Thomas defends bankruptcy, failure to pay daughter’s medical bills

Bob Thomas, the Republican candidate for the state Senate in Legislative District 15, watches his Democratic opponent, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, at the Arizona Capitol Times' Morning Scoop discussion on state health care issues Oct. 19. (Photo by Evan Wyloge/Arizona Capitol Times)

Senate candidate Robert Thomas, a Phoenix Republican who is touting himself as a successful businessman, filed for personal bankruptcy in 1994 and he was a wanted man in Mississippi for four years after a judge found him in contempt of court for failing to pay his daughters’ medical bills.

Thomas, who owned a farm in Claiborne County, Miss., said he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after a hurricane devastated his land, which was uninsurable because it vulnerable to flooding.

Thomas said he actually sees the bankruptcy as a source of pride because it shows he prospered through hardship, preserving his credit rating, preserving his business and coming out of the experience as a minister.

“It made me be the man I am today,” said Thomas, 63, who faces Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in the Legislative District 15 Senate race.

Thomas’ campaign website mentions his business experience and he talked about it repeatedly during the Clean Elections Commission debate.

“Just as each family should be responsible in their finances, I am passionate about government acting and spending our resources responsibly,” Thomas states on his website.

Thomas owned a furniture store for 20 years before selling it and buying his farm around 1988. He moved to Arizona in 2000 and worked as a consultant. Corporation Commission records show that he incorporated Bulldog West Equipment, Inc. in August 2005. The company sells construction equipment.

“I’ve been successful in my business career, even though there was that interruption,” Thomas said.

Thomas said he believed the storm that destroyed his crops was Hurricane Andrew. According to the National Hurricane Center website, Andrew devastated south Florida in August 1992, but decreased to a tropical storm by the time it hit Mississippi, although it dropped upwards of seven inches of rain in places.

Thomas’ personal finances were in shambles when he declared bankruptcy on Nov. 7, 1994.

Bankruptcy documents show he owed $1.6 million and his two largest creditors were First Republic Bank in Louisiana at $800,000 and Trustmark National Bank in Mississippi at $300,000. Also listed were John Deere Credit, $130,000; Farmers Co-Op in Mississippi, $89,000; and his company, Tri-County Livestock, $20,000. He also owed on various credit cards and miscellaneous debt, including a $185,000 property settlement with his ex-wife.

It was a dispute with his ex-wife that landed Thomas in hot water with Mississippi courts.

According to documents from Chancery Court of Claiborne County, Miss., a judge found Thomas in contempt of court Nov. 14, 2001, for not appearing at a hearing pertaining to an order to pay his ex-wife $17,890 in medical bills for their youngest child.

The judge ordered that Thomas be jailed until he made good on the payment.

“I refused to pay that because it was ridiculous to begin with and eventually I did pay that,” he said.

Thomas said he made the payment in 2005 at the urging of his current wife to be done with it.

Thomas said the property settlement from his 1994 divorce required him to pay his ex-wife for 15 years, but he paid her off in one year and she returned for more money – the $17,890 at issue in 2001 – after squandering the first lump sum payment.

“The judge said I’m going to have to give her something if you want her to go away,” Thomas said.

According to court documents, however, the judge’s order came as a result of an arbitrator whose participation was agreed to by both parties and who determined what Thomas owed.