Man charged with hate crime in synagogue vandalism out on bond
SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE - A Pilsen man accused of putting swastika stickers on the doors and breaking a window of a synagogue in the Loop last week has been released from the Cook County Jail after he posted bond Friday, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
Stuart Wright, 31, posted the requisite 10 percent of his $150,000 bail to secure his release on Friday, court records show. His next court date has not been set.
Wright, an accountant, was charged with a hate crime and criminal damage to property for allegedly placing two swastika stickers on the front doors and smashing a front glass window at the Chicago Loop Synagogue, 16 S. Clark St., in the early hours of Feb. 4.
At his bond hearing earlier this week, prosecutors said Wright was turned in by a tipster who described him as a local white supremacist who had Nazi paraphernalia outside his Pilsen residence.
Fingerprints taken from the swastika stickers matched those recently taken from Wright for a pending aggravated assault and disorderly conduct case in Elmhurst, prosecutors said. There were also three small cuts on Wright’s hand.
The tipster mentioned that Wright was known to drive a Toyota 4Runner. The tipster also said Wright was a “skinhead” and provided authorities with the license plate of the SUV, according to Wright’s police report.
Wright is a certified public accountant, his attorney said.
Police also found a pamphlet in his home that read, “How to Own a N—–.”
“We can’t tolerate this behavior,” Judge Donald Panarese Jr. said in setting bail.
“This act of anti-Semitism was meant to threaten the community, but it brought together the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities with a renewed purpose to stand together against such hate,” American Jewish Committee (AJC) Chicago Director Amy Stoken said in a emailed statement. “Our community has been heartened by the overwhelming show of solidarity and we will continue to stand together with the understanding that no one community is safe unless all communities are safe.”
Wright lives in the 2000 block of South Loomis but is also associated with addresses listed in Oak Brook and Elmhurst, prosecutors said.