Sex offender nabbed in Wood Dale forest preserve

A convicted sex offender is accused of communicating with children inside a DuPage County Forest Preserve near Wood Dale, according to a grand jury indictment released Wednesday.

Robert J. Calusinski is being held in DuPage County jail on $150,000 bail.

The 58-year-old Elmhurst man was arrested at 8 p.m. July 26 after a disturbance inside Wood Dale Grove Forest Preserve.

A woman called 911 to report a combative man yelling at others fishing near him on a public pier. A police officer identified Calusinski as the subject of the complaint, but no one wished to pursue charges.

The officer stuck around to monitor the situation, and soon saw Calusinski speak to a 6-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, said Lt. Jim Royer of the Forest Preserve of DuPage County law enforcement department. He said the parents of the brother and sister were nearby.

Calusinski also was observed sniffing a rag soaked with paint thinner, Royer said. The officer again approached Calusinski for questioning.

"The parents said they had taken their kids fishing at the pier before and had seen Mr. Calusinski there in the past," Royer said. "They said he did not make any statements to their children that alarmed them."

But, upon further investigation, police discovered Calusinski is a registered sex offender whose record includes a 1999 conviction for the criminal sexual abuse of a neighbor's child on her sixth birthday, as well as indecent liberties with a child in 1983.

Calusinski is charged with unlawful communication with a child in a public park. He is due to be arraigned Monday before DuPage Associate Judge Robert Kleeman.