Ex-associate indicted for allegedly faking legal documents in court cases

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Ethics Ex-associate indicted for allegedly faking legal documents in court cases

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 16, 2022, 3:55 pm CST

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A former associate for a St. Louis-area law firm has been indicted on five counts of identity theft for allegedly faking legal documents.

Andrew Gavin Wynne was indicted last week, report the Associated Press and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He is accused of providing his clients with fictitious documents purporting to be written by judges in their cases.

The fake documents included court orders, judgments and emails, according to the Feb. 9 indictment. The conduct began in February 2020 and lasted until June 2021, according to the indictment.

Wynne worked for the Kirkwood, Missouri, law firm firm Menees, Menees & Wynne, now known as Menees & Menees. He was suspended from law practice on an interim basis in October.

Law firm partner Hardy Menees told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Wynne mostly faked rulings on motions. Only two purported to be final dispositions of cases, he said.

“It’s been an incredible ordeal to try and unravel it, but we have unraveled it,” he said.

In one case, Wynne allegedly faked a final divorce order that required the husband to pay $900 in child support, according to an ethics filing that is cited by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In another, Wynne allegedly created an order of contempt requiring the husband to pay $20,000 within 15 days and then half his income plus $2,500 every month.

Menees first learned of a problem July 1, when a client contacted him because she hadn’t signed a consent order filed in her case, according to an affidavit by Menees in the ethics case. His firm hired a private investigator.

Menees reported Wynne to Missouri’s disciplinary counsel July 15. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Wynne’s behavior was “inexplicable,” and his motives were “perplexing.”

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