Colleton County Court Clerk Rebecca Hill, who recently made headlines for her involvement in the trial of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, is now facing plagiarism accusations. The co-author of her book, "Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders," journalist Neil Gordon, claims that Hill lifted passages from a draft of a BBC News article for her book. Gordon expressed his surprise at Hill's actions and announced that the publication of the book will be ceased.

Gordon discovered the plagiarism while reviewing emails made public by Colleton County officials in response to public records requests from news outlets. These emails, which were taken from Hill's county account and dated from January to early December, revealed an email exchange between Hill and a BBC News reporter in February. According to Gordon, the journalist had shared a long excerpt from an upcoming article about the Alex Murdaugh trial. He later noticed that the article, published on March 3, bore a striking resemblance to a 12-page passage in the book's preface.

One of the emails from the reporter to Hill, dated February 20, included a text that read: "To know South Carolina's Lowcountry is to know the Murdaugh family name. For 86 unbroken years, 1920 to 2006, a Murdaugh presided as the chief prosecutor for South Carolina's Fourteenth Judicial Circuit. It was the longest such stretch of family control in United States history." Interestingly, Hill's book, published in July, contains a section with a similar passage: "To know South Carolina's Lowcountry is to know the Murdaugh family name."

Upon confronting Hill about the similarities, she admitted to the plagiarism and attributed it to deadline pressures. Gordon, however, could not excuse or condone her behavior as a veteran journalist himself and announced that he would no longer partner with Hill on any projects. He extended apologies to readers, as well as to the BBC and the reporter involved.

Hill's book provides an insider's account of the high-profile murder trial that garnered national attention in South Carolina's Lowcountry. Neither Hill nor the BBC has responded to requests for comment on the plagiarism allegations.

These revelations come in the wake of previous scrutiny of Hill's actions during the trial. In September, Murdaugh's legal team accused her of tampering with the jury by advising them not to believe Murdaugh's testimony and defense evidence, pressuring jurors for a quick guilty verdict, and misrepresenting critical information to remove a juror favoring the defense. Hill's emails, made public last week, do not explicitly suggest that she sought to tamper with the jury.

Due to the questions surrounding Hill's conduct during the trial, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal has been appointed to take over legal actions involving Murdaugh's appeal. The trial's judge, Clifton Newman, also agreed to step down and will retire at the end of the year. No hearing date for the jury tampering allegations has been set.

Regardless of the outcome of his murder appeal, Murdaugh will remain in prison. Last month, he was sentenced to 27 years after pleading guilty to 22 counts of financial crimes against his clients. This sentence will run concurrently with his federal sentence for similar financial crimes that he pleaded guilty to in September.

In another twist, Hill's son, Jeff Hill, is also facing legal issues. He was arrested in November for allegations related to wiretapping in July while working as the Colleton County Information Technology director. Details about the alleged misuse of his position have not been disclosed, but he was released on bond with a court appearance scheduled for January.