Newly released court records show the ex-wife of Illinois state Sen. Michael Hastings accused him last year of elbowing her in the face in the presence of their small children and harassing, intimidating and threatening her in a series of text messages during their highly contentious divorce.
The accusations surfaced publicly last week in Will County divorce court files unsealed at the request of WBEZ — over the repeated objections from lawyers for Hastings, a veteran Democratic lawmaker from the southwest suburbs.
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker called for Hastings to resign in September. That was after reports revealed Hastings’s then-wife told police he had physically assaulted her at their home in Frankfort in 2020.
The unsealed divorce files provide more details about the alleged 2020 incident — which the state senator has denied — and also contain complaints of domestic violence and verbal abuse that had not been publicly known until now.
Hastings, 42, resigned from the Senate Democratic leadership team in August, but he is running for another term in Tuesday’s election against Republican Patrick Sheehan.
Last month, WBEZ reported that Illinois taxpayers spent nearly $150,000 on a settlement and outside legal costs in a civil discrimination case filed against Hastings and the Illinois Senate by the lawmaker’s former top aide.
And a veteran environmental lobbyist told WBEZ that Hastings yelled at her, pounded his hands on a table in a meeting and approached her in a menacing manner amid policy disagreements in Springfield in the past five years.
Hastings has not been charged with any crime, and spokesman Ray Hanania said the senator denied all the accusations in the divorce case.
“Sen. Michael Hastings has been on the receiving end of every type of personal and political attack and misrepresentation throughout this divorce, and each of the accusations are inherently false and just not true,” Hanania told WBEZ. “To use a family’s divorce in a political manner as it has been, to influence an election, is reprehensible.”
Hastings filed for divorce on June 21, 2021. Will County Circuit Court Judge Derek Ewanic agreed to the senator’s emergency motion to seal the whole court file the following month.
The day before Hastings filed for divorce, Frankfort police say his wife Kathleen called officers because of a “verbal altercation.” She also told an officer that in November 2020, “Michael battered her, by placing her in a chokehold/neck restraint, and slammed her body into a door multiple times,” according to a copy of the police report obtained by WBEZ.
In the newly unsealed divorce files, Kathleen Hastings provided further details regarding that alleged incident two years ago. Her lawyer wrote that Michael Hastings “slammed Kate’s head against the door leading to the garage multiple times and put her in a choke hold — all because she asked Mike where he was working that day,” according to a filing in the divorce case in October 2021.
Kathleen Hastings alleged the assault took place at about 7 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2020, “in front of” one of their children and woke up their other child, according to the filing.
In the same court filing, Kathleen Hastings alleged that “Michael cannot control his anger in front of the children,” and her lawyer wrote that the senator “elbowed Kate in the face in front of the children.”
She also alleged that her then-husband repeatedly used profane, misogynistic words “in front of the minor children” in the months after she called police on him and the divorce case was filed.
During the divorce case, Kathleen Hastings also repeatedly complained to the court that Michael Hastings harassed, intimidated and threatened her using an app intended for communication about issues concerning the children.
And lawyers for Kathleen Hastings repeatedly asked for — and complained they could not get — documents pertaining to a business owned by Michael Hastings called Geld Solutions LLC.
State records show Hastings formed Geld Solutions in 2019 and shut it down amid the divorce proceedings in January. He did not list the company on statements of economic interest that lawmakers and other elected officials must file annually.
Asked about Geld Solutions, Hastings’s spokesman said, “Everything was done by the book.”
But Illinois Senate President Don Harmon said he has asked his staff to “reach out to Sen. Hastings regarding his ethical disclosure filings and to recommend he update them if needed.”
The divorce case ended in a settlement on Sept. 19. Eight days later, lawyers for WBEZ filed a motion asking that the court unseal the case files.
Lawyers for the senator attempted to keep the divorce sealed. Last year, in getting the file sealed, they argued that allowing the case documents to be a public record “has the potential to inappropriately damage his personal and professional reputation in the community.”
Will County Judge Elizabeth Hoskins Dow sided with WBEZ last month, noting that “the right of public access to court records and proceedings is well established.”
Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team. Follow him on Twitter @dmihalopoulos.
