A DuPage County judge allowed the pretrial release of a Plainfield man charged with using a racist slur against a Black child and it was not the first time he called someone that slur, prosecutors said.

On Sunday, Judge Anne Therieau Hayes denied a petition requesting the pretrial detention of Jeffrey Feigenbaum, 29, who is charged with felony hate crime, as well as the misdemeanor offenses of battery and disorderly conduct.

Feigenbaum is accused of calling a 9-year-old Black boy a racial slur on June 13 in Naperville, according to the petition filed by Kevin Kosman of DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin’s Office.

The boy had been building a fort down the street from Feigenbaum’s residence and knocked on the door to Feigenbaum’s home after a girl, later identified as the daughter of Feigenbaum’s girlfriend, allegedly damaged the fort, Kosman said.

Feigenbaum was accused not only of calling the boy a racist slur but pushing him and throwing his bicycle, according to Kosman.

Feigenbaum allegedly admitted to calling the boy the slur but denied physical contact and claimed the boy had a history of bullying his girlfriend’s daughter, Kosman said.

Hate crime is considered an offense eligible for detention under the pretrial provision of the SAFE-T Act.

Kosman’s petition said it was not the first time Feigenbaum used “racially derogatory language during the course of a criminal offense.”

Feigenbaum was sentenced to a year of court supervision for a 2023 disorderly conduct case, Kosman said.

In that case, officers responded to the Apple store in Oak Brook in response to a customer elbowing an employee, Kosman said.

An officer spoke to a store employee who said a customer, later identified as Feigenbaum, became agitated and called the employee the same racial slur Feigenbaum allegedly used against the boy, Kosman said. Feigenbaum also allegedly used a profanity to the store employee before elbowing the employee in the stomach, Kosman said.

Kosman contended Feigenbaum’s release would pose a risk to the 9-year-old boy and the community at large in light of the 2023 incident and the current one.

Kosman said Feigenbaum’s history “does not suggest that his criminal conduct is limited to unique circumstances which are unlikely to occur.”

“The fact that the defendant is willing and able to commit such offense in public suggests that he would be unable or unwilling to comport his behavior in line with any conditions this court might impose,” Kosman said.

Kosman also argued GPS monitoring and a court order cannot keep him from having contact with the 9-year-old boy “in real time” and cannot ensure Feigenbaum “will not engage in similar conduct in the future.”

Hayes allowed Feigenbaum’s pretrial release but ordered him to submit to GPS monitoring, remain at least 5,000 feet away from the boy, his residence and his school.

Feigenbaum was also ordered to surrender all firearms, firearm ammunition or other dangerous weapons to the Naperville Police Department.

In a statement, Berlin said hate crimes “have no place in a civilized society.”

“DuPage County is comprised of dozens of extremely welcoming and diverse communities and the type of behavior alleged in this case will not be tolerated,” Berlin said.