The chef of the acclaimed Avondale restaurant Warlord has been issued a second order of protection after he was accused of distributing private sexual images of a woman without her consent, Cook County court records show.
Chicago police arrested Trevor Fleming, 41, early on Jan. 17 at his home, according to police records. He was released later that day on electronic monitoring with orders to avoid the woman’s home and workplace, court records show.
The images Fleming is accused of sharing in September 2023 “clearly show” the woman’s face and private areas during a sexual act, according to court records.
On Monday, a Cook County judge issued an interim protective order against Fleming requiring him to avoid the woman’s home and place of work. The woman had been in a romantic relationship with Fleming, according to the order.
Fleming’s attorney Robert Rascia, reached for comment late Monday night, said the charge does not allege violence and that the order was issued over Fleming’s objection.
Cook County records also show that Fleming pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated battery in 2015.
For years, individuals and groups on internet forums like Reddit and TikTok have speculated on Fleming’s actions and broader misconduct at Warlord, but those alleged incidents have been left largely unpublicized.
However, in 2024, the Chicago Hospitality Accountable Actions Database Project, a local organization that advocates for restaurant workers and educates them about workplace rights, started receiving reports of “ongoing traumatic experiences” from employees at Warlord.
“Specifically, there was a report of a sexual assault that happened within the workplace that year,” Raeghn Draper, executive director of CHAAD Project, told the Tribune on Monday. “That opened up to multiple workers reaching out to report egregious claims of not only sexual harassment, but also stalking, bullying, intimidation, withholding wages and just an all-around really toxic and abusive work environment.”
Rascia said there is no law enforcement investigation of Fleming in relation to these allegations.
Draper said that initial report in early 2024 sparked a dozen employees to reach out to CHAAD Project about Fleming and the alleged complicity of Warlord’s other owners, Emily Kraszyk and John Lupton. Warlord’s owners could not be reached for comment.
The allegations coming from staff working the line at Warlord ultimately prompted CHAAD Project to post a public service announcement on Instagram warning Chicago’s hospitality community to “beware of Warlord.” In the comments section of the June 2024 post detailing some of the claims, a few people noted that the reports are unsurprising but a necessary call to action.
Draper said the organization typically doesn’t make public statements about specific restaurants, but these claims merited an exception.
“There was a lot of intimidation going on while we were trying to organize with the employees who reached out, and people got afraid — then also just exhausted,” Draper said. “The Chicago restaurant industry is still a little bit of a boys club, so if you piss off the wrong chef, especially one that’s a big personality, it can mean, sadly, finding your next job is nearly impossible.”
Draper said while women were the primary targets of Fleming’s alleged abuse and slurs, a couple of male employees also reached out to the organization to report harassment and bullying.
Meanwhile, Fleming is also subject to an earlier order of protection against another woman, which court records show is in effect until March 2027. The woman, who is listed as a current or former girlfriend of Fleming’s, first petitioned for a court order against him in January 2025, alleging that Fleming had grabbed her by her scarf and used it to choke her, threatened her for spreading rumors about him and slapped her phone out of her hand as she returned from walking a neighbor’s dog.
“I’m going to beat your (expletive), you think you can go around saying I rape people, who do you think you are,” Fleming allegedly told the woman during the confrontation, which took place near the back exit of Warlord.
The woman also alleged that Fleming threw her phone across the alley, called police to claim that she was stalking him and had threatened her multiple times in the past.
The order shows that Fleming was ordered to avoid the two North Side bars where the woman worked and to pay for damage to her apartment window, which had a rock thrown through it in August 2024. He was also ordered to complete a domestic violence partner abuse program and a mental health evaluation, records show.
Shakespeare District (14th) police previously arrested Fleming in June 2025 for alleged drug possession and driving without valid auto registration or insurance, court records show. He agreed to participate in a deferred prosecution program, records show, and the case was dismissed after he completed that program in September 2025.
Rascia said the 2025 drug charge was an unproven allegation.
According to Draper, employees still in touch with CHAAD Project shared that Fleming returned to work after a two-week suspension following his June 2025 arrest.
Fleming is next set to appear in court Wednesday morning before Judge Sabra Lynn Ebersole.
Warlord opened quietly in 2023 at 3198 N. Milwaukee Ave. without much publicity and few reservations, which is still the case. Instead, diners line up when the restaurant is open 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays through Monday. In a 2023 Tribune review, former food critic Nick Kindelsperger noted the restaurant’s chaotic quality: a menu that could change minutes before service, flames jumping off the stove and deafening noise levels. One of the restaurant’s standout items remains the dry-aged burger.
In December, Warlord announced plans to open a second burger restaurant in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, named Lords. Draper, who lives in the neighborhood, said she’s pretty upset about it.
“It’s not that we don’t want a new restaurant and a new burger joint, but we don’t want someone who’s going to be using their position of power to harm not only restaurant workers who we advocate for, but also our neighbors and community members,” she said. “He’s not a safe person. And seeing the hospitality industry continue to invest in him and give him the platform to continue growing is really disturbing.”
