Doctor drops lawsuit against Scott Huber
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com December 5, 2011 8:46PM
Scott Huber has been camping at different spots around Naperville for years. | Sun-Times Media file photo
Updated: February 6, 2012 1:39PM
A lawsuit that had sought a minimum of $50,000 in damages from homeless, self-styled Naperville protester Scott M. Huber has been dropped.
The civil suit was filed in March 2010 in DuPage County Circuit Court by neuropsychologist Katherine Borchardt. It accused Huber of assault, trespassing, defamation of character, invasion of privacy and “extreme and outrageous conduct” during a Feb. 1, 2010 confrontation inside Borchardt’s former office near downtown Naperville.
Court records from Sept. 26 indicated the case had been continued to Monday in Judge Patrick J. Leston’s courtroom. Leston, during the interim, affirmed a motion by Borchardt’s legal team that the matter be voluntarily dismissed “without prejudice,” according to records.
Borchardt moved her practice to Warrenville, after having told The Sun she no longer felt safe in Naperville because of Huber’s continuing presence there. She did not return a call that sought comment on the litigation, although her attorney, Mark Bishop, confirmed Monday she was no longer pursuing it.
“Dr. Borchardt was focusing on the criminal case against Huber, and told me she would be getting the relief she wanted in that case,” said Bishop, of the Huck Bouma law firm in Wheaton. He was referring to Huber’s Oct. 21 conviction on misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass to land and disorderly conduct stemming from the incident at Borchardt’s office.
Court records showed Huber had filed a number of pretrial discovery requests in the civil case. Leston early last fall had ordered Borchardt to submit contact information for relatives, friends and other potential witnesses in the upcoming trial, and Bishop said Borchardt around that time opted not to pursue the matter.
Huber, 61, has long contended Naperville officials were responsible for the loss of his home and electronics business. He spent eight years living on the sidewalk outside the city’s public parking deck near the northeast corner of Chicago Avenue and Washington Street.
After city attorneys won a temporary injunction banning him and others from camping downtown, Huber moved to the northeast corner of Benton Avenue and Washington Street, just feet away from the legally defined northern border of the downtown area and directly outside Borchardt’s office.
Borchardt has maintained she asked Huber to consider moving up the street so as not to startle her patients, many of whom are children with special needs. She said an angry Huber instead followed her into the building and up the staircase leading to her office, where he began shouting at her and pounding on her door while she hid on the floor behind a chair.
Huber has contended he was inside a public building and merely trying to learn Borchardt’s identity. A judge later issued an order prohibiting him from being within 500 feet of Borchardt or her office.
Huber had also erected signs near his encampments, urging passersby to boycott Borchardt.
Borchardt has a year to refile the case. Bishop said she has not indicated whether she might do so.
Huber did not immediately reply to an e-mail sent Monday seeking comment.
He told The Sun in April 2010 he had lost the $850 he had to his name. “That’s the only nest egg I had,” he said at the time. “So (Borchardt’s) spinning her wheels. She can’t get blood out of a turnip.”
Huber is scheduled to appear Thursday in court for possible sentencing on the trespassing and disorderly conduct charges.
