Lake Zurich man gets probation, home confinement for stalking Palatine waitress
A 72-year-old Lake Zurich man Thursday admitted to stalking a waitress who worked at a Palatine restaurant owned by his family.
In exchange for his guilty plea to stalking and criminal damage to property, Dimitrios Sarantopoulos was sentenced to two years probation and 90 days home confinement.
Cook County Judge Marc Martin also ordered Sarantopoulos to pay a $15,000 fine and $1,600 in restitution.
Prosecutors said during Sarantopoulos' bond hearing that he first showed up at the woman's apartment complex in 2015. Around that time, she began finding flowers, magazines and other items on her car, at home and at the restaurant where she worked. Authorities said Sarantopoulos' family owned the restaurant.
Later, he asked the woman to have a drink and threatened to cut her throat after she declined, prosecutors said.
The woman subsequently found scratches on her car, they said. She installed a video camera on her car which prosecutors say showed Sarantopoulos damaging the vehicle.
Prosecutors said the harassment continued even after the woman quit her job.
At his bond hearing, Sarantopoulos' defense attorneys said their client suffered from dementia and other ailments.
As a condition of his plea, Sarantopoulos is not allowed to have any contact with the woman for four years, prosecutors said.