Minnesota woman Shiloh Hendrix found guilty of disorderly conduct in racial slur case

A jury convicted a Minnesota woman of disorderly conduct Thursday night over her treatment of a bystander who recorded her hurling a racial slur at an 8-year-old autistic boy last year, while acquitting her of a separate charge tied directly to her conduct toward the child.

Shiloh Hendrix, 37, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct after an April 2025 confrontation at Roy Sutherland Playground in Soldier’s Field Park went viral, according to an Olmsted County criminal complaint stating police responded to the park after a man recorded video of Ms. Hendrix engaging in a hostile and racist manner toward a child, per Fox 9. Ms. Hendrix has said the boy took an applesauce pouch from her diaper bag before she pursued him and used the slur, and she then turned the same language on the man filming her.

Jurors deliberated for roughly nine hours before finding Ms. Hendrix guilty on the count tied to her behavior toward the man with the camera, but not guilty on the count involving the child, according to MPR News. She was sentenced immediately to a stayed 90-day jail term, one year of probation, 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.

Ms. Hendrix’s attorney, Brian Karalus, said he plans to appeal. “I think it’s pathetic,” he said following the verdict, adding that he was “shocked.”

The Rochester City Attorney’s Office, which brought the charges, called the case painful for the community while acknowledging the mixed outcome. “Ms. Hendrix fully admitted to her hateful and racist conduct, toward a child with a disability and others, and she has profited immensely while showing no remorse,” the office said in a statement.

The case drew national attention after the confrontation video spread online, prompting Ms. Hendrix to launch an online fundraiser claiming she had been doxxed and threatened. That campaign has raised close to $900,000, while a separate fund set up by the Rochester NAACP for the boy’s family has collected more than $330,000, now held in trust for the child.

The verdict capped a contentious four-day trial that drew both supporters and critics of Ms. Hendrix to the Olmsted County Government Center, according to a split-verdict report from KSTP.