A weekend confrontation on a west Naperville block has left a 9-year-old boy shaken and a Plainfield man facing hate crime charges.
Prosecutors say the encounter unfolded Saturday on the 1400 block of West Jefferson Avenue, where 29-year-old Jeffrey Feigenbaum allegedly pushed the child, hurled a racial slur at him and tossed his bike aside. Feigenbaum was charged Monday with two felony hate crime counts, along with misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct, after appearing in DuPage County court.
According to DuPage County prosecutors, who spoke with CBS Chicago, the boy and several friends had been working on a fort when a girl damaged it. The boy went to knock on the girl's door. Instead of a simple kid-to-kid dispute, prosecutors say Feigenbaum, described in court as the girl's mother's boyfriend, came out, shoved the boy, shouted the N-word and threw the child's bike as the boy fled.
Naperville police responded to calls about the incident and arrested Feigenbaum. The hate crime and related charges were filed two days later.
What the law says
Under Illinois law (720 ILCS 5/12-7.1), a hate crime is not a standalone charge so much as a legal enhancement that applies when an underlying crime is committed because of a victim's actual or perceived protected characteristic, such as race or national origin. That hate crime designation allows prosecutors to elevate offenses like battery or disorderly conduct to bias-motivated felonies that can carry stiffer penalties and open the door to civil remedies, according to the Illinois General Assembly.
Court orders and next steps
At Feigenbaum's first appearance, prosecutors asked that he be detained. A judge instead ordered him released on electronic monitoring, with strict conditions aimed at keeping the child safe.
The court imposed a 5,000-foot no-contact zone around the victim, the victim's home and the victim's school, and ordered Feigenbaum to surrender any guns or ammunition, CBS Chicago reports. Feigenbaum is due back in DuPage County court on July 13.
A local pattern
For longtime residents, the case may feel disturbingly familiar. Naperville has seen other high-profile bias incidents in recent years, including a 2019 episode in which a Naperville Central student was charged after a racist Craigslist post drew national attention. The Washington Post reported at the time that officials publicly condemned the incident and pursued both discipline and prosecution.
In the current case, authorities say the investigation is ongoing. Feigenbaum is scheduled to appear again on July 13. Until then, the court's stay-away order and electronic monitoring are intended to protect the child while the legal process plays out.
