FILE – This photo provided by the Winnetka Police Department shows Irene Donoshaytis, 65, who was charged with a hate crime on Sept. 2, 2020 after aggressively confronting three black bicyclists near a pier in Winnetka, Illinois. . Donoshaytis was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to a lesser charge on Oct. 19, 2022. (Winnetka Police/Chicago Tribune via HPD)
FILE – This photo provided by the Winnetka Police Department shows Irene Donoshaytis, 65, who was charged with a hate crime on Sept. 2, 2020 after aggressively confronting three black bicyclists near a pier in Winnetka, Illinois. . Donoshaytis was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to a lesser charge on Oct. 19, 2022. (Winnetka Police/Chicago Tribune via HPD)
WINNETKA, Ill. (HPD) — A white woman charged with a hate crime in a 2020 confrontation in which she told three black cyclists they couldn’t be on a suburban Chicago beach has been sentenced. to parole after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.
The hate crime charge Irene Donoshaytis had faced in Cook County was changed Wednesday to a misdemeanor assault under a plea deal. Donoshaytis pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to one year of probation.
The agreement includes a requirement that the 67-year-old woman attend an anti-racism class, the Chicago Sun-Times said.
Donoshaytis was charged in August 2020 with aggressively confronting Otis Campbell and two other black cyclists who were riding their bikes by a dock on Lake Michigan in Winnetka, police said.
Campbell videotaped the interaction on his cell phone and posted the video on Twitter.
In the video, Donoshaytis complains to a Winnetka Park district employee that the three men did not fit into a certain area without a pass. The employee responds that the men were on public property and that a beach pass was not required.
Donoshaytis disagrees with him and asks if Campbell wants to kill her. Campbell replies, “Why, because I’m black?”
“Yes,” Donoshaytis told him.