SC judge calls abuse of power allegation ‘ridiculous’ after 2017 police report surfaces

A South Carolina judge, who is connected to the legal drama surrounding disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh, is defending herself against a recently resurfaced police report from 2017 that suggests she tried to use her position to have a man arrested in Beaufort County.

Ernest “Ernie” Lotito had been staying at the house of a friend of Judge Carmen Mullen’s in her Hilton Head Island neighborhood but was refusing to leave when asked, according to a report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. In the report, a deputy wrote that Mullen asked that the man be arrested.

“The allegation that I was somehow abusing my power as a judge, trying to have Ernie arrested for no reason, is ridiculous,” Mullen said in an email sent to reporters Wednesday.

It was well recognized that the man had mental issues and, while not a danger to himself, he needed to be protected, Mullen said.

“Our fear was that he would be wandering around in a delusional state, in danger of harming himself. ... The sheriff’s report does not accurately relay the conversations that occurred that night over an approximately 30-minute exchange in which my husband and I were deeply concerned about Ernie’s behavior and his well-being,” Mullen said.

“We were simply trying to help him,” Mullen added.

The existence of the report documenting the incident was first reported by reporter Liz Farrell on the podcast “Cup of Justice,” which she co-hosts with Columbia attorney Eric Bland. The State newspaper obtained a copy of the report and queried Mullen, who emailed her version of the incident to several media outlets.

As described in the report, Mullen’s actions that day raised questions about whether she — a state judge bound by ethical rules of impartiality — should have injected herself into a situation when she should have maintained an independent stance toward an unfolding law enforcement situation.

One South Carolina judicial rule governing judges’ conduct states, “A judge should participate in establishing, maintaining and enforcing high standards of conduct, and shall personally observe those standards so that the integrity and independence of the judiciary will be preserved.”

THE INCIDENT

The Dec. 7, 2017, report describes an incident on that date in a Hilton Head neighborhood, Port Royal Plantation, when deputies responded to a homeowner’s call to eject a man who appeared to have mental health issues from her property.

The neighborhood is a private beachfront residential community on Hilton Head Island.

The homeowner, identified in the report as Regan Renaud, told the deputy that she had been letting the man, identified as Ernest Lotito, live there, but now wanted him gone. Deputies told Renaud she needed to go through magistrate court to have him evicted.

“My observation of Lotito was that he appeared to be a mental subject but was not a threat,” the reporting deputy wrote. “Lotito walked to the backyard as he was talking to himself.”

At that time, Mullen — whose named is misspelled in the report as “Mullins” and also “Nullins” — arrived and asked to speak to the deputy. She lives in the Port Royal neighborhood and had driven by the property, saw police cars and came back. She told the deputy she had tried to help Lotito in the past when he was in her court and “asked what could be done to remove Lotito from the property,” the report said.

“Judge Mullins (sic) advised she lived in ... and was very familiar with Lotito. Judge Mullins (sic) said she had done what she could in the past to help Lotito when he was in her court. Judge Mullins (sic) asked what could be done to remove Lotito from the property,” the deputy wrote.

“I advised Judge Mullins (sic) the complainant has allowed Lotito to live in the residence and the complainant would have to follow the eviction process,” the deputy wrote.

The judge then said she would find Lotito a ride to a gas station where Lotito had been cited for trespassing and “then call deputies to arrest Lotito,” the report said.

At that point, the homeowner told Mullen there was a breach of trust incident involving Lotito that was being investigated by a sheriff’s detective. Mullen said she would sign the arrest warrant.

The deputy checked twice with his supervisor and told Mullen that the investigator in the breach of trust case would obtain any warrants.

“Judge Mullins was very cordial with deputies,” the deputy wrote.

WHAT MULLEN SAID

In her email to reporters, Mullen said, “Ernie Lotito is a former Hilton Head attorney who worked for my husband for less than a year in 1991. Ernie was placed on disability inactive status by the South Carolina Supreme Court in 1995 due to mental illness. My husband, attorney George Mullen, has known Ernie for over 30 years and often receives calls from Ernie when he is both mentally intact and delusional.”

She did not meet Lotito until 2016, when he appeared in her court “on charges of making a threat on a public official and threatening to use a destructive device.”He was represented by the Public Defender’s office and I informed the Assistant Solicitor I knew of Ernie Lotito but had never met him” she said.

“The sole purpose [of] going back was to make sure the responding officers knew Ernie was mentally ill so they would not hurt him. When out of the car, it was clear Ernie was having a psychotic episode as he was acting delusional, talking incoherently and becoming increasingly agitated,” she said.

“Port Royal security relayed calls were made that Ernie was pounding on neighbors’ doors scaring people and while we were standing there, we heard him screaming obscenities at the woman who allowed him to stay at her house for rent as requested by her boss, Robert Rini who, often helped Ernie.

“Ernie refused to leave and kept asking us to come see the fort he built behind the house. It was clear Ernie needed to be taken to the hospital for psychiatric treatment as he was delusional and distraught,” she wrote.

Mullen said she was asking the deputies to take him to a hospital “because he clearly needed psychiatric treatment. “When the deputies indicated they could do nothing, my husband talked with Robert (Rini) who came to Port Royal and took Ernie to stay at a local hotel. Two days later, Ernie was taken to a mental health facility in Myrtle Beach.

“The sheriff’s report does not accurately relay the conversations that occurred that night over an approximately 30-minute exchange in which my husband and I were deeply concerned about Ernie’s behavior and his well-being,” Mullen said.

Rini, a Hilton Head Realtor, told a reporter Wednesday that deputies’ allegations of Mullen’s intentions from the incident in 2017 are “not accurate.”

“Judge Mullen did not make a ploy to get him off the property,” Rini said. “No one that night was trying to hurt him. It was a bad situation.”

Rini, who took Lotito to a hotel that night, said, he “is a smart guy; he’s not vindictive or a bad guy, he’s just a guy with a mental illness,” Rini said.

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said Wednesday that Mullen’s statement is accurate “as far as” Lotito being taken to a hotel and later being admitted to a facility in Myrtle Beach.

However, dashcam footage from officers at Port Royal Plantation is “consistent” with what the deputy alleges in the police report, the sheriff said.

Mullen’s conduct has been questioned in the past by two prominent attorneys — 1st Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe and Columbia lawyer Eric Bland, whose legal actions in 2021 are credited with helping spark law enforcement investigations of financial irregularities committed by former Lowcountry attorney Alex Murdaugh.

Murdaugh has since been disbarred and faces charges he stole more than $8 million from numerous lawyers, clients and associates.

Pascoe and Bland confirmed to The State earlier this year they filed complaints with the state’s judicial ethics body that Mullen improperly helped Murdaugh get the lion’s share of the $4.3 million settlement in a case involving the death of Murdaugh’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.

On Wednesday, Pascoe and Bland told The State the incident raised serious questions about Mullen but they needed more facts before making a judgment about her conduct.

“One thing is for sure, the deputy did the right thing by contacting his superior and not being swayed” by the judge, Pascoe said.

Bland said as a neighbor, Mullen had a right to stop. But by saying she would issue an arrest warrant and “injecting herself in that situation, she certainly gave the appearance of impropriety. And that’s what judges are supposed to guard against.”