Daily Docket News (DDN) makes the case for Mikaela's Law

The mercurial emailed newsletter breaks another case which would not have happened but for the expansive immunity enjoyed by court actors

Mikaela Hayne’s a fourteen year old who committed suicide

Among the biggest stories broken during the investigation of Missouri’s family court system was that of Mikaela Haynes.

Her mom and sister first appeared at the news conference in April 2021, where each made an emotional plea for help. Her mom and sister speak approximately seventeen minutes in.

Megan Fox at PJ Media has more.

Mikaela Haynes was fourteen years old when she took her own life after being repeatedly forced to spend time with a convicted child rapist, her father Charles Haynes. Haynes is currently in prison in Missouri serving a sentence for raping Mikaela’s half-sister, Melissa, when she was a young teen.

The nightmare for this family began when Melissa gave her mother a note disclosing that her stepfather, Cynthia Randolph’s husband Charles Haynes, had been abusing her for years. Randolph left with her three children, reported the abuse to the police, and filed for divorce. Haynes was arrested, charged, and pleaded guilty to sodomizing Melissa.

Guardian ad litem (GAL) Jennifer Williams was appointed to the case because of the abuse allegations. Instead of protecting the children from Charles Haynes, an admitted child rapist, Williams acted tirelessly to give him and his enabler mother access to the children, while accusing Randolph of “educational neglect” for homeschooling the girls. Even after putting the children into a public school, where both children made the honor roll, proving there had been no educational neglect, Randolph lost custody of the girls to Haynes’s mother Bernice because of Williams’s influence over the court.

Randolph reported that Mikaela became despondent after finding out that Williams, who was entrusted to act in Mikaela’s best interest in the custody dispute, announced her intention to testify on behalf of Charles Haynes at his sentencing hearing after he pled guilty to sodomizing Mikaela’s sister. “On 11-23-2018 she heard that Jennifer Williams, her own guardian ad litem was going to be a character witness on behalf of Charles Haynes for the sexual molestation of Melissa. That devastated [Mikaela],” Randolph told PJ Media. “She said ‘I’m going to hang myself before I go back to foster care.'” Mikaela hung herself in the family home the very next day.

Recently, her story received renewed attention when KOMU from Jefferson City, Missouri took up the cause of family court reform.

In 2018, Mikaela Haynes died by suicide at the age of 14. This came after Haynes' guardian ad litem, Jennifer Williams, planned to testify to put Haynes back with her abusive father, Charles Haynes.

Mikaela Haynes' mother, Cynthia Randolph, is now suing Williams for negligence as Mikaela Haynes' guardian ad litem. Williams was the guardian ad litem put in charge of Mikaela Haynes' interests during Randolph's divorce process with Charles Haynes.

Williams' attorney has not responded to KOMU 8's request for comment.

Charles Haynes previously pled guilty to second-degree sodomy of his stepdaughter. 

Mikaela’s Law is a law dreamed up by Evita Tolu, who represents Mikaela’s mom in her still ongoing child custody battle. You read that right. Chuck Haynes is in jail for child molestation, but he is still fighting for custody.

Chuck is represented by William Halaz- who may have a crush on me- and Halaz also represents Evita’s ex-husband, Robert Stientjes, in Evita’s still ongoing divorce. No judge has determined this to be a conflict.

Mikaela’s Law would eliminate the broad immunity that guardian ad litem currently enjoy in Missouri.

1.     Eliminate the corrupt bond that exists between the court involved professionals, DFS, juvenile and family court lawyers;

2.     Set stringent deadlines on completion of juvenile and family court cases to prevent multi-year litigation that exploits families emotionally and financially;

3.     Remove the presumption that parents no longer have any rights and standing to proceed when a GAL is appointed in juvenile and family court;

4.     Allow children to be represented by attorneys, who are not GALs and allow families to have a choice in the selection of an attorney for their child in juvenile and family court; and

5.     Eliminate court involved professionals’ immunity and set accountability standards for these professionals in juvenile and family courts.

Except, the law can’t’ get a hearing in Missouri because no state legislator will even sponsor it.

Amid this ongoing lawsuit, Randolph and Tolu are working to create change in family courts. They want to have judicial immunity removed through their proposed law: Mikaela's Law.

"Mikaela's Law stands for removing any type of immunity from Missouri guardians ad litem who represent children in juvenile and family court cases," Tolu said.

Both Tolu and Justice for Kids have been meeting with legislators in Jefferson City, including Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, hoping to affect change. No bills have been filed to move the law forward, but Moon said he believes change may be necessary.

Add Daily Docket News (DDN) to the list of those who support Mikaela’s Law.