Woman charged with aggravated battery, hate crime for alleged defacement of Pilsen mural
Danielle Wasserman, 37, faces four counts of aggravated battery in a public place, two counts of hate crime and a single count of criminal damage to property. The alleged June 13 confrontation between Wasserman and Natalie Figueroa, the woman who tried to intervene, prompted the Muslim civic advocacy group CAIR-Chicago to call for hate crime charges.
At a June news conference, Figueroa still had a large lump on her forehead and said Wasserman had hit her with a metal three-hole punch.
According to a police report, Wasserman was in the middle of painting 'THANK YOU ISRAEL' on the mural, located near the intersection of West 16th Street and South Ashland Avenue, when Figueroa tried to get her to stop. The mural depicts a Mexican man and a Palestinian man resting in a field.
The report stated that an arriving police officer found Wasserman pinning Figueroa to the ground near the mural. Wasserman allegedly told police that she did not want anything, that Figueroa had been following her and walked away from the scene.
Figueroa showed police a video she'd taken of Wasserman wearing a dark hoodie and sunglasses as she painted on the mural, the report stated. By the time police went to find Wasserman about a block away, she was gone, the report stated.
Wasserman was scheduled for a first appearance at Leighton Criminal Courthouse Friday at 12:30 p.m., a spokesperson for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office said.
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