'Nazi' Assault Leads To Hate Crime Charge For Teacher: Police

NILES, IL — A fourth-grade teacher faces felony hate crime and aggravated battery charges after she was accused of attacking an 87-year-old woman in the parking lot of the Niles condominium complex where they both live, authorities said.

Nancy Sweeney, 45, of the 7000 block of Touhy Avenue, Niles, was arrested last month and placed on administrative leave last week from her position at Franklin School in Park Ridge-Niles School District 64, according to police and school officials.

The hate crime charge stems from an allegation by the senior, who is of German descent, that Sweeney called her a "[expletive] Nazi." The battery charge is a felony due to the elderly woman's age, according to Niles Police Department Acting Cmdr. Tony Scipione.

Officers were called to the parking lot of the Renaissance condominiums in the 7000 block of West Touhy Avenue around 7:45 p.m. on Feb. 20 for a report that a battery had just occurred.

The 87-year-old woman told police Sweeney hit her in the face with a purse, knocking her to the ground. Police reported she suffered bruises and cuts to her face, but refused to be taken to the hospital by the Niles Fire Department paramedics who treated her on scene.

Her neighbor told investigators she believed Sweeney was angered by the older woman's choice to exercise by taking a walk in the indoor parking garage of their condominium complex, Scipione said.

Detectives spoke with Sweeney and other residents of the building over the course of the next week. On Feb. 28, prosecutors approved two felony charges and police arrested Sweeney.

Sweeney has taught at Franklin Elementary School in Park Ridge for the past 13 years and worked for the district for 14 years, according to District 64 public information coordinator Peter Gill. Administrators learned of her arrest and the charges against her on March 3 and placed her on administrative leave the following day.

Gill said district administrators are conducting their own internal investigation. Because the incident did not occur at school, he said, district representatives had no further comment on her arrest Wednesday. Sweeney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

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If someone is motivated by another person's actual or perceived ethnicity, Illinois law makes it a hate crime for them to commit an assault, battery, intimidation, stalking, cyberstalking, misdemeanor theft or criminal damage to property, criminal trespassing, electronic or telephone harassment, disorderly conduct, transmission of obscene messages or mob action.

The law applies whenever someone is targeted due to their race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability or national origin, even if there were other motivations involved.

The aggravated battery charge is a class 3 felony, with a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison. The hate crime charge is a class 4 felony punishable by a maximum of three years. Convictions on both charges could also result in probation.

At a Feb. 29 bond hearing, a judge ordered Sweeney held in lieu of the $1,500 cash portion of her bond and monitoring by pre-trial services, according to prosecutors. No information about her custody status was immediately available from the Cook County Sheriff's Office. Sweeney is due back in court for a preliminary hearing on March 13.