Homeless Protester Can Stay In Naperville
NAPERVILLE, Ill. (CBS/WBBM) -- The 59-year-old man who has been living on Naperville streets for the past nine years will get to stay there.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Bernie Tafoya reports, squatter and protester Scott Huber was before the Naperville City Council Tuesday.
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Council members were considering banning him from setting up his belongings anywhere in town, but the Daily Herald reports the city's attorneys advised against that as probably being unconstitutional.
Thus, Naperville will leave well enough alone and keep limits it already has, forbidding camping, sleeping or storing personal property in public downtown.
Most recently, Huber has been set up at Ogden and Burlington avenues.
Katherine Borchardt asked the City Council to protect her and other business owners from Huber, against whom she has a restraining order.
Borchardt and Huber had a well-publicized dispute last year. Borchardt said when she asked Huber to move from in front of her office in February, he followed her into her office, yelling at her and demanding information to the point where she "cowered" on her office floor, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Huber was charged with trespassing, and was ordered to stay away from Borchardt and 500 feet away from the building. In April, Borchardt went on to sue him for defamation, on the grounds that he attacked her in his blog as "unethical" and "a disciple of Satan," the Tribune reported.
Huber, a 1969 graduate of Joliet Township High School and a 1971 graduate of Joliet Junior College, said he came to Naperville in 1989 after learning about the city's booming economy. He said he had an electronics business and shop in Lemont and wanted to grow the business in Naperville. But his life did not go as planned.
He said he was evicted from his Naperville home in 1999 after he said Ameritech demanded he pay in excess of $1,000 for services provided, which he contested. That was his last permanent residence. And Huber said the local government officials, police officers and judiciaries have "railroaded" him and purposely squelched his chances at growing his electronics business, A and A Electronics and Televisions. He said his business became "frozen" because of a lack of income and communication resources.
