Crystal Lake Teen's Hate Crime Charge Dismissed

It’s Wednesday and the Northwest Herald has posted a story resulting from court action this morning.

This not waiting until the print edition is a relatively new strategy for the NW Herald.

I guess they wanted to be first to publish the dismissal of the felony hate crime charges.

And they are.

Or maybe they weren’t.

I see the Daily Herald’s Chuck Keeshan also has an article up. He reports the teen pled guilty misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting a peace officer.

The 16-year old Crystal Lake South High School student, who has pretty much confined to her home this beautiful time of year did plead guilty to a misdemeanor, disorderly conduct.

And, according to Judge Mike Chmiel that will continue until her sentencing on August 15th.

“Not everyone is treated equally,” the Daily Herald reports the mother's saying. “Obviously, it wasn’t a hate crime; that’s why they dropped the charge.”

She has already spent 18 days in jail.

I encourage you to read Keeahan’s and Brandon Coutre’s article for more details, one of which is

The fliers contained a photo, taken from the social-networking Web site MySpace, that depicted a male classmate kissing another male classmate.

The ACLU has been missing in action in this case.

The State's Attorney has been criticized by Tribune columnist Dennis Byrne and John Bambenek, a Downstate conservative blogger from University of Illinois country, among others.

Other Crystal Lake High School 155 high school students have also had run-ins with the law this spring include Allen Lee from Cary-Grove High School for writing an essay his teacher considered threatening and Matt Hayes from Crystal Lake Central High School who is alleged to have written a threatening note on a bathroom wall the week of the Virginia Tech massacre.