A St. Louis lawyer asked last week that the affiliated attorneys of the Missouri Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel (OCDC) who are investigating her be recused and replaced with a panel of neutrals due to an appearance of a conflict of interest.
Attorney Evita Tolu requested that the Missouri Supreme Court make the change in a Sept. 2 petition for writ of mandamus after a court insider filed an ethics complaint against her.
“Evita herself filed complaints partly as a result of Cynthia Hayne’s divorce, which she was handling, so we asked for this neutral panel to evaluate the claim against Evita and then evaluate Evita’s claims against 12 attorneys of whom 10 are guardian ad litems (GAL),” said Larry Mass, a legal malpractice attorney who is defending Tolu.
The ethics complaint against Tolu was filed by attorney Allyson Brown on April 27 after Tolu sued court-appointed GAL Jennifer Williams last year in the Southern District of the Eastern District of Missouri alleging wrongful death in the 2018 suicide of 14-year-old Mikaela Haynes. Williams had been Mikaela Haynes' GAL before she died.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, Charles Haynes, who is currently incarcerated at the Farmington Correctional Facility in St. Francois County, is Cynthia Haynes’ soon-to-be ex-husband, father of Sara Haynes and the now-deceased Mikaela Haynes.
Brown was 12-year-old Sara Hayne’s court-appointed GAL, according to Tolu.
"Allyson Brown was very angry at me for advocating for no visitation with Sara’s imprisoned father who is a convicted child sodomizer,” Tolu told the St. Louis Record. “Two Missouri statutes prohibit child visitation if a parent is convicted of child sexual abuse crimes and a dozen of Sara’s therapists all said that she should not have any contact with her father because he would groom her for sexual abuse as he did with Sara's sisters Melissa and Mikaela."
Brown, an attorney with the Cape Girardeau law firm Osburn, Hynes, and Yates did not immediately respond to requests for comment but in her complaint against Tolu, Brown alleges the following incidents of professional misconduct.
Interjecting and coaching her client, Cynthia Haynes, when she was being deposed during divorce and custody proceedings.
“That's all made up and it's not supported by the transcript,” Mass told the St. Louis Record. “If you look at the deposition transcript, it doesn't show that.”
Sharing photos of Charles Haynes and the judge with added captions and accusing the court of participating in a child trafficking scheme all on social media.
“Evita didn't post them,” Mass said. “She may have just shown that it was posted by somebody else. What Brown is doing is retaliation. Evita is being targeted because she had the temerity to step forward and vigorously defend Cynthia Hayes in her divorce.”
Releasing the videotaped deposition of Charles Haynes, which was under a protective order, on the website Mikaelaslaw.com under a tab called ‘Child Rapist’s Deposition.’
“Evita didn’t do that,” Mass added. “Somebody could have gotten a copy of that deposition, but from somebody else, not Evita, and then blamed her but they could have posted it themselves.”