Black Mount Prospect Family Files Hate Crime Lawsuit Against White Neighbor
(CBS) -- A black family in Mount Prospect is suing their white neighbor - accusing her of harassing and terrorizing them for the past five years.
William Kraus is the lawyer for 57-year-old Iris Howe and her children - a black family suing their white neighbor across the street.
"It's been a very aggressive and utterly malicious harassment of these kids," says Kraus, of the firm Katten Muchin Rosenman. "It's obvious that she's trying to drive them from their home, and it just has not place in this day and age."
Black Mount Prospect Family Files Hate Crime Lawsuit Against Neighbor
Kraus says since the day the Howe family moved in to the townhouse development in Mount Prospect in 2009, their neighbor has said things - especially to the children - telling them to "die," using the n-word when she sees them - and more than once, following them in her car as they walk down the street, which is without sidewalks.
"Getting within inches of their legs. And on one occasion she actually pulled the car around and perpendicularly blocked their path... and sort of stared them down. And then (she said), 'What are you going to do now?'"
Kraus says the hate crime lawsuit filed in Cook County asks for damages against the neighbor.
WBBM contacted the neighbor - the defendant - but she was unaware of the lawsuit.
