People v. Tsyapalo

Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided July 27, 2026·No. 1-26-0840·Unpublished

Opinion

2026 IL App (1st) 260840-U

FIRST DIVISION

July 27, 2026

No. 1-26-0840B

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST DISTRICT

)

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of

Plaintiff-Appellee ) Cook County.

)

v. ) No. 26 MC 2001657 )

OLEKSIY TSYAPALO, ) Honorable ) Anthony John Calabrese, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge Presiding.

)

PRESIDING JUSTICE FITZGERALD SMITH delivered the judgment of the court.

Justices Howse and Cobbs concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: We affirm the circuit court’s order denying the defendant’s motion for relief and continue his pretrial detention where the State established by clear and convincing evidence that the proof was evident and the presumption great that the defendant committed a hate crime, posed a real and present safety threat to the victim, and no condition or combination of conditions could mitigate that threat.

¶2 The defendant, Oleksiy Tsyapalo, appeals from the circuit court’s April 11, 14, and 29,

2026 orders, directing that he be detained pretrial pursuant to section 110-6.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Code) (Pub. Act 104-417, § 1075 (eff. Aug. 15, 2025) (amending 725 ILCS 5/110-6.1)), commonly known as the Pretrial Fairness Act. On appeal, the defendant challenges his pretrial detention arguing that the State failed to present by clear and convincing evidence that: (1) the proof was evident or the presumption great that he committed a hate crime (720 ILCS 5/12-7.1-A (West 2024)); (2) he posed a real and present threat to the safety of the victim and the community; and (3) no less restrictive conditions could mitigate that threat. For the following reasons, we affirm.

¶3 II. BACKGOUND

¶4 The defendant was arrested on April 10, 2026, and charged with, inter alia, two Class 4 offenses: a hate crime (720 ILCS 5/12-7.1-A (West 2024)) and harassment through electronic communications (720 ILCS 5/26.5-3-A-5 (West 2024)).

¶5 On the following day, the State filed a petition seeking the defendant’s pretrial detention and the court held a detention hearing. At that hearing, the judge initially asked for information regarding the defendant’s pretrial supervision assessment (PSA), and the pretrial officer responded: “New criminal activity, 1; failure to appear, 1; PSA coincides with monitoring.”

¶6 The State then argued that the proof was evident and the presumption great that the defendant committed a detainable offense, to wit, a hate crime (720 ILCS 5/12-7.1-A (West 2024)). The State proffered that between 2016 and 2020, the victim, who is an attorney and realtor, employed the defendant as a real estate agent. The employment relationship ended amicably. The victim retained the defendant’s contact information, but did not hear from the defendant until 2024, when the defendant began calling and leaving him strange messages. The victim blocked the defendant’s phone number and did not hear from the defendant again until January 17, 2026.

¶7 On January 17, 30, and 31, 2026, and February 1, 2026, the defendant repeatedly called the victim and left voicemails that were “violent in nature.” On February 2, 2026, the victim made a police report about the phone calls and voicemails to the Northbrook Police Department. The defendant apologized to the victim and the victim declined to press charges based on the defendant’s assurances that he would stop harassing him.

¶8 On March 27, 2026, the defendant, now using social media, again sent the victim numerous incoherent and rambling messages. The messages were sent from an Instagram account with the defendant’s first and last name and the words “Luxury Lux Living.” According to the State’s proffer, in the messages the defendant threatened to harm the victim, noted the victim’s work address, made references to human trafficking and used derogatory terms such as “dirty Jew,” and the “ ‘N’ word.” On March 30, 2026, the victim emailed the Northbrook Police Department alerting them to the defendant’s threats.

¶9 A week later, on April 7, 2026, the defendant again contacted the victim. First, at approximately 10:53 a.m. the defendant left the following voicemail on the defendant’s cell phone:

“I’m f***ing last warning, motherf***er. This is last f***ing warning before I come there and kill your dumb a**. I’m going f***ing pull up over there and I’m f***ing going to kill you.”

Later that day, at approximately 12:12 p.m., the defendant left another voicemail in which he asked the victim, “where is my money b**ch,” and referred to the victim as a “dirty Jew.” Later that evening, the defendant sent the victim a series of emails from his Gmail account threatening to kill him and again referring to him as a “dirty Jew.” Specifically, the defendant wrote, “I’m going to make a career of taking your dirty, Jewish, loser-self down, and I can kill you.” The defendant then stated, “I am ready to kill you.” In another message, the defendant wrote “This is the last f***ing

warning before I f***ing come there and kill your dumb a**. I’m going to f***ing up over there and I’m f***ing going to kill you, dude.”

¶ 10 According to the State’s proffer, on April 10, 2026, the defendant turned himself over to the Northbrook Police Department. After he was given Miranda warnings, the defendant admitted to making threatening voicemails to the victim in February 2026. He acknowledged that the voicemails came from his phone, that he is the only one who uses it, and that he left the messages. The defendant also acknowledged ownership of the Instagram handle and Gmail account from which the victim was sent threatening messages and stated that he was the sole user. The defendant further admitted that he sent “aggressive” and “heat of the moment, dark stuff” to the victim but described his actions as “just a phase.” The defendant also acknowledged leaving death threats on the victim’s voicemail but denied he was trying to kill the victim. Instead, the defendant explained away his conduct as “doing exactly what the media was designed for.”

¶ 11 After the proffer, the State informed the court that the defendant had no prior criminal history and that this was his first arrest.

¶ 12 The State then argued that the proof was evident and presumption great that the defendant committed a hate crime when he repeatedly threatened the victim’s life and safety, while using antisemitic slurs. The State further argued that the defendant posed a real and present threat to the safety of the victim and the Jewish community. In this respect, the State pointed out that the defendant was not making threats in the abstract but “giving a time” frame, providing the victim’s address, and indicating he was going to “come over there,” and “make a career out of taking [the victim] [a] dirty Jewish loser-self down.” The State further argued that detention was the only way to safeguard against the defendant’s continuing threats to the victim and that no condition or combination of conditions could mitigate that threat. Specifically, the State pointed out that the

defendant had once already promised to stop his behavior, and the victim, believing him, chose not to press charges. However, instead of honoring his promise, the defendant had continued to threaten the victim using derogatory and antisemitic language.

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