Crime & Safety
Hate Crime Trial Delayed Five Weeks
Scheduling conflicts at the courthouse give attorneys more time to prepare for case stemming from an alleged incident in July 2010.
Trial was again delayed for a pair of southwest suburban men accused of battering and robbing a woman due to scheduling conflicts at the courthouse.
Attorneys for Mohammed Shaban, 37, of Hickory Hills, and Akram Alshoweat, 25, of Oak Lawn, were slated to pick a jury on Wednesday, which also marked the beginning of a sexual assault trial in Judge Colleen Ann Hyland’s courtroom in Bridgeview.
Last month, Hyland warned both sides that Shaban's and Alshoweat's trial might be pushed back if the originally scheduled case wasn’t settled.
Find out what's happening in Paloswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Shaban and Alshoweat were arrested for yelling anti-gay slurs in Arabic while punching, kicking and whipping a woman outside a Hickory Hills restaurant in 2010, police said.
Charges related to hate crime and robbery were filed around the time the men turned themselves in.
Find out what's happening in Paloswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Whether or not the woman is actually a lesbian will have no weight in upcoming testimony, . The burden of proof, then, will rest of whether the men believed she was during the fight.
Defense attorneys say the woman is a former Olympic Mixed Martial Arts fighter and will allege at trial that she was the aggressor.
The new trial date is March 19.
