Steve Hindi’s rap sheet

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

CHICAGO––Charged on September 8
with three counts of hunter harassment and one
count of harassing wildlife, for using his paraglider
to turn a flock of wild geese away from the
Woodstock Hunt Club in Harvard, Illinois, and
jailed for refusing to pay $400 bond, Chicago
Animal Rights Coalition founder Steve Hindi was
released on his own recognisance after a four-day
hunger strike, got the paraglider back by judicial
order on September 27, and was busted again for
leading a ground-based protest outside the hunt club
on October 14.
Hindi claimed he had obeyed to the letter
a temporary restraining order to stay away from the
club, issued by Judge James Franz on October 12,
after the club sued Hindi and CHARC seeking
$100,000 in damages and $300,000 in penalties for
disrupting business.

“The TRO pertained only to my use of
the flying machine,” Hindi insisted.
The 85 Woodstock Hunt Club members
pay dues of $1,000 per year plus $150 per day’s
hunting. Contending Illinois’ 12-year-old Hunter
Interference Prohibition Act is unconstitutional,
Hindi has for several years sought to challenge it in
court. The arrests of Hindi and Woodstock Hunt
Club neighbors Steve and Carol Gross may have
been the first ever made under the act.
Also charged under the act, on October
14, were independent activists Mary Ann Gates,
36, of Chicago, and Diane Louik, 53, of Glencoe.
Their cases will be moot if Hindi wins the constitutional
challenge.
In seven years of anti-hunting activism,
Hindi has been arrested more times, in more states,
on more charges than Illinois’ two most infamous
career criminals, Al Capone and John Dillinger,
but has never been convicted of a serious offense.
Hindi and CHARC won a round in an
unrelated case on October 16 when Lake County
judge Patrick Lawler ordered the Lake County
Sheriff’s Department to release within 10 days video
footage taken from member Susan Pieszek after the
arrests of 12 activists during a July 12 protest at the
Wauconda Rodeo.
Charges against eight of the 12, including
Hindi, were dropped on July 30, while charges
of felony obstruction of police filed against CHARC
members Greg Campbell and Christine Grushas
were reduced to misdemeanors. The police say the
video is evidence supporting the remaining charges;
CHARC claims it shows police brutality.