BEAUFORT, S.C. (Court TV) — A federal lawsuit filed by Buster Murdaugh against media corporations accusing them of defamation has been dismissed.
Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, listens as Alex Murdaugh’s verdict is read at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Thursday, March 2, 2023. Alex Murdaugh was found guilty on two counts of murder in the shooting deaths in June 2021 of his wife Maggie and son Paul. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)
Buster, the surviving son of disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh, filed lawsuits in both state and federal court after a series of documentaries about his family were produced. Alex is currently appealing his convictions for murdering his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, at their Lowcountry home.
The documentaries didn’t only focus on the murders; in Buster’s lawsuit, he accused the producers of the documentaries of portraying him as the killer of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old who was found dead on a rural road in South Carolina in 2015. Smith’s case remains open and no suspects have been named in his death.
A filing in the federal case on Wednesday revealed that both Buster and the defendants, including Warner Bros. and Blackfin, Inc., stipulated to the dismissal of the case, with prejudice, after the sides reached a settlement agreement. No information about the agreement, including the amount involved, was made public.
Buster’s other lawsuit, which targets Netflix in Hampton County District Court, remains active, though the defendants have filed motions to dismiss.
