A jury returned a split verdict Thursday night in the high-profile trial of Shiloh Hendrix, acquitting the Rochester woman of disorderly conduct charges involving the child at the center of the viral 2025 confrontation while convicting her on a separate count involving the man who recorded the encounter.
Hendrix faced two misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges after prosecutors alleged she called a child the N-word after accusing him of stealing an item from her baby’s diaper bag. Jurors found her not guilty on the count regarding the child but guilty on the charge related to the man who filmed the confrontation.
Hendrix was sentenced to a $1,000 fine, 200 hours of community service and a stayed 90-day jail sentence, meaning she will not serve jail time unless she violates the terms of her sentence, according to KAAL.
Hendrix’s defense attorney, Brian Karalus, said he plans to appeal the conviction.
“They couldn’t convict my client for calling an autistic child the N word because the only evidence was the father. And he was exposed as a fraud and a liar,” Karalus alleged in a statement to Alpha News. “So they convicted her for calling the Somali camera man the N word on the video. Which is lunacy.”
The social media platform X lit up with reaction after the split verdict in a case many viewed as a test of First Amendment protections.
Shiloh Hendrix found GUILTY on one count of “disorderly conduct” toward the Somali man who PROVOKED her into further reacting to being stolen from.
Hendrix found NOT GUILTY on one count of “disorderly conduct” toward the child she allegedly called a racial slur.
Wow.
— Savanah Hernandez (@Savsays) July 24, 2026
‘Fighting words’
The case drew national attention because it centered not on allegations of physical violence, but on whether Hendrix’s words constituted criminal “fighting words” — speech directed at a person that is likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction.
Throughout the trial, Hendrix maintained that the confrontation began after the child stole something from her 18-month-old’s diaper bag and that she was reacting to the situation.
Another person at the park, who was not related to the child, recorded the encounter and later posted the video online.
BREAKING: Shiloh Hendrix charged for the viral video of her saying a slur. She now is facing jail. pic.twitter.com/9or7jGIDO3
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 26, 2025
Karalus argued the prosecution violated the First Amendment and that Hendrix’s statements were, while offensive, constitutionally protected speech rather than criminal conduct. He also argued Hendrix was provoked during the encounter and that the person who recorded the confrontation was not related to the child.
“This prosecution is a direct affront to the First Amendment,” he wrote in court documents. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly and unequivocally held that the government may not punish speech simply because it is offensive or disagreeable.”
Prosecutors argued her remarks crossed the legal threshold into disorderly conduct under Minnesota law.
“The defense’s argument improperly treats all offensive speech as protected, ignoring that personally directed, inherently abusive language likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction falls outside First Amendment protection,” prosecutors wrote. “Here, the complaint does precisely that. It alleges that the defendant directed an extreme racial epithet at both adults and a child and chased a child in a confrontational manner.”
During testimony, the child’s father, Shire Jimale, testified with the help of interpreters. Jimale testified that he did not immediately report the incident to law enforcement, saying he contacted police a week later.
It was also revealed that his son was 8 years old at the time of the incident, not 5 years old, an age that had circulated widely on social media following the confrontation, including in a GoFundMe launched by the Rochester NAACP that raised more than $300,000 for Jimale.
“A Somali man took a ‘gotcha’ video of [Hendrix] with her child at the park after the original incident she was acquitted of,” Karalus told Alpha News. “He pursued her. He followed her. He baited her and goaded her. HE used the N word multiple times. HE said ‘you have the balls to say n— again?’ So she said it to him multiple times and flipped him off. For that she was convicted of a crime.”
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
