A trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday for a man charged with a hate crime last year after he was caught on cellphone video verbally berating a woman in a Cook County forest preserve for wearing a shirt emblazoned with a Puerto Rican flag.
Timothy G. Trybus, 63, of Des Plaines, was charged with a hate crime following the June 14, 2018, incident at Caldwell Woods on Chicago’s Far Northwest Side.
A cellphone video of Trybus berating the 24-year-old woman went viral, not just because of the Trybus’ harangue but also because a Cook County Forest Preserve District police officer stood by and watched Trybus shout at the woman, ignoring her repeated requests that he intervene. The officer later resigned.
“I feel good,” Trybus said Monday at the Skokie courthouse when asked how he felt about the upcoming trial.
Jurors were being selected on Monday.
The video, shot by the woman, shows an apparently intoxicated and aggressive Trybus telling her, “You should not be wearing that in the United States of America.”
He then moves closer asking: “Are you a citizen? Are you a United States citizen?”
When the woman replies that Puerto Rico is part of the United States, Trybus comes closer and she asks the forest preserve officer to help.
“I am renting this area and he’s harassing me about the shirt that I’m wearing,” she says.
Trybus originally was charged with misdemeanor assault, but following complaints from the Puerto Rican community members and others, the state’s attorney’s office upgraded charges.
The incident also prompted an apology from Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who later said she expressed her regrets in a phone call to then-Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.
Trybus’ defense attorney, David Goldman, on Monday would not say if his client will testify during the trial.
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter.