Doctor’s Estate Embroiled in Legal Battle
The death of Wayne Breen, a New Orleans physician, is still being investigated by the sheriff’s office; however, the battle over his estate has already begun.
Whether Wayne’s wife, Kacie, committed murder when she shot her husband twice in the early morning of March 1st, is still unknown. But just five days after Wayne was shot, attorneys working for Kacie filed a motion in state district court to appoint an attorney to try to find Wayne’s will. The filing included a copy of the most recent will that Kacie possessed, which was signed in 2013.
Shortly thereafter, a different attorney filed a motion to disqualify the lawyers representing Kacie. The allegation was that the firm (Talley, Anthony, Hughes & Knight) had a conflict. One of the firm’s partners, Chuck Hughes, also provides legal counsel to the same sheriff’s office investigating Wayne’s death. The motion stated that the firm’s close relationships with both the sheriff’s office and the subject of the homicide investigation created a “glaring conflict of interest” that applied to all the members of the firm.
The firm disputed the allegations, calling the claims “meritless.” “The sheriff is not a participant in the succession proceedings, and Mrs. Breen has not instituted any action against the Sheriff’s Office. Were charges ever to be brought against Mrs. Breen, those charges would be brought by the district attorney — not the sheriff,” the motion said. Yet after refuting the claims, the firm withdrew as counsel of record and moved to enroll a different attorney, “out of respect for the sensitive nature of these proceedings.”
See Faimon A. Roberts III, Legal Battle Begins Over Slain Covington Doctor’s Estate, The New Orleans Advocate, March 19, 2015.