A union negotiator for several Illinois Education Ass’n units in Lake County pled not guilty Aug. 22 to charges of felony indecent solicitation of a child. Mark Reinstein was arraigned in Cook County Court on a seven-count indictment arising from his alleged contacts with an undercover Cook County Sheriff’s officer posing as a fourteen-year-old girl. He is currently free on $4,000 bond, and his next court date is scheduled for Sept. 26.
Reinstein was arrested in July after allegedly attempting to meet the officer outside a Lincolnwood restaurant. According to the Cook County State’s Atty.’s office, Reinstein had been in contact several times with the undercover officer via the Internet and the telephone. According to police, Reinstein began a computer conversation with the officer on July 11 while in a sexually explicit Internet chat room.
Following several computer conversations, the undercover officer agreed to meet Reinstein outside the Lincolnwood restaurant. Police said Reinstein wanted to take the officer to a private location for sex.
Reinstein was suspended from his job with IEA, a Nat’l Education Ass’n chapter, following his arrest. In the past several years, he has represented IEA units in Ingleside, Vernon Hills, Fox Lake, Wauconda and Round Lake school districts. [Copley News Serv. 8/22/00]