Community Caretaker Carmen? Judge Mullen Takes The Stand in ODC Hearing (168pt1)

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Mandy Matney (1:02)

I don't know if Judge Carmen Mullen will ever be held accountable for the 2017 Ernie incident. But for the first time in her career, Mullen had to face the music at a disciplinary hearing where odc attorneys exposed her contradicting story of what happened that night in our Hilton Head Island neighborhood. That is a big deal.

My name is Mandy Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption previously known as the Murdoch Murders Podcast. True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell.

Two weeks ago, we told you all the big news that Judge Carmen Mullen was finally formally charged by the Odc for alleged misconduct during the 2017 earning the attorney incident. Liz Farrell was the first journalist to break that story on the 2017 incident in 2022, nearly five years after it happened on the Murdoch Murders Podcast. It all came to light after Liz, Eric, and I had pieced together what we believed Mullen did wrong, after she approved the infamous Satterfield Settlement, which paved the way for Eric Murdoch to steal millions of dollars from Gloria Satterfield's family. We took a deep dive into our background. In our opinion, we found a pattern of troubling decisions that she made in her two-decade career as a judge, where it appeared to us like she used her position of power as a judge to help the good old boys of South Carolina, like in the Quinn case, or like that time that she sentenced a privileged Hilton head man to college for a fatal DUI.

But the facts of the Satterfield case and the others were not as clear-cut in violation of the canons as they needed to be for the Odc to take action. There was no audio recording on how exactly the Satterfield settlement with no caption was approved by Judge Carmen Mullen. The Satterfield settlement gave Mullen a lot of wiggle room, unfortunately, to claim that she never violated any of the judicial canons. The Ernie the Attorney incident, however, was different. Judge Mullen was caught on police videos suggesting that Ernie, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, should be charged for a crime that he didn't commit. Mullen's own words on recordings reveal, in our opinions, a judge who was inserting her power into a situation she had no business being a part of, a situation that she should have stayed far away from.

Given Mullen's history of approving sketchy settlements from Alex Murdaugh, who she went to law school with and she admitted to having a long-standing relationship with his family. Like I said, we've seen what we believe is a concerning pattern with Mullen. She appears to misuse her position of power as a judge to help certain people aligned with her people. AKA, the good ol boys. The Ernie the Attorney incident was not an anomaly. So, this hearing was a long time coming for us. The facts seemed plain and simple, which the Odc pointed out. And yet, ol John Monk of the state newspaper found a way to strip the hearing of actual meaning and fully endorse Judge Mullen's defense, which literally has nothing to support it except her word. David, will you read John Monk's headline for this event?

David (4:49)

The Law of the Heart vs. The Law.

Essie Judge Defends Herself at Discipline Hearing.

Mandy Matney (5:00)

Law of the Heart? What is that? Funny how the law, when it came to my deposition, never had any gray area at all for old John Monk, whose son was just charged this summer with child sexual abuse material. And apparently, McClatchy is still cool with him writing about the law. By the way, the meta headline that comes up in Google for that same Carmen article is, quote, Judge Mullen testifies she did nothing wrong. In comparison, his headline for covering my contempt hearing, you know, the one for an independent journalist facing heat from a legal system that I exposed because I advocated for my own safety. Well, that headline said, SC Murdoch podcaster, Mandy Matney, colon, reckless with facts.