A candidate for Sangamon County circuit court judge has been accused of concealing a bankruptcy petition from a Springfield business owner.

Ryan Bandy, owner of the Station House bar in downtown Springfield, says that his business and legal affairs would have gone more smoothly if he had known that a former business partner had declared bankruptcy.

Instead, a fight for ownership of the bar played out in state court while the Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition was pending in federal court. Typically, such state court proceedings are automatically delayed until bankruptcy proceedings have concluded, according to Bandy’s lawyers. In this case, Bandy says that state court litigation should have been put on hold and that he then would have bought his former partner’s option to acquire a controlling share of the Station House from the bankruptcy estate, rendering moot the state court fight for ownership of the bar.

But Bandy says that he never got a chance to buy out Kent DeLay, a former owner of the Station House who declared bankruptcy in 2014, because he wasn’t notified that DeLay had filed for bankruptcy, even though his name appears on the list of creditors who must be given notice. Court documents show that a notice of bankruptcy and four other bankruptcy court documents intended for Bandy were mailed to DeLay’s lawyer, David Reid, who is running for Sangamon County circuit court judge and has never acted as Bandy’s lawyer. Reid represents DeLay in the state court lawsuit but not in bankruptcy proceedings.

During a brief interview after a court session on the matter this week, Reid said that accusations against him are a politically motivated smear.

“I have a very high rating for integrity,” said Reid, noting that he received high marks from fellow attorneys in an Illinois State Bar Association poll held to rate judicial candidates, including his opponent, Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge April Troemper.

Bandy and his lawyers say that an attorney cannot withhold a material fact from a court and so DeLay’s federal bankruptcy filing should have been disclosed to the state court. Complicating matters, at least in a political sense, is the fact that Bandy, Reid’s accuser, is supporting Troemper in the judicial race.

Bandy says that Reid knew that DeLay had filed for bankruptcy yet didn’t disclose the filing to the state court that was handling litigation over Station House ownership. DeLay last year won a ruling from Sangamon County Associate Judge Chris Perrin, who decided that DeLay should get ownership of the bar. The Fourth District Appellate Court upheld Perrin’s decision this year. Now, Bandy says that Perrin’s decision should be voided and the bankruptcy case reopened.

“The courts are without blame, but the debtor (DeLay) and his attorney (Reid) knew of the bankruptcy filing and failed to disclose that material fact,” Kevin Linder, an attorney for Bandy, wrote last month in a bankruptcy court filing. “The creditor (Bandy) has been substantially harmed by the failure of the debtor to properly list known creditors, and the actions of his attorney for…failing to notify the creditor or the Sangamon County court and the appellate court of the filed bankruptcy.”

In an Oct. 7 state court filing, David Hall, a lawyer who represents Bandy in the dispute over Station House ownership, says that Reid “actively concealed” the bankruptcy filing from Bandy and his lawyer.

“Mr. Reid never informed Bandy or his counsel that he was receiving notices intended for Bandy, and apparently never informed the bankruptcy court that he was not Bandy’s attorney, but was actually adverse to Bandy, and should not have been receiving notices on behalf of Bandy,” Hall wrote in the state court motion filed last week.

Perrin on Tuesday gave Reid 28 days to file a written response to Hall’s motion.

Bandy says that a bar patron told him about the bankruptcy in late July, shortly after the appellate court upheld Perrin’s ruling that DeLay should get control of the bar. On Aug. 4, Bandy’s lawyer sent a letter to bankruptcy trustee Mariann Pogge, stating that Bandy had just learned of the bankruptcy and was willing to pay $10,000 for DeLay’s share of the bar. Noting the state court decision in favor of DeLay, Pogge on Aug. 16 asked the bankruptcy court for permission to sell the interest in the bar to DeLay for $15,000. That motion remains pending in federal bankruptcy court, where a hearing is set for Tuesday.

It isn’t clear how or why Reid’s office address was listed in federal bankruptcy files as the place to send correspondence to Bandy, nor is it clear whether Reid would have known from the envelopes that the correspondence pertained to DeLay. In any case, there likely would be no controversy if Reid had given Bandy or his lawyer letters from the bankruptcy court that were addressed to Bandy. Asked why he did not do that, Reid did not answer the question during a brief interview after a Tuesday session in Perrin’s court.

“This is all about smearing me in the political campaign coming up,” Reid said.

Not so, says Linder. “I know Dave, I like Dave, I consider Dave a friend,” Linder said. “This case is very disturbing to almost every practitioner I’ve talked to. … There’s a lot of questions about the whole litigation of this.”

Whether Reid knew about the bankruptcy but didn’t alert the state court or Bandy is a critical issue, Hall said.

“As an attorney, you’ve got a duty of candor to the parties and the court to not conceal a material fact,” Hall said.