One month after being charged with sharing sexually explicit images of a woman without her consent, chef and co-owner of Chicago restaurant Warlord says he is still attached to the business. The allegations have brought scrutiny to plans for a second restaurant and highlighted long-running issues in how the restaurant industry addresses problematic behavior.
Trevor Fleming, 41, spoke to the Tribune after a routine status hearing Wednesday morning outside the domestic violence courthouse. He said that “as of right now,” he is still part of the operations at Warlord.
A Cook County judge on Jan. 29 allowed Fleming to be released from electronic monitoring starting Jan. 31 until his Monday return from Japan for “business travel” related to his work as a chef, according to court documents. On Wednesday, Fleming showed Judge Sabra Lynne Ebersole that his bracelet was reapplied in compliance with court orders.
After the proceeding, Fleming declined to comment on the case beyond saying the “serious allegations” against him are false, telling the Tribune that “he’s on a trial of public opinion.”
While Fleming goes through legal procedures, the Avondale restaurant has continued service four nights a week with co-owners Emily Kraszyk and John Lupton at the helm. Despite Fleming’s claim, Kraszyk and Lupton said they have removed him from Warlord.
“Trevor broke our trust,” the pair said in a statement Thursday morning. “Clearly our attempts to address this issue fell short, which is why we ultimately made the decision to take decisive action and remove him from the partnership as soon as we were legally able to under our operating agreement.”
Chicago police arrested Fleming on Jan. 17, after he was accused of distributing private sexual images of a woman without her consent, Cook County 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. The woman had been in a romantic relationship with Fleming.
Fleming was released later that day on electronic monitoring with orders to avoid the woman’s home and workplace. His lawyer said the charge did not allege violence and that the order was issued over Fleming’s objection.
As Fleming faces a public fallout, some in the industry, including former Warlord employees, have spoken of the chef’s alleged history of verbal and emotional abuse.
“Trevor was outrageous towards the kitchen staff, especially the younger kitchen staff who were there to learn,” said Sidney Rakowiecki, a former lead server at Warlord.
Rakowiecki, who now works at Void in Avondale, was employed at Warlord for less than two years, starting in 2023 when the restaurant first opened. She said the pay was decent, which is why so many employees stuck around for as long as they did.
The misconduct at Warlord was something talked about only within “secret circles” of Chicago’s restaurant-worker scene, or in forums on Reddit, where employees could anonymously share their experiences, Rakowiecki said. When the allegations came to light on Jan. 17, it was long overdue, she said.
“He’s been a predator for younger women for a really long time,” Rakowiecki said, noting that she once took steps to address Fleming’s behavior to Warlord co-owner Kraszyk, but no action was taken.
Kraszyk declined to comment on that conversation.
“Emily and John were very approachable people and were more receptive and easy to work with, so it’s been very frustrating to see them take an approach of ‘Oh, we had no idea.’ You knew exactly what was going on,” Rakowiecki said.
In one instance, a Warlord co-worker told her that Fleming had shown them a photo of a woman with a discernible tattoo. The co-worker wanted to find the woman and tell her that “Trevor was sharing her private images,” Rakowiecki recalled.
The last straw for Rakowiecki was in 2024, when Fleming was suspended from work for “behavioral issues” but returned “unscathed” and unchanged after about two weeks. Rakowiecki said she quit shortly after his return.
“Emily and John had a brief meeting with us pre-shift, saying that they don’t align with his values and that Trevor would be gone for as long as it’s needed. He was welcomed back a couple weeks later,” she said.
Also in 2024, the Chicago Hospitality Accountable Actions Database Project, a local organization that advocates for restaurant workers and educates them on workplace rights, started fielding reports of “ongoing traumatic experiences” from employees at Warlord.
According to Raeghn Draper, executive director of CHAAD Project, a dozen employees, both men and women, reached out to the organization that year about Fleming and the toxic work environment at the restaurant. Complaints also pointed at Kraszyk and Lupton allowing Fleming’s behavior to continue, Draper said.
Kraszyk and Lupton declined to comment on Fleming’s conduct and their alleged complicity.
In their statement, Kraszyk and Lupton said they will learn from this experience and “rebuild our relationship with a community that has been so generous and important to us.”
In January, the Warlord team announced plans to open a new concept called Lords in Humboldt Park. The Warlord owners had procured the building at 2803 W. Chicago Ave. last summer after Feed owner Nelson Sumba had to close the beloved neighborhood chicken shack because of a personal injury.
The news of Lords was met with heavy criticism from the CHAAD Project and some in the Humboldt Park community, who said allowing the owners to open a business in a neighborhood that’s home to a lot of diverse industry people, despite the allegations against Fleming, puts them at risk.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, whose ward includes the possible Lords location, said he is aware of “troubling allegations of abuse” about Fleming. In a statement, he said his office is in communication with the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection about next steps.
“The neighborhood is getting more gentrified, but Puerto Ricans really want to hold on to what we have here,” said Alejandro Gonzalez, a Boricuan chef who owns Moncho Moncheo, a Humboldt Park-based catering company, with Quique Ortiz. “And obviously the Young Lords have a lot of history here and a restaurant named Lords is absolutely rubbing salt in the wound. Imagine, the place that (Puerto Ricans) got displaced to has a restaurant called Lords that barely anyone in the neighborhood will be able to afford.”
In the 1960s, the Young Lords, under José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, transformed from a Chicago street gang into a major Puerto Rican human rights organization that fought against displacement and police brutality, and aided in community services. The Young Lords defied rapid, city-led gentrification that was displacing thousands of working-class Latino residents from Lincoln Park and pushing them west to areas like Humboldt Park.
Gonzalez, 28, moved to Chicago after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017. He worked his way through Chicago kitchens before Moncho Moncheo pop-ups took off. He’s also seen Humboldt Park shift. Gonzalez said it’s even more frustrating that the building slated for Lords formerly housed Feed, an offbeat diner where families could buy a quarter chicken, sides and a soda for $13.
“It’s wildly offensive,” Gonzalez said. “Even non-Puerto Ricans are saying it’s ridiculous. It’s just stupid, especially in an era where you would think everyone is trying to be more self-aware.”
After news of the allegations against Fleming spread in January, any record of Lords was wiped from Warlord’s already scant social media posts. But an Instagram account for Lords is still live with two posts from December.
On Thursday, Kraszyk and Lupton said Lords is Fleming’s project, and they would not be working with him in any capacity moving forward.
It’s not clear whether Fleming will proceed with opening Lords, or something else, at 2803 W. Chicago Ave. But after Wednesday’s court hearing, when asked if he was attached to a new restaurant named Lords, Fleming offered one quip.
“Think we’re going to name the restaurant Allegedlys now,” he told the Tribune.
Nathan Cooper, operations manager for Segnatore in Humboldt Park, said he hopes local efforts hinder Warlord’s expansion. Having been in the restaurant industry for more than 15 years, Cooper said the energy of Warlord is enough of a red flag.
“It’s the reputation (Fleming) had, of why Warlord is a heavy metal, loud, hot, uncomfortable space. … That space is him personified,” Cooper said. “It might not be what was included in write-ups from food publications, but within the industry, it was well-known that Trevor was difficult, that he had had very questionable behavior towards staff and towards guests. It is a huge city, but the restaurant industry is very small.”
Cooper said Fleming’s case also highlights the industry’s tendency to protect “untouchable” chefs.
In 2019, a slew of anonymous allegations posted on Instagram alleged former Chicago chef Ian Davis mistreated women and that the owners of the Michelin-rated brewpub Band of Bohemia failed to prevent a toxic work environment. Following the misconduct claims, Davis resigned instead of joining another top restaurant, Entente.
In June 2020, Fat Rice, the award-winning restaurant that helped make the Logan Square neighborhood a dining destination in Chicago, closed after employees accused the ownership of racism and creating a hostile work environment. In 2021, owners Abe Conlon and Adrienne Lo reopened as NoodleBird with a menu emphasizing handmade rice noodles and charcoal-grilled chicken.
And last year, Jacob Bickelhaupt, a renowned Michelin-star chef based in South Florida with ties to Chicago, was charged with a brutal assault that left a woman in critical condition, following a history of domestic violence. Bickelhaupt had pleaded guilty in 2017 to attacking his ex-wife and business partner in Chicago, leading to widespread public backlash and the closure of his Michelin-starred restaurant 42 Grams. But his career bounced back after his move to South Florida, where he earned another Michelin star for his restaurant Konro, which closed in 2025.
“I think service and hospitality award companies have a responsibility to improve their vetting systems, because it’s obvious the current system has allowed for predators to be platformed, and they benefit from that recognition, and it buffers them from accountability,” Cooper said.
Premier culinary authorities like Michelin should reconsider the inclusion of certain chefs and restaurants in the Michelin Guide, he added. Warlord, for example, was added to the Chicago Michelin Guide in 2024. The Michelin Guide could not be reached for comment.
“It stems back to this issue within the restaurant industry where chefs become untouchable if your food is great enough,” Cooper said. “If you keep getting the accolades and if your investors are happy, it is relatively impossible to oust a chef for sour behavior, especially if that behavior is towards staff.”
Fleming is also subject to an earlier order of protection involving 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, and threatened her for spreading rumors about him.
The order shows that Fleming was ordered to avoid the two North Side bars where the woman worked and to pay for damaging her apartment window 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. Fleming’s lawyer said the 2025 drug charge was an unproven allegation.
Fleming will be back in court on March 6.
