Court filings in a divorce case between state Sen. Michael Hastings of Frankfort and his now ex-wife, Kathleen, portray the veteran legislator as being unable to control his anger in front of his children, according to court records unsealed this week.
After Hastings and his wife began divorce proceedings, Hastings “elbowed Kate in the face in front of the children,” according to court statements her attorney filed in October 2021. Michael Hastings also called her a number of “choice words” in front of the children, according to the court papers.
In the same court document, Kathleen Hastings said her husband “cannot control his anger in front of the children.”
In a response, Sen. Hastings called the claims “self-serving” statements on his ex-wife’s part and denied the allegations.
Throughout the divorce proceedings, Hastings used Our Family Wizard, a phone application for co-parenting, “as a tool to harass, intimidate and threaten” his ex-wife, according to a May 18 court record titled “Motion to stop harassment and intimidation through Our Family Wizard.”
The day before, on May 17, Sen. Hastings sent an allegedly unsolicited message that stated, in part, “Think long and hard about the future of our children and our ability to co-parent as you head in tomorrow’s deposition. I’m sure your attorneys have told you, there (is) no going back after tomorrow,” Kathleen Hastings’ attorney wrote.
In a message May 15, according to the court record, Sen. Hastings sent a message saying “Desperate people do desperate things … I’d reconsider your position in these proceedings.” He went on to say that the attorneys in the case “won’t be financially supporting you the next 16 years,” the court statement claimed.
When his ex-wife asked about picking up their daughter May 12, Hastings said, in part, “I sure hope you filed those tax returns correctly and didn’t claim both of our children. It’s going to be a long road. And your mom would be so disappointed. Keep it up,” according to her court papers.
A spokesman for Sen. Hastings, Ray Hanania, said Thursday terms of the recently completed divorce settlement bar either the senator or his former wife from discussing the matter.
But Hanania said “each of the accusations are inherently false.”
The senator has “been on the receiving end of every type of personal and political attack and misrepresentation throughout this divorce,” Hanania said. “To use a family’s divorce and false accusations in a political manner, as it has been to influence an election, is reprehensible.”
Michael Hastings first filed for divorce June 21, 2021, seven years after the couple married in Las Vegas, citing irreconcilable differences. He filed for the case to be sealed July 15, 2021, a motion granted the next day by Will County Judge Derek Ewanic.
The files in the settled case were unsealed Monday, following an order last week by Will County Judge Elizabeth Dow stating “the right of public access to court records and proceedings is well established.”
Hastings, a Democrat, resigned from his leadership position in the Illinois Senate and has been urged by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to resign his seat. He is seeking reelection this fall in the 19th Senate District and is being challenged by Republican Patrick Sheehan.
Illinois Senate President Don Harmon issued a statement Thursday calling the newly rereleased allegations troubling.
“Accusations of domestic violence are to be taken seriously,” Harmon said. “I took immediate action to remove him from Senate leadership given the circumstances. The situation remains under review.”
Hastings has gone to court alleging that Frankfort Police Department employees or possibly Will County employees released what Hastings called “a fabricated police report with false claims” of domestic violence against him alleged by his wife.
During the court proceedings, Sen. Hastings filed subpoenas for a Frankfort Police Department officer and a Tinley Park official to address a June 2021 police report, according to a motion to quash filed by her attorneys.
The June 2021 police report was filed because of Sen. Hastings’ “statements of refusing to return the children to Kate and his verbal abuse towards her,” according to the motion to quash. The officer was subpoenaed to talk about the report and the Tinley Park official was subpoenaed for allegedly receiving a copy of the police report, which his ex-wife denies, according to the motion to quash.
A petition for discovery, filed in July, seeks records from Frankfort and Will County regarding who may have accessed the June 20, 2021, police report in which his then-wife alleged that Hastings was verbally abusive toward her and had, several months earlier, battered her at the Frankfort home they shared.
When a Frankfort officer came to their home in June of last year, Hastings’ wife told police her husband “was emotionally and verbally abusive to her,” and alleged that he had battered her nearly eight months prior, according to the discovery filing pending in Will County court.
The Chicago Tribune had earlier this year been denied a copy of a June 2021 police report or any recordings of 911 calls coming from the home the senator and his wife shared in the 20600 block of Holland Harbor Drive.
The parent company of the Tribune also publishes the Daily Southtown.
Frankfort police said an exemption in the state’s Freedom of Information Act allowed it to withhold reports of incidents “for which there are no arrests and where disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, such as minor domestic or neighbor issues.”
Paul Castiglione, an attorney representing Hastings in the discovery matter, said Thursday Frankfort and Will County have filed motions to dismiss the petition, and that case will be back in court Nov. 14.
Chicago Tribune’s Dan Petrella contributed to this article.
