11/09/2022
Summary from Day 1 USA v Russell Laffitte – Tuesday, November 8th:
Liz Farrell: https://twitter.com/elizfarrell
Good morning, Charleston! Today is the first day of the Russell Laffitte trial. On the schedule is jury selection, possibly opening statements and maybe even some witness testimony depending on how things go ...
Emily Limehouse's opening statement was really well-organized and THOROUGH. She made a complex topic very easy to follow ...
The defense's opening statement was: Not Russell!
Emily also explicitly accused Russell of stealing money. She did not dance around it. Bart Daniel said at least twice that Russell never received "one red cent" of Alex's stolen money ...
Prosecutor: Did Alex ever make a payment on that loan?
Cousin Norris: No, sir, he did not
Actual quote from Norris Laffitte (Russell's cousin who is on the bank's board) when he pointed out Russell's math on Alex's collateral was bad. "Russell threw his Daddy under the bus and said 'Daddy, you did this work. Not me."
"The Laffitte's are pretty cordial people but this had us riled up pretty good" — Norris Laffitte about the meeting where he and other bank board members were like "What in the world is going on here!"
Cousin Norris Laffitte is still on the stand. He's basically the Greek chorus of this because he's saying everything that the rest of us have been saying to ourselves. Such as, "How about we get Alex to pay off his other loans before we give him new loans?" ...
And "Alex had exceeded every loan limit" ...
And "Yeah it was weird when Russell, his Daddy and sister kept approving Alex's loans on their own" ...
Prosecutor: Did Alex ever make a payment on that loan?
Cousin Norris: No, sir, he did not.
The judge has called for a 10-minute break. It's not clear how much longer Cousin Norris is going to be on the stand. Yesterday the judge said he wanted to finish a witness' testimony each evening before adjourning for the evening ...
Mandy Matney - Journalist: https://twitter.com/MandyMatney
Laffitte Trial Day One 📝: Courtroom is packed, mostly with jurors.
Slow morning since media didn’t have access to jury selection.
Jury selection won't be live streamed because they wanted to keep jurors names protected.
Prosector Emily Limehouse was on fire in her opening statement. She described Russell Laffitte as one of the most powerful men in Hampton who conspired with Alex Murdaugh to steal from clients and helped cover up his crimes.
Limehouse described the large amount of evidence she will show the jury throughout the trial and the several witnesses who will testify against him including Alania Plyler and Natasha and lawyers from PMPED.
Her opening statement was powerful and on point.
Former US Attorney Bart Daniel gave the opening statement for Russell Laffitte.
It was hard to understand, but he described Russell as a hardworking guy who used to farm and worked is way up from a loan officer to CEO.
He described Alex as an "evil genius" and "brilliant"
Daniel asked the jury several times to consider Russell as innocent until proven guilty. He kept saying that he never received a penny of Alex Murdaugh's stolen money (NOT THE CHARGES, BY THE WAY).
I'm wondering if the defense's strategy is just to confuse, confuse, confuse.
First witness called for the prosecution, Norris Laffitte, one of Russell's cousins.
Not a great look for the defense.
Cousin Norris is testifying that he definitely alerted Russell and the bank that basically something is up with this Alex Murdaugh guy in July 2021. He was concerned how he was going to pay the bank back when he heard Alex wasn't working at all in July.
Cousin Norris just told the court that all of the members of the Palmetto State board are cousins...
Cousin Norris wrote an email to the bank board on Aug 9, 2021 expressing his concern about Alex Murdaugh, saying he's hearing conflicting information, and warning of potential exposure.
Norris is describing Alex's horrific account statuses Including on August 9 -- WHEN ALEX'S ACCOUNT WAS IN OVERDRAFT BY OVER $340,000.
GOOOOD Lord.
How was Cousin Norris the only one who was like ummm we have a problem here?!
Eric Bland: https://twitter.com/TheEricBland
Headed to Charleston today for the Laffitte trial. As a trial lawyer you wake up on day of trial with a mix of excitement and fear for your client. Will report throughout the week. This will be career defining for Bart or Emily. EB
A juror who is “challenged for cause” because of their Murdaugh or Laffitte knowledge or listens to MMP or COJ can still be seated so long as they tell judge they can be fair and impartial to US Gov and the Defendant. Judge decides the veracity of that. EB.
Emily Limehouse was methodical, efficient and commanding of the facts in her opening. Impressive. EB
Bart Never addressed in his opening why loans were made for the purposes of farming and to improve the Beach house yet the proceeds from those loans went to pay off some of Alex’s obligations with the bank. That is wrong. Maybe bank fraud. EB
After hearing some of the testimony and seeing the documentary evidence I believe there is a case for bank fraud by pledging the same asset a number of times which is against bank regulations. Bank was under secured. EB
After listening to Lars Norris testify if EB sat on that board I would lawyer up. But that’s me. EB
Norris testified today that Alex was “double hypothecated”… meaning Norris is saying that Alex had pledged the same collateral for multiple loans. Something Liz Farrell mentioned in MMP episode 47. Stay tuned for COJ 8 for us to dive deeper.
