Victim's Sexual Orientation Off Topic at Next Week's Hate Crime Trial

Any evidence concerning the fighting abilities or the actual sexual orientation of a woman who was allegedly beaten and robbed for being a lesbian has been barred from a hate crime trial that commences next week.

Mohammed Shaban, 37, of Hickory Hills, and Akram Alshoweat, 25, of Oak Lawn, 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 shortly after the men turned themselves in.

Establishing last minute boundaries on defense attorneys, Judge Colleen Ann Hyland ruled Monday that both the woman’s sexual orientation and Shaban’s clean criminal record were irrelevant topics for trial.

Alshoweat, on the other hand, was sentenced to 90 days in Cook County jail for a battery that occurred in Worth in 2007.

Defense attorneys say the woman is a former Olympic Mixed Martial Arts fighter and have entered a DVD of her fighting professionally into evidence.

“She’s just not your average victim who has no specialized skill or training in self-defense,” said Alshoweat’s attorney, Michael Monaco.

“We are alleging she was the aggressor,” Shaban’s attorney, Gregg Smith, would later add.

The DVD will remain off topic unless the defense can find a reason at trial for showing it to a jury.

If, for instance, the woman denies her fighting skills and background, “then I have a right to impeach her,” Monaco said.

Trial begins Feb. 8 at the Cook County Fifth Municipal District Courthouse in Bridgeview.