A southeast Missouri judge on Tuesday threw out all of the Missouri Department of Corrections’ defenses in a mother’s wrongful death case over her son’s suicide because the department “repeatedly violated” court orders to produce records.
As a result, the only question that a jury will consider if the case goes to trial is how much the department will pay in damages, Mississippi County Circuit Judge Robert Horack wrote in the order imposing sanctions.
The attorney general’s office, which represented the department, “repeatedly offered excuses ranging from secretarial blame to Dropbox malfunctions and staffing issues,” Horack wrote in Tuesday’s order. “Not a single deadline imposed by the court was met.”
Along with missed deadlines to produce records, Assistant Attorney General Kevin Smith, the office’s deputy chief counsel for litigation, also failed to appear for scheduled hearings. One hearing he missed was on Oct. 4, when Horack announced he would sanction the department.
The “deliberate disregard for the authority of this court to enforce its orders” resulted in the sanctions, Horack wrote.
Willa Hynes is suing the department, three of the agency’s corporate contractors and 15 individuals over the death of her son, Jahi Hynes, on April 4, 2021, at the Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston.
Her attorney, Linda Powers, was not available to comment on Horack’s order.
In a statement to The Independent, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office did not try to deflect blame for Horack’s ruling.
“Sanctions as a result of missing required court hearings are unacceptable and avoidable,” the statement read.
As of Wednesday, Smith is no longer an employee of the office.
The lawsuit alleges corrections officials and contract medical personnel ignored Jahi Hynes’ mental health needs and disregarded department rules for the safety of people in administrative segregation.
Jahi Hynes was placed in administrative segregation on April 3, 2021, after allowing the food port door in his cell to strike the hand of a corrections officer, causing minor injuries, and blocking the port with his mattress.
The next day, he hanged himself with a bedsheet.
Jahi Hynes was 27 and serving a 13-year sentence for first degree robbery.
Horack followed the decision by recusing himself from the case and asking the Missouri Supreme Court to assign a new judge.
The corrections department declined to comment on the sanctions because it does not make statements about litigation, spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said in an email to The Independent.
Hanaway was appointed as attorney general in August after her predecessor, Andrew Bailey, was named co-deputy director of the FBI. The office has been reorganized to keep better track of cases, the office said, including the creation of a Civil Trials section.
“This change better aligns Attorney General’s Office resources with the needs of state agencies, and will provide the office increased efficiency and coverage.,” the statement read. “Case reassignments are being finalized currently.”
The department has been sanctioned previously for withholding records related to Jahi Hynes’ death. In April 2024, the department was ordered to pay more than $60,000 for knowing violations of the state’s Sunshine Law as it sought to shield records of his death.
That penalty, $5,000 for the Sunshine Law violation and just over $55,000 for attorney fees, was paid from the state general revenue fund in August 2024.
Hynes’ death is one of more than 750 from the start of 2021 through November, according to records compiled by the Missouri Justice Coalition. The department has been reluctant to release records on the deaths, which reached a record of 139 in 2024.
The highest profile case is the death of Othel Moore on Dec. 8, 2023, in the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Three former corrections officers face criminal charges for assault, with two also charged with second degree murder and the third charged with involuntary manslaughter. Charges against two corrections officers were dropped after they were filed in June 2024.
There are pending wrongful death lawsuits for several other deceased inmates in addition to Hynes.
The discovery violations in the Hynes wrongful death case were numerous and the reasons for delays unconvincing, Horack wrote.
“For nine months following the court’s first hearing on plaintiff’s Motion to Compel on Feb. 11, 2025,” Horack wrote, “considerable deference was afforded to defense counsel and the matter of sanctions remained under advisement for approximately eight months.”
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.
