Judge To Homeless Protester: Get A Job Or Go To Jail
WHEATON, Ill. (CBS) -- A judge in DuPage County has giving a well-known suburban squatter a choice; get a job or face jail time.
As WBBM Newsradio's Julie Mann reports, Scott Huber was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct, accused of harassing a Naperville doctor who asked him to move his encampment from outside her office. He was convicted of the two misdemeanors earlier in the year.
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He was placed on two years' probation Thursday by DuPage County Judge Karen Wilson, the Naperville Sun reported. Under the terms of his sentence, he must undergo job placement training and secure at least 10 hours' weekly employment, or else he will face jail time, the newspaper reported.
Huber verbally objected to the sentence and vowed to appeal his sentence.
The doctor, psychologist Katherine Borchardt, said when she asked Huber to move from in front of her office in February 2010, he followed her into her office, yelling at her and demanding information to the point where she "cowered" on her office floor, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.
Huber was charged with trespassing, and was ordered to stay away from Borchardt and 500 feet away from the building. In April, Borchardt went on to sue him for defamation, on the grounds that he attacked her in his blog as "unethical" and "a disciple of Satan," the Tribune reported.
Huber, a 1969 graduate of Joliet Township High School and a 1971 graduate of Joliet Junior College, said he came to Naperville in 1989 after learning about the city's booming economy. He said he had an electronics business and shop in Lemont and wanted to grow the business in Naperville. But his life did not go as planned.
He said he was evicted from his Naperville home in 1999 after he said Ameritech demanded he pay in excess of $1,000 for services provided, which he contested. That was his last permanent residence. And Huber said the local government officials, police officers and judiciaries have "railroaded" him and purposely squelched his chances at growing his electronics business, A and A Electronics and Televisions. He said his business became "frozen" because of a lack of income and communication resources.
Naperville City Council members earlier this year considered banning Huber from setting up his belongings anywhere in town. But published reports said the city's attorneys advised that might be unconstitutional, so the city as stuck to a rule under which Huber is forbidden from camping, sleeping or storing personal property in public downtown.
