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HAMPTON COUNTY, S.C. () — After legal wrangling, claims of lying and violation of oaths, Mallory Beach’s family’s civil lawsuit against Parkers and Alex Murdaugh will start in just over a month.
A “confection of lies and deliberate misrepresentations that have been cobbled together to support a frivolous and desperate position”.
Part of a “long concerted attack against the Beach family and its counsel”.
That is what Mark Tinsley, the Beach family lawyer, called claims he violated his oath and the law.
Parker’s attorneys tried to have Tinsley and his partner Tabor Vaux thrown off the case, twice.
Judge Daniel Hall agreed with Tinsley on two different occasions and threw out those claims.
Tinsley says he is still on this case because of the Beach family, and he plans to win it to give them some peace and some closure.
“If the intent was to lessen the family’s resolve. It has had the opposite effect this is not a case this is a cause,” said Tinsley.
The Beach family is suing the convenience store chain and disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh for their roles in the boat crash that killed Mallory Beach in 2019.
“I don’t know how you expect someone to make the right decisions if they won’t acknowledge that what happened in the past was a result of wrong decisions or failures in the training program,” said Tinsley.
Those failures Mark Tinsley says led to Paul Murdaugh being able to buy alcohol with his brother’s ID.
Murdaugh bought the alcohol that day from Parker’s store in Beaufort. He used his brother Buster’s driver’s license. He then got drunk, and drive the boat into a piling with 5 friends aboard. Mallory Beach was thrown from that boat and wasn’t found for seven days.
The clerk, Tajeeha Cohen said in her deposition she only checked if it was a valid driver’s license, not if it matched the height or picture of whoever was holding it. Because that was Parker’s company policy.
“Ms Cohen the cashier was told she could exclusively rely on their point of sale scanner. and didn’t have to consider anything else and that’s not the law. That’s not the way reasonable establishments do it. That’s the way you want to do it if you want to make every sale,” said Tinsley. “But that’s not the safe way to do it and that’s not the way it should be done.”
Parkers have continuously claimed in court documents they were following the law and point to the fact the store never got fined or cited in connection with the sale.
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Parker’s attorneys tried to kick Tinsley off the case, saying he gave out “confidential” and privileged information about this case and violated both ethics and the law.
That information connected to photos of Mallory Beach’s body from the autopsy, and videos that were used in a documentarian’s promo “sizzle reel” for her project.
In his court response, Tinsley says Parker has lied to try and make these accusations true. He provides a detailed timeline of events that shows when documents came out and when emails were sent.
Tinsley added that Parker’s knew when articles were going to come out on the case, and even knew what would be used in the copy.
Their goal he says, is to help affect a potential jury pool before the trial and keep the focus off the fact that their policies when it comes to alcohol sales at stores, did not follow the law.
“They know their faults,” said Tinsley. “They know where the video came from. They know where the photos where Mallory’s dead body came from and they try to make that one thing. But the photos came from Greg Parker’s lawyers who subpoenaed the sheriff’s department. They are not one thing.”
“I can’t imagine why Parkers gave those photos to Greg Roman (the private investigator who admitted he was hired by Parker’s to follow Paul Murdaugh), and what purpose they thought those photos would serve other than the purpose that they used them for.”
“These people have been through the most unimaginable tragic event that someone can suffer,” said Tinsley. Then the things that have been done to further some agenda. It doesn’t make sense.”
Despite all the back and forth and what he calls “outrageous” claims, Tinsley says he has never thought of stepping aside or quitting.
“I feel compelled to not quit for the Beach family,” says Tinsley. “They are truly incredible people who have been through the worst of the worst and so I’m not going to quit for them.”
“There’s some criticism from some of the trolls that you haven’t sued everybody. We have sued everybody there is a legal claim against that caused or contributed to Mallory’s death. The only ones left standing are the ones who will not accept their role in that death.”
“In Mr. Parker’s characterization. If I have one million of one percent fault. Well whatever percentage you played, that’s your percentage. And it doesn’t matter how much money he has got. That’s not the reason we are going after him. We are going after him because he is at fault, his company is at fault and they have refused to acknowledge their responsibility.”
Parker’s attorneys recently sent News 3 this response to the Judge’s decision against their motion:
“We filed the motion to disqualify Mark Tinsley and Tabor Vaux from this case to ensure a fair trial. Subsequently, the Judge has made his decision, and we will look forward to presenting our case to a jury next month and exonerating Tajeeha Cohen and Parker’s” said PK Shere, attorney for Parker’s.”
The jury will have the final say. That selection process will begin on August 14 in Hampton County. The trial is expected to last several weeks.
