States Attorney
Two Hinsdale Central High School Students
Sentenced for Defacing High School Property
School defaced with swastikas, threats and other graffiti
WHEATON - DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph E. Birkett announced today that the final two of three Hinsdale Central High School Students were sentenced today to one year of probation and ordered to perform thirty hours of community service for vandalizing their high school earlier this year. On July 5, 2006 the third student plead guilty to a hate crime for his role in the incident and was sentenced to one year of probation and twenty hours of community service.
The sentencing comes after Judge Patrick Leston found the two students guilty of Criminal Defacement of Property, a Class 4 Felony, last August. Originally, all three students were charged in Juvenile Court with Hate Crimes – Criminal Damage to Property, Institutional Vandalism and Criminal Defacement of Property.
At approximately 2:30 a.m. February 21, the three students, all minors, allegedly entered school property near the football field and defaced a wall at the back of the end zone with anti-Semitic messages, swastikas and other graffiti.
“To see this type of destructive behavior from such young men is very disturbing,” commented Birkett. “What these boys did was not just a harmless high school prank. It was an intentional defacement of public property. Hopefully the sentence handed down today by Judge Leston will serve as a deterrent to others that such destructive behavior will not be tolerated and will carry severe consequences.”
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