Prosecutors: Buffalo Grove man said he wanted 'to troll people' with racist graffiti
A 20-year-old Buffalo Grove man who prosecutors say told police he spray-painted racist phrases and symbols around Arlington Heights "to troll people" was ordered held on $10,000 bail Thursday.
Josiah Biewer is charged with a hate crime and criminal damage to government-supported property related to damage done between May 31 and July 7. Police say the graffiti painted on bike paths, sidewalks, parking structures and pedestrian underpasses has been removed.
Citing concern the damage occurred over an extended period of time and at a cost that exceeded $4,600, Cook County Judge Ellen Mandeltort ordered Biewer on 24-hour home confinement except for work.
Arlington Heights police received the first complaint of racial epithets spray-painted in blue on a sidewalk east of Bristol Lane and Davis Street, and on a pedestrian underpass, about 6:50 a.m. May 31, said Assistant Cook County State's Attorney C.J. Orrantia. A few hours later, blue spray-painted graffiti was discovered on a Lake Arlington Park bike path and on the fifth floor of a village parking garage.
Similarly offensive graffiti and racial epithets were discovered on Lake Arlington Park bike paths at 4:50 a.m. June 6 and at 4:43 a.m. June 23. About 6:47 a.m. June 23, police discovered offensive phrases spray-painted in black on the underpass on the 500 block of Davis Street, Orrantia said.
About 2:15 a.m. Tuesday, an Arlington Heights police officer staked out Lake Arlington Park in an unmarked car parked a block south of the park. The officer noticed a blue Honda parked across several parking slots and collected the license number, Orrantia said. The officer also noted a white male dressed in black emerge from a nearby bike path. The blue Honda sped away soon after, Orrantia said.
Police collected a cellphone from where the individual emerged and observed wet spray paint nearby, Orrantia said.
Officers traced the vehicle's registration to Biewer's Buffalo Grove apartment, Orrantia said. When they arrived, the blue Honda was in the parking lot, he said.
"The hood was warm to the touch, indicating it had been recently driven," Orrantia said, adding officers saw Biewer exit the complex "shaking and sweating."
Biewer next appears in court July 24.