ST. CHARLES – When Hailey Zenk appears in a St. Charles County courtroom in February for a probation revocation hearing, she’ll have an attorney at her side well known in Lincoln County.

Joel Schwartz, the attorney who rose to national prominence after helping get Russ Faria’s murder conviction overturned, filed paperwork Monday to take over as Zenk’s primary defense attorney.

Zenk, 19, who posted a $20,000 bond Dec. 20 after her arrest for allegedly tampering with an alcohol monitoring device, is scheduled to appear at a Feb. 7 hearing to determine if she did violate terms of her probation. If she did, the judge could send her to prison for up to 10 years.

A second attorney, Allie Winter, from Schwartz’s law firm also filed an entry of appearance with the court to join Zenk’s defense.

Faria, who with his wife Carol appeared in court with Zenk’s family at her sentencing and bond reduction hearing following her most recent arrest, confirmed via a social media post that he referred her to Schwartz, while refuting other rumors regarding his involvement.

“I have not given a penny to bond Hailey out. I also did not pay one bit of her attorney fees,” Faria stated on Facebook. “Did I introduce her to Joel? Yes I did.”

Schwartz defended Faria in both of his trials for the 2011 murder of his wife, Betsy Faria.

Russ was convicted of first degree murder in the initial trial in 2013 and sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. However, Schwartz was able to secure a second trial after obtaining proof that Lincoln County Sheriff’s investigators lied on the stand regarding evidence collected at the crime scene.

Faria was found not guilty in the second trial in 2015 and later received a $2 million settlement from Lincoln County for the wrongful conviction.

After that second trial, Lincoln County voters elected a new sheriff, Rick Harrell, and prosecutor, Mike Wood.

It is Wood’s office that prosecuted Zenk after the Feb. 5, 2023 one-car crash that killed three Lincoln County teenagers, Kaeden Tyler, 15, Emily McNees 17, and William Flickinger, 18, while seriously injuring a fourth, Trevor Bogert, 19. Zenk’s blood alcohol content was above the legal limit for driving after being tested nearly two hours after the accident. She also had marijuana in her system.

Zenk received a 10-year prison sentence in June 2024 after she previously entered an Alford Plea to five felonies including three counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, one count of DWI resulting in the death of two or more others, and one count of DWI resulting in serious injury.

With an Alford plea, the defendant does not admit guilt but does admit the prosecution has enough evidence for a conviction.

St. Charles County Judge Michael Fagras sentenced Zenk to 10 years in prison, but suspended the sentence in lieu of 120 days of “shock time” in the county jail and five years of supervised probation.

As part of that probation, Zenk was required to wear an alcohol monitoring device for six months following her release from jail. Thirty days after her release, the device indicated it was being tampered with for two extended periods of time lasting nearly 7 and 24 hours, respectively. During that first tampering incident, the device also reported it had detected alcohol but couldn’t determine if it was from incidental contact or if it had been consumed.

Meanwhile, Wood has also filed charges against Pam Hupp for the murder of Betsy Faria. Hupp had been a key state witness in the first trial against Russ. She is currently incarcerated at the Chillicothe Correctional Facility after entering an Alford Plea for murdering Louis Gumpenberger in 2016, whom she killed in her home, claiming he was hired by Faria to blackmail her while brandishing a knife.

The Faria murder and its aftermath became nationally known first through an NBC Dateline investigation and podcast and later through a nine-episode Netflix series, The Thing About Pam.