On Friday, after a pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, one of former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka’s sons was ordered to attend anger management classes, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
After a July altercation with another man at the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, Illinois, Deerfield resident, and son of the Hall of Famer, Michael P. Ditka, 53, was charged with battery, according to authorities. According to Ditka’s attorney, the incident was the result of the man asking Ditka for money.
Misdemeanor disorderly conduct, the lesser charge, was Ditka’s plea at the Skokie courthouse. Cook County Judge William Jackson ordered Ditka to pay $364 in fees and fines, was sentenced to 12 months of supervision, and is prohibited from having any unlawful contact with the victim, in addition to the anger management classes.
According to court records, this isn’t the first time the younger Ditka has had police contact in his home of Lake County. Between 2004 and 2011 he had three DUI arrests. The 2004 arrest resulted in fines and court supervision, and he received probation when he plead down to a lesser charge of reckless driving in a 2008 arrest. An aggravated DUI case was dropped in 2011.
Ditka received court supervision in 1998 as well when he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in a Lake County court. The incident stemmed from a 1997 charge, in which according to authorities, while watching a football game he pushed his then-girlfriend.
The former Chicago Bears coach has three other children, two boys and a girl.