Forty-seven year old Michael Stuart comes across to most people as a very different person than he does in the video of a 2019 incident that got him two-and-a-half years on probation this afternoon. In court, a prosecutor played someone’s cell phone video of Stuart angrily confronting an elderly couple walking in his Peru neighborhood. Stuart yells at the couple to stay off of his property. Stuart pleaded guilty in 2021 to aggravated battery for pushing the approximately 82-year old man in that video over a guardrail by a ravine.
The man had minor injuries, but it wasn’t lost on prosecutor Jeremiah Adams and Judge Cynthia Raccuglia that had the man died it would have been a murder case. Adams asked for a four-month jail sentence. He said, “You don’t push an 80-year old man over a guard rail to solve your problem.” Adams said in court, “You can be hoppin’ mad about it. You stay in your house. You call the cops.”
Stuart apologized to the couple. They’re both 86 years old now and both were in the courtroom. The woman testified she thought her husband was dead after he went over the guardrail. She said Stuart took her camera and telephone, threw them into the ravine, and pushed her. She said she’d never seen Stuart before that day.
Judge Raccuglia ordered Stuart to perform 300 hours of community service with the elderly during his probation, “For you to understand how awful your acts were.” Even so, she found it hard to reconcile the Stuart in the video with the Stuart described in letters to the judge, a counselor evaluation, and whom she’d seen in court herself. The counselor found no anger problems. Friends described him as a good citizen. Raccuglia noted he was apologetic and took responsibility. In case it might reveal an explanation, Raccuglia ordered Stuart to have a mental health evaluation. She also said, “I’m confident nothing like this ever going to happen again.”