A federal court ruled that Guardian Ad Litems involved in custody cases must act within the scope of their duties and take actions that are conceived as protecting the child.
“They can't threaten the child and being an agent of the court doesn't absolve guardian ad litems from having a duty to the child,” said Attorney Larry Mass.
Mass was reacting to federal Judge Abbie Crites-Leoni’s denial of GAL Jennifer William’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings.
Crites-Leoni is a U.S. Magistrate in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Missouri.
“Plaintiff has sufficiently alleged that Williams realized or should have realized her conduct involved an unreasonable risk of causing M.H. distress and that M.H. suffered emotional distress or mental injury that is medically diagnosable and sufficiently severe to be medically significant,” Crites-Leoni wrote in her May 31 decision. “As such, she has stated a plausible claim for NIED.”
NIED refers to Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress.
Williams is accused of tampering with evidence and threatening 14-year-old Mikaela Haynes with being placed in her father, Charles Haynes’ custody.
Mikaela Haynes subsequently killed herself on Nov. 24, 2018, and her mother Plaintiff Cynthia Randolph, formerly Haynes, sued.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, before she committed suicide, the deceased teen alleged that her father sexually abused her. Mr. Haynes is currently incarcerated at the Farmington Correctional Facility in St. Francois County and is due to be released on Aug. 10.
The Missouri Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment.
“Jennifer Williams acted negligently and beyond the standard of care for what a GAL should do when she went and threatened Mikaela and her family with certain consequences if they testified in criminal proceedings concerning Mikaela's father,” Mass told the St. Louis Record. "That went beyond the standard of care, what the duties of the GAL were, and that is the negligence that lead to the causation of infliction of emotional distress.”
The case will now proceed to discovery.
“The plaintiff has to prove what was alleged that Jennifer Williams did the facts that were alleged,” Mass added. “They will have to take Jennifer's deposition. The defendant will probably take the plaintiff’s deposition.”
At the time, Williams was employed with Spain, Miller, Galloway & Lee but she has since left the Poplar Bluff law firm and started her own firm called Williams Law.
Randolph seeks actual damages and aggravating circumstances damages under the Missouri wrongful death statute in excess of $100,000.
Randolph is represented by attorney Evita Tolu while Williams is represented by attorney Susan Dimond.