Crime & Safety
Judge: Hate Crime Defendants Must Settle or Go to Trial in October
The next court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 6 for two men accused last summer of hate crime and robbery in Hickory Hills.
Attorneys for have until Oct. 6 to settle the charges with prosecutors or begin trial.
Hickory Hills police say Mohammad Shaban, of Hickory Hills, and Akram Alshoweat, of Oak Lawn, battered and robbed a woman they believed to be a lesbian on June 28, 2010, outside a restaurant. Last summer, a source close to the investigation said the woman lived in Palos Hills.
In court on Thursday, a prosecutor told Cook County Judge Colleen Ann Hyland that the state was still waiting for the woman to tender copies of her medical bills incurred by the alleged attack.
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All other evidence, including DNA samples and a copy of the 911 call, has been exchanged between parties. Shaban has repeatedly declared that the charges against him and Alshoweat are “lies.”
Hyland told attorneys on both sides that she had hoped to bring this case to a conclusion on Thursday and would move it to trial if they couldn’t come to an agreement by October.
