Naperville street squatter Scott Huber said he felt “railroaded” after a DuPage County judge convicted him Friday of two misdemeanors for following a psychologist into her building and then pounding on her office door.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed. I really feel like I get railroaded in this courthouse every time I come here,” said Huber, a protester who has clashed frequently with Naperville officials in the years he has lived on the suburb’s downtown streets.
Huber faces up to six months in jail after Judge Karen Wilson found him guilty of disorderly conduct and trespassing for his actions during a Feb. 1, 2010, confrontation with psychologist Katherine Borchardt.
Borchardt testified that as she arrived at her office, she politely asked Huber if he would move to a site across the street so he wouldn’t alarm young patients she was scheduled to see that day.
Instead, Borchardt testified, Huber angrily began demanding her name, then followed her into the building and even pounded on her locked office door as she called police.
She twice asked him to leave the building, Borchardt said, but he remained for several minutes before finally exiting.
“Clearly Ms. Borchardt was alarmed and disturbed. She was hysterical,” Wilson said as she convicted Huber.
Huber didn’t testify, but his court-appointed attorneys contended Borchardt provoked the encounter.
Borchardt declined Friday to comment on the verdicts.
Huber, 60, has a long history of disputes with city officials and property owners while he has lived on the streets, protesting what he calls unfair treatment by the affluent suburb.
He was convicted of disorderly conduct last year for refusing to leave a downtown business. Earlier this year, city officials obtained an injunction that bars Huber from living on downtown sidewalks.
He remains free pending his Dec. 2 sentencing.
