Former Park Forest mayoral candidate charged with burglary

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Updated: March 18, 2012 8:16AM

A onetime Park Forest mayoral candidate and former Rich Township High School District 227 board member was charged with felony burglary last week after allegedly stealing scrap metal out of a vacant home, police said.

Paul R. Jasinevicius, 55, of 351 Osage St. in Park Forest, was spotted carrying an aluminum panel and a spindle of red wire Feb. 8 in the 400 block of Orchard Drive, police said. Jasinevicius claimed he had picked up several pieces of scrap metal from a house on Nanti Street before he saw what he called several pieces of “garbage” in and around a vacant home on Orchard Drive. He said he took the spindle and the aluminum from near the garage but denied having entered the garage, police said.

Police said Jasinevicius apologized for taking the items and said, “I will never do it again and I will not scrap in Park Forest until I get a license.”

Will County Circuit Court Judge Marzell Richardson set bail at $25,000 on Feb. 10, records show. Jasinevicius is next due in court March 2.

Jasinevicius, then a District 227 board member, ran in the Park Forest mayoral election in 2007, losing to incumbent Mayor John Ostenburg. The former Park Forest-Chicago Heights School District 163 board member also lost races for the Rich Township Highway Commissioner’s job, the District 227 board and the Park Forest Village Board.

Jasinevicius did not respond Thursday to messages seeking comment.