Judge: Murdaugh is ‘serial liar’ whose statements cannot win Laffitte a new trial

A federal judge has denied a motion for a new trial by convicted former Hampton banker Russell Laffitte, whom a Charleston jury found guilty in November of six counts of bank-related fraud.

The rejection, filed Monday by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel likely clears the way for Laffitte to be sentenced at a future hearing, as he faces up to a maximum of 30 years in prison on all charges. A hearing date has not been announced.

Laffitte’s rejected request was in large part based on testimony under oath by disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh in February at his recent six-week murder trial. At that trial Murdaugh testified that Laffitte was an unwitting accomplice in Murdaugh’s schemes to defraud and misuse large sums of money that Murdaugh had steered to Laffitte’s bank, the Palmetto State Bank.

“Russell Laffitte never conspired with me to do anything. Whatever was done was done by me,” Murdaugh testified in his own defense during the trial.

A Colleton County jury convicted Murdaugh on March 2 of the 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul, at their rural estate. During that trial, Judge Clifton Newman allowed nearly a dozen witnesses to testify about Murdaugh’s numerous alleged financial crimes, many of which involved money that flowed through Laffitte’s bank. However, Murdaugh has not yet been tried on any of the financial crimes.

Laffitte’s lawyers argued that Murdaugh’s testimony was “undisputed ... newly-discovered evidence” that he “did not participate in a conspiracy and was not knowingly involved in any criminal activity.”

In his six-page denial of Laffitte’s motion, Gergel wrote that if he were to order a new trial on the basis of Murdaugh’s testimony that Laffitte didn’t knowingly participate in bank fraud crimes, he would have to find that Murdaugh is a credible witness whose testimony would likely “produce an acquittal.”

But, Gergel wrote, “Evidence offered during (Laffitte’s) trial established without question that Murdaugh is a serial liar and fraudster who stole from his clients and law partners. He now stands convicted of the double homicide of his wife and son. It is difficult to imagine a less credible witness under these circumstances.”

Moreover, evidence offered by the prosecution during Laffitte’s nine-day trial was “voluminous” and amply supports the jury’s conviction of Laffitte on six counts of bank-related fraud, Gergel wrote. Those charges were conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud and three counts of misapplication of bank funds.

Gergel also ruled that the substance of what Murdaugh said at his trial about Laffitte’s alleged non-involvement was not “newly discovered,” but merely newly available. Laffitte had subpoenaed Murdaugh to testify at his November trial, but Murdaugh and his lawyers made it clear that Murdaugh would exercise his Fifth Amendment right not to testify if called to the witness stand.

Mark Moore, a Columbia lawyer who represents Laffitte with attorney Michael Parente, and Brook Andrews, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, both declined to comment.

Gergel’s Tuesday denial of Laffitte’s motion was the second time he had rejected the ex-banker’s bid for a new trial.

In March, Gergel rejected a motion seeking a new trial for Laffitte on multiple grounds, including questions about the judge’s unusual substitution of two new jurors after the initial jury had deliberated more than nine hours without a verdict. But the judge said he had valid grounds for letting two jurors go and replacing them with two alternate jurors.

On March 9, three days after Gergel denied the first motion for a new trial, the three lawyers who represented Laffitte at trial — Bart Daniel, Matt Austin and Josh Myers — said they withdrew as Laffitte’s representation because of his “substantial failure to fulfill his financial obligations to counsel for representation at trial and for post-trial relief.”

Moore and Parente joined Laffitte’s legal team on Jan. 1 and have represented him since then.