West Chicago man guilty of battery

After three hours of deliberations, a DuPage County jury Thursday convicted of a man of aggravated battery but acquitted him of committing a hate crime against two Hispanic men during a dispute near West Chicago.

Robert J. Hindle, 44, of 210 Geneva St., West Chicago, faces a possible sentence of probation or up to five years in prison.

The two Hispanic men were fueling their landscaping equipment on July 19, 2007, at a gas station at North Avenue and County Farm Road when, they say, Hindle began shouting racial slurs at them.

He repeatedly punched one of the men, who had to be hospitalized and threw the other to the ground when he tried to intervene.

The men said Hindle told them the police wouldn't bother arresting him because he was an American. Hindle is due in court again Sept. 3.