Speech Crime Nets Teen Sentence

2nd girl gets year of probation for anti-gay fliers

By Carolyn Starks | Tribune staff reporter

A second teenage girl was sentenced Wednesday to 1 year of probation and ordered to write letters of apology for distributing anti-gay fliers earlier this year outside Crystal Lake South High School.

The girl, 16, also was sentenced to 14 days in the McHenry County Jail, but Juvenile Court Judge Michael Chmiel suspended the sentence as long as she abides by the rules of her probation.

Prosecutors had asked for a 30-day suspended sentence, but Chmiel noted the girl had spent 18 days in a Kane County juvenile detention facility after her arrest.

The girl’s mother told Chmiel that her daughter had stopped using drugs and alcohol and had done well in summer school classes.”I think 18 days of jail was a huge, eye-opening experience,” the mother said.

The teen pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor disorderly conduct and resisting arrest under a deal with prosecutors who dropped a felony hate-crime charge.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-hatecrime_20_bothsep20,1,5507632.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=726

2007-09-20