 years in prison but was killed before his trial.
Mallory Beach was killed in the 2019 boat crash
Murdaugh was also sued by the Beach family – with the lawsuit coming to a head at the time of Maggie and Paul’s murders.
That lawsuit was settled days before the murder trial but other passengers in that wreck have also filed lawsuits accusing him of enabling Paul’s drinking or meddling in the law enforcement investigation.
Several law firm clients – who were swindled out of settlement money – are also suing him.
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New jury gives 2010 Ruskin ice cream man murder case a second look
- Dan Sullivan Times staff
TAMPA — If you believe the state of Florida, Michael Keetley was so intent on revenge after he was robbed and shot in his ice cream truck that he posed as a cop and toted a gun to a Ruskin neighborhood and shot six innocent men, killing two on Thanksgiving morning 2010.
If you believe Keetley’s defense, he is a victim of circumstance, a man whose physical disabilities prevented him from committing such violence and a man who ended up wrongfully accused based on a hodgepodge of imprecise evidence and fuzzy recollections.
It’s a tale that’s been told often in Tampa’s courthouse. On Monday, it was told once again.
Keetley’s second murder trial opened Monday morning, three years after his first jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of finding him not guilty, and almost 13 years since he was first accused in the bizarre shooting that claimed the lives of brothers Juan and Sergio Guitron.
In opening statements, a prosecutor and a defense attorney, both new since the last trial, reiterated their respective takes on the long-running, complex case.
“Obsessing about revenge,” said Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Johnson. “That’s what this case is about.”
“Michael Keetley is not guilty because he did not do it,” said defense attorney John Grant. “He did not do it, because he could not do it.”
The attorneys each touched on the events that preceded the killings. In January 2010, Keetley was working south Hillsborough County in his ice cream truck when a woman flagged him down and two men accosted him with guns after he stopped. They shot him in his leg, chest, arm and hand. They took $12.
In the months that followed, Keetley endured repeated surgeries. Confined to his parents’ home in Wimauma, he needed help to complete basic tasks like eating and cleaning himself. Shattered bones and nerve damage in his hand made it difficult for him to grip objects. He walked with a limp.
He became frustrated with what he saw as a lack of progress in the Hillsborough sheriff’s investigation of the robbery and shooting.
So he conducted his own investigation, the prosecutor said. He talked to people. He wrote down names.
He became convinced that a man who went by the name Creeper was somehow involved, Johnson said. The man lived on a short looping street in Ruskin called Ocean Mist Court.
It was there, down the street, that a group of men sat on a porch early Thanksgiving morning, playing cards, drinking, smoking marijuana. Some had also snorted cocaine.
They would later tell of a dark minivan that pulled up after 2 a.m. The driver emerged wearing a shirt emblazoned with the word “sheriff,” and holding what the men later described as a pump-action shotgun. He asked for Creeper, demanded their identification, made them all get down. Then, one by one, he shot them.
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The Guitron brothers died. Four other men were shot but survived.
In the hours and days that followed, the men would give different descriptions of the shooter. One witness said he stood more than 6 feet tall, with his estimated weight at over 250 pounds, bigger than Keetley.
Grant, the defense attorney, said Keetley’s injuries would have made him incapable of gripping a gun. He also noted that the surviving victims did not mention anything about the shooter walking with a limp. Nor did the witnesses mention that it was the ice cream man, whom they had seen previously selling frozen treats in the neighborhood.
It was only after a text message bearing a picture of Keetley and accusing him of the shooting circulated among many friends of the victims that word began to spread that he was the man responsible.
“A cascade of unreliability and suggestiveness begins,” Grant said.
The text had spread widely by the time one surviving victim was shown a photo lineup and fingered Keetley’s image.
As in the previous trial, the defense talked about how quickly the shooting happened, how dark the location was. An expert in eyewitness identification is expected to testify.
Then there are the ballistics. Shell casings and projectiles found at the crime scene were determined to have been fired from a Glock handgun. The witnesses described the shooter wielding a pump-action shotgun. A spent casing that investigators later found in a search of Keetley’s parents’ property, and other casings provided by a couple who said they’re fired guns there with him, were determined to have been fired from the same weapon. But there are inconsistencies. And the actual murder weapon was never found.
The state is expected to argue that Keetley could have attached an aftermarket barrel to a handgun to make it look like a shotgun. The defense says there’s no evidence he had any such barrel.
“We’re going to challenge every bit of the state’s evidence,” Grant said.
Other circumstances implicated Keetley. Witnesses are expected to testify that he cleaned his parents’ minivan and had it painted a day after the shooting. And a notebook investigators found in his home had the name “Creeper” written in its pages and an address on Ocean Mist Court.
Keetley’s legal odyssey was prolonged in its early years by questions over who would represent him, and the sheer number of witnesses and the amount of evidence his defense had to scrutinize.
When the first jury deadlocked in February 2020, a mistrial was declared. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, and a statewide shutdown of in-person court proceedings, which lasted months.
In the interim, Keetley’s longtime defense lawyer, Lyann Goudie, became a Hillsborough Circuit Judge. The attorney who initially inherited his case died unexpectedly. New lawyers needed time to become familiar with a case that was by then a decade old.
The new trial features an almost entirely new slate of attorneys. Richard Escobar, perhaps most recognizable for shepherding the acquittal of Curtis Reeves in the Pasco County movie theater shooting case, leads the new defense team.
Keetley sat with them Monday, his hair noticeably grayer. A collection of thick binders packed a cart and two spectator rows behind him, the record of a case that has churned through the court more than a decade.
The trial is expected to last as long as three weeks.
Courts Reporter
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Fox News stands in legal peril. It says defamation loss would harm all media
David Folkenflik
Posters bearing the images of Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, from left, adorn the front of Fox Corp.'s headquarters in New York City. The stars' panic as viewers fled after the 2020 elections has become a core element of a $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption
Posters bearing the images of Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, from left, adorn the front of Fox Corp.'s headquarters in New York City. The stars' panic as viewers fled after the 2020 elections has become a core element of a $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox.
Outside legal observers say the Fox News Channel finds itself in real legal jeopardy in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by an election tech company over lies broadcast about the 2020 presidential race.
The amount and weight of evidence is perhaps without equal among other major, recent defamation cases.
"How often do you get 'smoking gun' emails that show, first, that persons responsible for the editorial content knew that the accusation was false, and also convincing emails that show the reason Fox reported this was for its own mercenary interests?" says Rutgers University law professor Ronald Chen, an authority on constitutional and media law.
Fox News has endured one humiliation after another from the rolling revelations in the case brought by Dominion Voting Systems. Private communications made public in legal filings demonstrate the network's producers, stars and executives — even controlling owner Rupert Murdoch — knew the claims they were broadcasting were false, and at times unhinged. A trial in the case is slated for next month.
Fox attorney: "We don't suppress the speech that we don't think is right"
Fox's legal team is grounding much of its defense in a claim that it was merely reporting allegations by the most newsworthy public official of all, then-President Donald Trump.
"We err on the side of speech because the more and more speech you have, the better chance of having people actually getting the opportunity to point out what's right and what's wrong," attorney Erin Murphy , one of the senior figures on Fox's defense team, tells NPR in an interview. "And that's why we don't suppress the speech that we don't think is right."
A loss for Fox would make it harder for all journalists to serve the public, she says.
Off the air, Fox News stars blasted the election fraud claims they peddled
"At the end of the day, it's going to hinder the ultimate objective of the First Amendment, of getting to the truth," Murphy argues.
The case may serve as a test for the elasticity of that argument.
Dominion alleges great reputational harm from false accusations
Fox News was the first major television outlet to project that then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden would win Arizona on election night 2020, which all but put victory out of Trump's reach. Dominion has alleged that Fox embraced the conspiracy theories about election fraud to try to make up for angering millions of pro-Trump viewers with the Arizona call. Many peeled away to other right-wing outlets.
In the ensuing weeks, Fox repeatedly invited Trump ally and attorney Sidney Powell on its programs to allege Dominion's voting systems had switched votes from Trump to Biden. Yet Fox hosts and executives privately dismissed her as unreliable and unhinged. Powell had shared with hosts Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo a memo to justify her allegations. Even the memo's author called the claims "pretty wackadoodle."
The 'wackadoodle' foundation of Fox News' election-fraud claims
Top executives, including Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, told one another they could not bluntly confront their viewers with the facts because that could alienate them further.
Dominion says the baseless claims of fraud have destroyed its reputation for electoral integrity with much of the voting public.
"To simply say Fox is a bunch of liars ... is a slippery slope"
Even with that record, set out with voluminous documentation, some media lawyers say Fox's attorneys may be right in predicting that a loss would constrict the media's freedoms.
"No matter how much I might personally deplore what Fox is alleged to have done, I worry a lot more about the longer term-ramifications," says University of Minnesota media law professor Jane Kirtley, a former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
"To simply say Fox is a bunch of liars — that they shouldn't be allowed to get away with this and their wild speculations should not be reported and should not be protected — I just think that that is a slippery slope," says Kirtley.
Consider This from NPR
The dominion lawsuit pulls back the curtain on fox news. it's not pretty..
Were Fox to lose, "there would be a scramble by other news organizations to distance themselves from Fox's techniques and Fox's editorial decisions," Kirtley says. "But the problem is that by lifting the veil on the editorial decision-making process, we are now going to see all news organizations called into question going forward." She says she believes such a verdict finding Fox liable for defamation would encourage more such cases.
Dominion's legal team shared a statement stating that the voting tech company believes in the First Amendment and its protections, but that Fox crossed a line after the 2020 election: "As long-settled law makes clear, the First Amendment does not shield broadcasters that knowingly or recklessly spread lies."
It's hard for plaintiffs to win defamation suits but that could change
Media outlets rarely lose defamation cases in court. Under a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the New York Times , plaintiffs have to prove the claims made about them were false and damaging to their reputation. Additionally, they have to prove that those making the statements in question either knew the assertions were untrue or had good reason to know they were untrue, and willfully ignored that information. That's known as "actual malice," under the late Justice William Brennan's decision.
Two Supreme Court justices could have a big impact on the freedom of the press
Brennan also argued Americans should have latitude to get some things wrong in talking about public officials and politics, in order to ensure free and robust debate.
Two current Supreme Court justices, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, have indicated they would be open to making it easier for plaintiffs to prevail in defamation suits. A third, Elena Kagan, published her own musings years before she joined the court that the protections for the press might be too strong.
The idea of "actual malice," Murphy says, requires Dominion to prove specific people directly involved with the broadcasts knew the statements they aired were wrong. For instance, Murdoch's sworn statements that he had dismissed the claims of election fraud as bogus, and affirmed under oath that some of his star hosts had nonetheless endorsed them publicly, carries no legal weight, she says.
"Anybody would have to acknowledge that what the president and his lawyers were doing was newsworthy in and of itself, regardless of whether the allegations were ultimately going to be anything they could prove," Murphy says. She invoked what journalists consider the safe ground of "neutral reporting" — just telling their audiences what others are saying.
Law professor: The financial motives to present lies "probably destroy" Fox's defense
In its legal briefs, Fox leans heavily on the idea that news organizations must be allowed to convey allegations by major public figures to their audiences — even wild allegations. Rutgers' Chen says that doesn't hold up if Fox was motivated by profit instead of the newsworthiness of the claims being presented in its programs.
"The fact that there was arguably a motive by Fox to publish these accusations against Dominion based on its own economic interests in retaining Trump viewers would, if believed by the jury, probably destroy that argument," Chen says.
He's not the only legal scholar skeptical of Fox's argument that a loss would ripple through journalism.
"Even if Dominion makes their case and convinces a jury to shovel truckloads of Fox's money to [the election tech company], nothing in this case presents a meaningful threat to the First Amendment," says Charles Glasser, who was global media counsel for Bloomberg News for 14 years and now teaches journalism and media law at New York University. "It really comes down to the facts about how the story was crafted and disseminated."
Rupert Murdoch says Fox stars 'endorsed' lies about 2020. He chose not to stop them
In his sworn responses to questioning from Dominion attorney Justin Nelson , Fox Corp. boss Murdoch acknowledged that four of his star hosts — Dobbs, Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity — had endorsed the baseless claims of election fraud, at least "a bit" in the case of Hannity. He referred to them as commentators. Opinions have even more latitude under case law than straight-ahead reporting. (Dobbs left his post at Fox Business Network a day after a second election tech company, Smartmatic, filed its own $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox. That case is not as far along as Dominion's.)
Yet Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum also were deeply concerned about the loss of viewers and deliberated about how to win them back, evidence uncovered by Dominion's attorneys and separate reporting by the New York Times ' Peter Baker show.
Legendary media lawyer sees Fox News case as "bizarre" exception to the norm
When news outlets do lose defamation cases, they often result in retractions or apologies and settlements while they're still on appeal. The two most prominent defamation cases of recent years resulted in divergent outcomes.
In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine settled separate cases filed by a University of Virginia dean and a campus fraternity after a collapse of standards in reporting on what turned out to be a source's fabricated account of campus rape.
A year ago, the New York Times prevailed against former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin after an editorial wrongly linked her advertisements from her political action committee to a mass shooting months later.
"Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to permit a wholesale inquiry into newsroom decisions as a whole, and also I include ownership as part of that inquiry," James Goodale, the legendary New York Times general counsel who advised the paper to publish the Pentagon Papers, tells NPR in an email. "Newsroom decisions, including ownership decisions as to news judgment, should be protected by the First Amendment."
Libel and defamation cases override such protections, he notes.
"The Dominion case is such a strange case it provides an exception to the general rule," Goodale says. "Let us hope we don't see such a bizarre case as this one again."
- Dominion Voting Systems
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Filipowski Named ACC Rookie Of The Year, Capel Wins Coach Of The Year
Big day for several current and and one former Blue Devil
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ACC honors were announced Friday and to no one’s surprise, Duke’s Kyle Filipowski was named ACC Rookie Of The Year. Filipowski was also named Second Team All-ACC, missing First Team by just four votes.
Dereck Lively made the All-Defensive team as well and Jeremy Roach was Honorable mention All-ACC. Lively and Tyrese Proctor also made the All-Freshman Team.
Former Blue Devil Jeff Capel was named Coach of the Year for the brilliant turnaround he’s engineered at Pitt.
Isaiah Wong was named ACC Player of the Year, beating out Wake’s Tyree Appleby and UNC’s Armando Bacot.
Here are the full lists.
- Isaiah Wong, Miami, 337
- Armando Bacot, North Carolina, 324
- Tyree Appleby, Wake Forest, 319
- Hunter Tyson, Clemson, 271
- Jamarius Burton, Pitt, 262
Second Team
- Kyle Filipowski, Duke, 258
- Terquavion Smith, NC State, 243
- Jarkel Joiner, NC State, 203
- Jordan Miller, Miami, 148
- Blake Hinson, Pitt, 132
- Norchad Omier, Miami, 131
- PJ Hall, Clemson, 126
- Kihei Clark, Virginia, 102
- Jesse Edwards, Syracuse, 54
- Reece Beekman, Virginia, 54
Honorable Mention
- El Ellis, Louisville, 50
- Grant Basile, Virginia Tech, 43
- Judah Mintz, Syracuse, 40
- Jeremy Roach, Duke, 35
- Quinten Post, Boston College, 33
- Jayden Gardner, Virginia, 31
- RJ Davis, North Carolina, 26
- DJ Burns Jr., NC State, 24
- Caleb Love, North Carolina, 21
All-Freshman Team
- Kyle Filipowski, Duke, 75 votes
- Judah Mintz, Syracuse, 72
- Tyrese Proctor, Duke, 51
- JJ Starling, Notre Dame, 39
- Dereck Lively II, Duke, 39
More From Duke Basketball Report
- ACC Tournament Roundup - Day One Predictions
- Tuesday’s ACC Tournament Linkage
- You Tube Gold: Mommy, Has There Always Been One Shining Moment?
- DBR Podcast #497- All-ACC Awards
- So Paolo Banchero Enjoyed Duke’s Win Over UNC Saturday...
- ACC Tournament Links
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I hate how much I enjoy the Remarkable 2’s $199 keyboard case
This case is so expensive, but it works so well i can almost forgive the obscene price..
By Alex Cranz
Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales
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As much as I love E Ink, I struggle to get behind using it as part of a 21st-century typewriter. Devices like the Freewrite are very cool in practice but simply too finicky for me to use as anything more than a gimmick. So I am frankly shocked by how much I like Remarkable’s new keyboard case, the $199 Type Folio.
- The Freewrite Traveler is a retro word processor that’s fatally ahead of its time
- The reMarkable 2 is the latest attempt to turn your paper notepad digital
As the name implies, this is a keyboard case for the Remarkable 2. If you have a Remarkable 2 and it’s fully updated, you can go buy this case, attach it to your E Ink tablet, fold up the keyboard, and start typing. Things work so well, you’ll likely find yourself charmed by the ease of it all. I certainly was. I plopped in my Remarkable 2 and was instantly able to start typing out notes. My tablet was suddenly a very distraction-free E Ink typewriter. I didn’t have to mess with any settings or open some special notebook. I just updated my device and started typing.
The few people in the office the day I set the Type Folio up were impressed as well. When you handle enough gadgets, you grow accustomed to quirks that most consumers would balk at. But the Type Folio doesn’t really have any. The thing just does exactly what it sets out to do — though the way it folds itself around to transform from case to keyboard can feel a little 2014.
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It doesn’t seek to replicate the design of a laptop-like iPad’s Magic Keyboard or the Surface Pro’s Type Cover . You don’t simply open the case, set it down on your lap, and get to typing. Instead, you have to do a little folding like older keyboard cases have required. You flip part of the case back and settle the keyboard into its new home. From there, you’re left with a very stable-feeling device with keys that have quite satisfying travel.
I don’t want to oversell the keyboard, though. It has a lovely layout and feels nice to type on, but it’s still a keyboard case keyboard. It doesn’t feel as good to type on as a Lenovo laptop or whatever mechanical keyboard you might have; it feels exactly like I’d expect a $199 keyboard case to feel.
But as much as I’m delighted by the Type Folio and how well it simply... works, this thing is expensive. It’s $199! That’s $70 more than the $129 Book Folio case and a whopping $120 more than the $79 Folio case. Tacking that onto the MSRP price of the Remarkable 2 means you’re spending $650 on an E Ink tablet that excels at taking notes and uploading them to the cloud and not much else. (The Remarkable 2 is currently on sale for $279, but is $478 for a very good note-taking device much better?) That’s a hard sell for a lot of people.
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But then, people who own the Remarkable 2 aren’t like the rest of you. We love having the fanciest notebook in the world. We delight in showing people how any Wacom stylus can work with our tablet and love to make you write on it so you can marvel at the paper-like feel. We aren’t afraid to spend money to have something really, really nice.
Which is why we do things like get the artificial leather version of the Book Folio, which retails for $169. I’ve never questioned spending that absurd amount of money to protect my Remarkable 2. I cannot explain my bad spending habits, but I can say the $199 Type Folio feels like a deal compared to the obscenely priced $169 leather Book Folio. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably spend the extra $30 for this case. But I’d also kindly ask that no one ever ask me how much I’ve spent to take really good notes. Some things should stay private between a person and their local Best Buy.
The Remarkable Type Folio is available starting today from Remarkable and select retailers. It’s available in ink black and sepia brown and six different keyboard layouts, including US English, UK English, German, Spanish, French, and Nordic (including Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish).
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How a single engineer brought down twitter, microsoft makes outlook for mac free to use, the new google docs and drive ui starts rolling out today, twitter’s links and pictures were broken, but now they’re not.
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Trump seeks to delay New York civil fraud case
He is seeking to delay the case by several months.
Former President Donald Trump is seeking to delay the civil fraud case he faces in New York by several months. This timeframe would push the trial, currently scheduled for October, deeper into the 2024 presidential campaign.
In a recent court filing, Trump's attorneys said the delay they're seeking is "borne of necessity" given the case's complexity and the "staggering volume" of evidence.
"The current schedule makes the preparation of a defense impossible," Trump's attorneys Alina Habba and Clifford Robert wrote. "Fundamental notions of fair play and due process mandate that Defendants are afforded every opportunity to prepare a meaningful defense, rather than to have an impossible schedule forced upon them."
MORE: Donald Trump withdraws lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a $250 million civil lawsuit last September against Trump, his eldest children and his company that alleged they schemed to inflate Trump's net worth and the value of his real estate holdings, duping lenders and insurers into giving the Trump Organization better terms than deserved.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has derided the lawsuit as part of a partisan witch hunt.
James has not formally responded to the new motion but has written previously to the judge opposing delays.
"[T]here is no unfair prejudice to Defendants under the existing schedule and Defendants' claimed hardship is self-inflicted," Assistant Attorney General Colleen Faherty wrote in a letter to the court last month. "In short, Defendants have had ample time and opportunity to familiarize themselves with the matter. Instead, they have waited until the eve of the fact discovery deadline to only just begin their process of conducting discovery to prepare for trial, and now seek more time."
MORE: Trump seeks to bar 'Access Hollywood' tape from defamation trial
Delaying the case would require the approval of Judge Arthur Engoron, who has previously signaled his intention to begin the trial as scheduled on Oct. 2 "come hell or high water," according to a February court filing.
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Sporting News 2022-23 college basketball All-America team
If March is a guard’s game in college basketball, as the great Denny Crum insisted on so many occasions, then all the other months have come to belong to the big fellas.
An era of NBA basketball that has diminished the importance of height at the sport’s highest level has led to more players who are classified as “bigs” now remaining in college for longer and accomplishing more. It has helped that the ability to earn endorsement money has made playing Division I basketball an attractive alternative to chasing minor-league money.
The presence of so many gifted frontcourt players in the college game has led to this phenomenon: Whereas in 2002, The Sporting News All-America team featured four guards and one forward – Jay Williams of Duke, Juan Dixon of Maryland, Steve Logan of Cincinnati and Dan Dickau of Gonzaga along with Drew Gooden of Kansas – this one has not a single guard on the first team and only five guards among the 15 on the three All-America teams.
MORE: Bracket projection as conference tourney week arrives
The blue ribbon panel of voters identified by The Sporting News includes reporters and analysts who closely cover the game across the U.S., from national voices to television analysts to beat reporters assigned to specific teams and leagues. The TSN squad is one of four identified by the NCAA for inclusion in establishment of the annual consensus All-America team.
The members chose only one player this year unanimously: Purdue center Zach Edey, who received a first-team nod from every voter. Kansas’ terrific junior forward Jalen Wilson missed that distinction by a single vote. Wilson forever will be an All-American, though – the fourth for KU in the last six seasons.
Sporting News All-America First team
Zach Edey, Purdue
7-4, 295, Jr. C
Key stats: 22.3 ppg, 12.9 rpg, 2.4 bpg, 61.2 pct. FG
Defining game: 38 points, 13 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 steals in 77-61 victory over Michigan State.
Overview : Edey shared time almost equally last season with veteran Trevion Williams, and he averaged 14.4 points and 7 rebounds in 19 minutes a game. So maybe we all, through the simple magic of mathematics, should have seen this coming. But you try finding any publication or analyst anywhere who suggested Edey would be this season’s dominant player. It began with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting against eventual Big East champion Marquette and continued as the Boilers won 21 of their first 22 games. And as that rampage turned into a bit of a retreat, Edey got even better: In four February losses, Edey averaged 25.3 points and 12.5 rebounds. Those numbers came as opponents chose to double- and triple-team Edey and leave open the Boilers’ slumping shooters. Teams couldn’t stop him even with multiple players at once.
Zach Edey needs no ladder pic.twitter.com/myxBR33E8f — The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) March 5, 2023
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana
6-9, 245, Sr. F
Key stats: 20.1 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 3.8 apg, 2.8 bpg, 57.4 pct. FG
Defining game: 35 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks and 15-of-19 shooting in 80-65 victory at Illinois.
Overview : After beginning the year with an injury that bothered him into January, Jackson-Davis transformed into the dominant player it was clear he could become. It started with a 30-point effort at Iowa just after New Year’s Day. Before that, he had reached the 20-point mark only three times in 10 games. A healthy TJD was a fearsome TJD in the season’s final two months. He led IU to 10 wins in a 13-game stretch that began in mid-January and averaged 22.4 points in 26 games that included not a single low-major stat-padding opportunity. He hit Michigan State for 31 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks, Rutgers for 25 points and 5 blocks and Michigan for 28 points and 11 rebounds. If it weren’t for Edey, or possibly the back injury that limited his first two months, TJD might have been the leading candidate for Player of the Year.
Jalen Wilson, Kansas
6-8, 225, Jr. F
Key stats: 19.7 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 2.5 apg
Defining game: 25 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists in 69-64 victory over Duke
Overview : In the same way as Ochai Agbaji did in 2021-22, Wilson stepped forward to accept the responsibility of serving as the Jayhawks’ first option and carried the bulk of the KU attack. Bill Self’s best teams almost always have an All-America level player at their core, and it’s not certain the Jayhawks could excel to the level they do without it. That’s a tremendous burden as much as it is an opportunity. And Wilson has managed it beautifully. There were only two single-figure scoring games, both victories. And it’s telling that in both of those, as he struggled to conquer the opposing defense, he did not chase numbers or shots. He scores at all three levels, defends at a high level and delivered 11 double-figure rebounding games.
Brandon Miller, Alabama
6-9, 200, Fr. F
Key stats: 19.6 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 40.4 3-PT, 45.3 pct. FG
Defining game: 30 points, 10 rebounds, 10-of-16 shooting in 78-66 victory at Vanderbilt.
Overview : Miller’s play has been a revelation almost from his first game at Alabama. Rated only the 11th-best player in the freshman class of 2022, he performed as the nation’s best freshman within the season’s first month. He was not regarded as elite from 3-point range as he entered Alabama, but that became his greatest strength; he was 38-of-71 – 53.5 percent – in his first 11 games. His length helped empower an imposing Alabama frontcourt defense. It’s inescapable, though, his season will be better remembered for the terrible incident at which he was present in January, when a teammate was arrested for alleged involvement in the murder of a young woman near the Alabama campus. Miller was not charged in the case, but neither was he publicly disciplined by the Crimson Tide basketball staff or athletic department.
Drew Timme, Gonzaga
6-10, 235, Sr. C
Key stats: 21.1 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 3.4 apg, 61.8 pct. FG
Defining game: 29 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 12-of-18 shooting in 100-90 victory over Alabama.
Overview : For the third consecutive season, Timme stood forward as the most polished offensive big man in college basketball. It seems like he’s inventing new ways to score every week. He can finish with either hand, has a complete understanding of how to get opponents off balance and is lethal on mid-range jumpers from inside the lane. He delivered four 30-point games and eight double-doubles and has developed over the course of his career into an exceptional passer for a player at his position. He has started 95 games over the past three seasons; the Zags are 85-10 in those games.
Sporting News All-America Second Team
Jaime Jaquez, UCLA
6-7, 225, Sr., F
Key stats: 17.5 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.4 apg, 48.7 pct. FG
Defining game: 19 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals in 63-53 victory over Kentucky.
Overview : If there were room for a “sixth man” on the All-America first team, Jaquez would have been the guy. He fueled the Bruins’ dominance of the Pac-12 Conference with his ability to contribute in every way one can in a basketball game, up to and including rim protection. When the Bruins’ typically elite defense took a night off in a home game against Utah, Jaquez willed himself into operating as a smaller Rudy Gobert, swatting down five Utes shot attempts. Jaquez is a ballhandler, passer, rebounder, defender, shooter and scorer: perhaps the most complete player in Division I.
Azoulas Tubelis, Arizona
6-11, 245, Jr., F
Key stats: 19.9 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 2.0 apg, 57.7 pct. FG
Defining game: 40 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 16-of-21 shooting in 91-76 victory over Oregon.
Overview: Opponents had few answers for Tubelis’ combination of overwhelming size, elite skill and unyielding energy. He blossomed from a reliable two-year starter into an offensive force in his junior season, breaking out with a 30-point game at the Maui Invitational against Cincinnati and later impressing with 19 points against Tennessee’s extraordinary interior defense. He became one of the few players ever to lead the Pac-12 in scoring and rebounding, joining such players as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and A.C. Green.
Marcus Sasser, Houston
6-2, 195, Jr., G
Key stats: 17.1 ppg, 3.3 apg, 1.7 spg, 38.2 3-PT
Defining game: 22 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals in 89-59 win at Tulane.
Overview: One wonders if Houston would be pursuing a third consecutive Final Four appearance had not Sasser been injured and lost for the year – taking his 3-point production with him -- not even halfway through the 2021-22 season. We are seeing now what last year’s Cougars missed, from the toughness that is essential to the Cougars’ defense to the variety of ways Sasser makes the offense better. It is rare for a player who operates primarily off the ball and serves as his team’s first perimeter option to deliver such a high rate of assists. And his 3-point accuracy prevents opponents from concentrating their defenses on the team’s powerful frontcourt.
Jalen Pickett, Penn State
6-4, 209, Sr. G
Key stats: 18.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 7.0 apg, 1.7 spg,, 43.4 pct. FG
Defining game: 41 points, 8 assists, 15-of-20 shooting in 93-81 win against Illinois.
Overview : It’s almost too limiting to call him the nation’s best point guard because his contributions to the Nittany Lions go well beyond mere playmaking. You will not find a lot of players in Division I who lead their teams in scoring, rebounding and assists – like, ever. His physicality allows him to back down guards of any size and either score on turnaround jumpers or find teammates open on the perimeter for 3-point shots. He is always looking for the open pass, even on nights when he determines it will be best to serve as his team’s primary option. His versatility helped elevate a team with essentially no frontcourt presence to an NCAA Tournament contender.
Tyler Kolek, Marquette
6-3, 190, So. G
Key stats: 12.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 7.9 apg, 1.8 spg, 48.8 pct. FG, 39.6 pct 3-PT
Defining game: 22 points, 14 assists, 2 steals in 90-84 win over DePaul.
Overview: Kolek runs an offense as though born into it, like one of those musical prodigies playing Chopin on the piano at 9 years old. It’s still astounding to think he had not been primarily a point guard before arriving at Marquette in the fall of 2021 and almost immediately demonstrating a skill for passing that made him the obvious choice to run the Golden Eagles’ attack in his first season. As a sophomore, he assumed full command of one of the Big East’s – and the nation’s – top teams. It’s not easy to become an All-American while delivering barely a dozen points per game, but Kolek creates plenty of baskets in other ways.
Sporting News All-America Third Team
Kris Murray, Iowa
6-8, 220, Jr. F
Overview : How long did it take for Kris to step away from the shadow of his twin brother Keegan, who was a first-team All-American last season and a top-5 NBA Draft pick by the Sacramento Kings? In the third game of the first season he’s played without his brother, Kris struck a fine Seton Hall defense for 29 points. That’s pretty fast. Kris finished the year averaging 20.5 points and 8 rebounds. He reached the 20-point mark 15 times and topped 30 points four times. He’s such an exceptional finisher he converted nearly 60 percent of his 2-point attempts.
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
6-9, 260, Sr. C
Overview : It is not often the player who wins every major player of the year trophy – including the Naismith Award, the Oscar Robertson Trophy, The Sporting News Player of the Year – returns in the modern age of basketball. And when it used to happen fairly often in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, that player usually went out and did it again. Tshiebwe did not have such a season, perhaps because of a preseason knee surgery that limited his preparation time. He eventually recovered well enough to average 16.4 points and 13.1 rebounds and help rescue Kentucky from the brink of missing the NCAA Tournament to a position solidly in the field.
Kendric Davis, Memphis
6-0, 177, Sr. G
Overview : If there was something good happening with the Tigers, it usually involved Davis. He ranked in the nation’s top 20 in both scoring and assists and thus was involved in more than 40 percent of his team’s made field goals – even though he missed one full game and parts of others with a nagging ankle injury. Davis was American Athletic Conference player of the year in 2021-22 at Memphis, and attracting him as a transfer almost certainly was indispensable to Memphis’ hopes to return to the NCAAs for a second consecutive season.
Markquis Nowell, Kansas State
5-7, 155, Sr. G
Overview : When K-State was going through a coaching change, Nowell could have been one of the hottest players in the transfer portal, but he committed to helping rebuild the Wildcats into a postseason contender and was nearly as important in the transition period for new coach Jerome Tang as he was in producing 17 points and 7.7 assists per game. He was one of two great star players for K-State, teaming with transfer forward Keyontae Johnson in perhaps the best tandem in Division I. They were the only team that had two players receive multiple votes from our panel.
Armando Bacot, North Carolina
6-10, 240, Sr. C
Overview : This has not been the season either Bacot or Carolina imagined after they were ranked No. 1 in the preseason polls and he was identified as a potential player of the year candidate. He averaged a double-double, though, at 16.5 points and 10.8 rebounds and had a run of five consecutive 20-point games. That ended when he injured his ankle early in a game at Virginia, and he hit that mark only twice in the remaining 14 regular season games. It would not be surprising if he was less than 100 percent for at least some portion, if not all, of that stretch.
MORE: There may be just one way for UNC to reach the NCAA tourney
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Case 39 is a 2009 American supernatural horror film directed by Christian Alvart, and starring Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Bradley Cooper and Ian McShane . Plot [ edit]
Case 39 Jump to Edit Summaries A social worker fights to save a girl from her abusive parents, only to discover that the situation is more dangerous than she ever expected. Synopsis
In her many years as a social worker, Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) thinks she has seen it all -- until she meets 10-year-old Lilith (Jodelle Ferland) and the girl's cruel parents. When the...
A social worker fights to save a girl from her abusive parents, only to discover that the situation is more dangerous than she ever expected. Director Christian Alvart Writer Ray Wright Stars Renée Zellweger Ian McShane Jodelle Ferland See production, box office & company info Watch on Prime Video included with Prime More watch options
Parents need to know that Case 39 is part of the "killer children" horror subgenre, in which children are shown to be evil and homicidal; it's a psychologically effective and scary idea, but this movie is mainly out for shocks rather than exploring anything deeper.
'Case 39' Ending Explained Parents plan to murder their child and a social worker saves the child. Emily saves Lillith with the help of Detective Mike Barron. Her parents were about to trap Lillith in an oven and bake her alive.
"Case 39" is a horror film starring Renée Zellweger as family services social worker Emily Jenkins. Emily thinks she has seen it all until she meets her newest, most mysterious case, troubled 10-year old Lilith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland). Emily's worst fears are confirmed when the parents try to kill Lilith, their only daughter.
Case 39. Renee Zellweger stars in a gruesome but entertaining horror-thriller. Peter Bradshaw @PeterBradshaw1. Thu 4 Mar 2010 17.35 EST. S hlocky and ridiculous it may be, but this horror-thriller ...
It was the year Renée Zellweger starred in Case 39, her first horror film since 1994's Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. Just two years after winning an Oscar for Cold Mountain, she...
In Case 39, Lilith's parents talk about how after she was born their brothers and sisters began dying untimely deaths. Naturally, they assumed this was all Lilith's fault, especially after...
Case 39 is a 2009 American - Canadian psychological horror movie. It was directed by Christian Alvart and was produced by Lisa Bruce, Steve Golin, Alix Madigan, and Kevin Misher. Case 39 was released on August 13, 2009 in the United Kingdom, as well as European and Latin American countries.
Case 39 2009 | Maturity rating: 15 | 1h 49m | Mysteries A naïve social worker brings a 10-year-old child into her home to rescue the girl from abusive parents -- only to learn that she isn't what she seems. Starring: Renée Zellweger,Jodelle Ferland,Ian McShane Watch all you want. More Details Watch offline
Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) is juggling the cases of thirty-eight families. when her boss Wayne (Adrian Lester) dumps a thirty-ninth case on her. Someone suspects that Lilith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland), the only child. in the Sullivan family, is being abused by her parents Edward (Callum.
Case 39 (2,109) 6.2 1 h 49 min 2010 X-Ray R Prompted to rescue ten-year-old Lillith Sullivan from her parents after allegations of abuse suggest that the child is not safe in her own home, kind-hearted social worker Emily Jenkins discovers that the situation is worse. Directors Christian Alvart Starring
Case 39: Final attempt to kill Lilith Binge Society 6.91M subscribers Subscribe 832 80K views 1 year ago #Case39 #Sinking #BingeSociety Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) is driving her car and...
Case 39. Release date: October 1, 2010. Country: United States, Case 39 is a 2009 American-English language movie, directed by Christian Alvart (directed by) and written by Ray Wright. The film stars Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane in the pivotal roles. The film's synopsis read as A social worker fights to save a girl from her ...
Social worker Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) and Detective Mike Barron (Ian McShane) arrive just in time to save Lillith (Jodelle Ferland) from her parents ...
The defense, led by Richard Harpootlian, argued that Alex Murdaugh is a victim in all of this. They frequently refered to Murdaugh as a family man who deeply loved Paul and Maggie.
By Anna Kaplan. The stunning downfall of Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced former South Carolina lawyer and convicted killer, was capped Friday, March 3, when he was sentenced to life in prison for the ...
Murdaugh, the 54-year-old disbarred attorney, is still charged with 99 counts of embezzlement, computer crime, money laundering, conspiracy and more for what prosecutors say was a wide-ranging ...
A new prison cell. Murdaugh was handed two consecutive life terms at his sentencing on 3 March, hours after the guilty verdict came down. The sentence will be served at one of the state's seven ...
New lawyers needed time to become familiar with a case that was by then a decade old. The new trial features an almost entirely new slate of attorneys. Richard Escobar, perhaps most recognizable ...
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Spotting Scope 20-60x60mm New Lens 39-19m/1000m w/ Tri-pod and Case HUICOCY at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products! ... See all condition definitions opens in a new window or tab. Package Dimensions LxWxH: 13.94x7.91x3.9 Inches. Body Type: Angled. Size ...
The stars' panic as viewers fled after the 2020 elections has become a core element of a $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox. Outside legal observers say the Fox News Channel finds itself in ...
Filipowski was also named Second Team All-ACC, missing First Team by just four votes. Dereck Lively made the All-Defensive team as well and Jeremy Roach was Honorable mention All-ACC.
As the name implies, this is a keyboard case for the Remarkable 2. If you have a Remarkable 2 and it's fully updated, you can go buy this case, attach it to your E Ink tablet, fold up the ...
Trump is seeking to delay the civil fraud case he faces in New York by several months, a timeframe that would push the trial deeper into the 2024 presidential campaign.
Defining game: 30 points, 10 rebounds, 10-of-16 shooting in 78-66 victory at Vanderbilt. Overview: Miller's play has been a revelation almost from his first game at Alabama. Rated only the 11th ...