DeVore Admonished, Sanctioned by Federal Judge
Attorney Thomas DeVore speaks toa reporter after a judge granted a temporary injunction sought by Sangamon County against his clients on November 17, 2020. DeVore’s clients were restaurants in Springfield that were continuing to operate without food permits after they were serving indoor diners during the pandemic. (Photo: State Journal-Register)
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Thomas DeVore, the southern Illinois attorney who made a name for himself with lawsuits challenging Governor JB Pritzker’s COVID-19 mandates and was the 2022 GOP nominee for Attorney General, was admonished and sanctioned by a federal bankruptcy judge Tuesday for his actions with a former client, girlfriend, and business partner.
The opinion, issued by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Gorman in Springfield, is related to a bankruptcy filing by Riley Craig, who was a client of DeVore when she attempted to re-open her Springfield hair salon amid Governor JB Pritzker’s mandated shutdown of the businesses in 2020. She later became romantically involved with DeVore and the two co-owned a hair care product startup.
Craig filed bankruptcy in May when the business was failing and couldn’t repay a $600,000 loan, putting her assets into an “automatic stay,” essentially freezing any attempt to collect debts during bankruptcy proceedings.
Attorneys for Craig said DeVore filed a lawsuit against her in Bond County seeking judicial dissolution of the business, to disassociate DeVore from the business, and an accounting of the debt of the business. Four days later, DeVore filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Craig.
Craig’s attorneys claimed the filings were illegal and violated the automatic stay and asked for sanctions against DeVore.
Gorman’s opinion was unkind to DeVore, claiming his actions were “egregious violations” of the automatic stay law.
“Mr. DeVore’s conduct was indefensible. He filed a lawsuit just two days after the Debtor filed bankruptcy, and, despite being told by [Craig’s attorney] that the filing violated the stay, he doubled down with an emergency motion and then his petition for an order of protection,” Gorman wrote. “The filing of the petition for an order of protection was particularly offensive because Mr. DeVore attempted to use a statute designed to help vulnerable people, including children, from the horrors of domestic violence to settle his business disputes with the Debtor. He misrepresented that he was a victim of domestic violence when he was not, and he presented false and misleading evidence in his petition and the attached narrative. “
Gorman ordered DeVore to pay Craig around $14,000 in damages, which was less than the $20,000 she asked for.
She called his actions “willful and egregious,” and that his conduct was “highly unprofessional.”
DeVore did not return a message Tuesday night.