Anita Joost is charged with aggravated battery for encouraging her own daughter to fight another girl. Police say the mom even videotaped it.
Anita Joost didn't want to face ABC7 and describe, in her words, what led to her arrest, but she did say the situation was blown out of proportion,
"No,no,no, I will talk to you after I talk to my attorney, thank you," Joost told ABC7 through her door. "Yes, it was blown out of proportion. I can't talk about it now, thank you."
Elgin police say earlier this month, Joost drove her teen-aged daughter and her friends to Shadow Hill Park and initiated a fist fight with a fellow classmate.
The two were apparently having problems together at school.
"What's most disturbing to us about this case is the fact that it appears that the mother actually facilitated this fight, the mother encouraged this fight," said Elgin police Cmdr. Gleen Theriault.
As the two girls began to fight, Joost pulled out her cell phone and started shooting video. Others there did the same thing.
"This type of behavior by a parent is utterly deplorable," Theriault said. "We're supposed to teach our children to behave,, we're not supposed to teach our children how to commit a felony."
According to police records, after the fight Joost even threatened the victim saying, "you talk about my daughter again I'll have her break your (expletive) nose"
Joost admitted her involvement to police and this week was charged with aggravated battery and contributing to the criminal delinquency of a minor.
Joost's daughter was also charged as a juvenile.
Police in Elgin said they do not take cases like this lightly in lieu of a similar incident a couple of years ago. The victim in that case was killed by a mother who went after a teenager after a fight with her son and encouraged violence.
