Elected Official Facing Battery Charge in Campaign Sign Fight

By Shannon Antinori

A Plainfield Park District commissioner who allegedly attacked an election worker for state Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant in a fight over campaign signs will stand trial July 9.

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Peter Steinys, 56, of Plainfield, was arrested Nov. 7, 2012, by Plainfield police on an ordinance violation charge of battery.

Joliet Park District Board President Glen Marcum, who ran Bertino-Tarrant’s campaign, said he did not witness the incident, but arrived on the scene at the same time as police.

He said the alleged incident stemmed from the hotly contested race for the 49th District Senate seat waged between Bertino-Tarrant (D-Shorewood), former Will County regional superintendent of schools, and Garrett Peck, a Plainfield Village Board and recently appointed Plainfield Park District executive director.

“We had several people witness people stealing signs and they all came back to the same vehicle, same person, and that person was Peter Steinys,” Marcum said. At the time, Marcum said, Bertino-Tarrant’s campaign decided not to report the alleged thefts.

“We chose not to address it because that’s what they want us to do,” he said.

Steinys did not return a call from Patch on Tuesday.

On the eve of the election, Marcum said the campaign worker, who is also a Joliet firefighter, had put up some Bertino-Tarrant signs in a field near Route 59 and Feeney Drive in Plainfield. Later that same evening, he went back to check on them.

When he did, “He [saw] that all of Jennifer’s signs were down and all of Peck’s signs were up,” Marcum said. He said the volunteer began to put the Bertino-Tarrant signs back up when he spotted someone nearby.

“Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a person dressed in black, lying in the ditch” near Route 59, Marcum said. He said the volunteer called out to the person, telling him to leave the signs alone.

According to Marcum, the volunteer was walking away when a white Volkswagen pulled up and Steinys got out and confronted him. Steinys is accused of pushing the Joliet firefighter, who had recently had rotator cuff surgery.

Marcum said the firefighter/campaign volunteer was not injured in the incident.

“I got there right when the police were there,” Marcum said, saying by then, Steinys had left.

Steinys entered a not guilty plea in December 2012. After he was a no-show at a bench trial set for March 2013, the trial was rescheduled, according to Will County court documents.

Now, the bench trial is scheduled for 9 a.m. July 9 at the Plainfield Law Enforcement Center.

Because it's an ordinance violation case — as opposed to a state misdemeanor or felony charge — the case is being tried at the Plainfield branch court, and is not punishable by jail time.