MINNEAPOLIS — A Hennepin County judge has ordered U.S. Senate candidate Royce White not to contact his ex-wife and son, finding the former basketball star liable for abuse that left his family “plainly in fear.”
The order for protection prohibits White from contact with his ex-wife for 50 years and with his teenage son for two years.
Judge Kristen Marttila issued the order in February and wrote that White’s ex-wife — who divorced him in 2015 and lived with him from 2022 until August of last year — is “utterly at a loss for how else to gain peace from him.”
This is the third order for protection that White’s ex-wife has obtained against him, but the first time he has been ordered to stay away from his son. They also share a daughter together, who he is allowed to continue seeing.
The order for protection is a civil ruling but if White violates it he can face additional criminal charges. White appealed the decision on April 16.
The petition was filed last December by White’s ex-wife and alleged that he had routinely abused her and their son and that it “has been escalating towards me and our children, making me scared for all of our safety.”
She said White threatened her in public, hit her in private and traumatized their children with his behavior.
Marttila found that several of the allegations were true, including incidents where White abused his son at high school basketball practice.
In one of those instances, White did not approve of his son’s attitude and “chased his minor son, grabbed him by the neck, and threw him into the metal ball rack.” The action caused a scratch on his son’s neck and pain to his arm.
A child advocate assigned to the case also found that White’s son “is scared for his physical safety around his father” but that his minor daughter is not fearful for her safety around White.
Because White’s ex-wife had obtained two previous orders for protection against him — and he had previously pleaded guilty to violating one of those orders — the court had the power to extend the timeline for this order for protection against him up to 50 years, Martilla noted.
She found White abused his ex-wife repeatedly — slapping her, grabbing her, pulling her hair, leaving her bruised and swollen. He was jealous, threatening and insulting, showed up uninvited at her home and work, called her a bitch, and took over her email and social media accounts to message people she knew.
At a court hearing in January over the petition, White’s ex-wife “broke down describing the emotional toll (White’s) behavior had on her and the fear that he will harm their children to hurt her.”
Martilla said that testimony was “entirely credible.”
At that evidentiary hearing, several people testified, including White, his ex-wife, the child advocate, another parent on White’s son’s basketball team, White’s mother and a man who works for White.
Susan Yager, the attorney who represented White’s ex-wife, said she couldn’t understand why he was appealing a straightforward ruling, unless it was about making a political statement.
“He’s shooting himself in the foot,” she said.
Yager added that she volunteered to do the case after it was referred through Tubman, the Minnesota organization that helps people experiencing trauma, including domestic violence.
Messages seeking comment were left with White’s campaign and his attorney on this case, Lee Hutton.
The order for protection was first reported by MPR News on Thursday.
White responded to the MPR report in a lengthy statement on his Substack, in which he says that “men and fathers are under attack in America,” denies any evidence of abuse and attributes the news of the protective order to his “political potency.”
White includes a video he says shows his son’s friend smoking marijuana behind the garage of the house where Royce says his ex-wife has resided for 10 years. He claims when he reprimanded their son, his ex-wife yelled at him and sprayed him with mace.
“In a nation full of children with no father at home, children that do have a father at home are having them ripped from their life by the court system,” White said. “Our system allows this time and time again. To say that this form of discipline (yelling at my son) is abusive, is in fact a huge problem in America.”
White accuses his ex-wife of lying and claims culture and the courts accept women’s lies.
“P.S. This is why so many men intentionally work long hours, submerse themselves in hobbies, sometimes cheat and dread going home,” he said.
The order stipulates that White have no contact with his ex-wife and son outside of family court proceedings. He cannot go near their current or future homes, his ex-wife’s work or his son’s school. White has to take part in a domestic abuse program, take a mental health evaluation and turn over any firearms he owns.
White has spent the bulk of his life in the spotlight in Minnesota, first as a star basketball player at Hopkins High School. He played for the Gophers and Iowa State in college and was selected No. 16 overall in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets.
His NBA career stalled after White, who had a fear of flying, was unable to find a workable arrangement to balance his anxiety with the travel demands in the NBA. He played three games in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings in 2014. He also played pro basketball in the NBA D-League and in Canada.
Over the last several years, he has found prominence in local and national politics.
White ran unsuccessfully in a Republican primary in 2022, seeking to challenge DFL U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar. In 2024, he unexpectedly won the party’s backing to challenge Sen. Amy Klobuchar, beating a more establishment candidate for the endorsement.
But controversy followed White throughout the campaign, including a Federal Election Commission complaint and allegations that he went on a spending spree after his failed run for Congress, using leftover funds at a strip club, high-end hotels and resorts and for limousine services. White defended the transactions but eventually reimbursed some of that spending.
White handily lost the general election to Klobuchar and is now running in a crowded field of Republicans to replace U.S. Sen. Tina Smith when she retires next year. He’s seeking the party’s endorsement again at the GOP’s convention in May.
He has routinely intersected with Minnesota’s judicial system — including for stealing $100 worth of merchandise from the Mall of America when he was a young man and being party to civil filings for domestic abuse, child support, paternity and failing to pay rent.
(Nathaniel Minor of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.)
©2026 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
