Police say Geneva park ranger also was a drug dealer

A veteran Kane County park ranger has been indicted on charges he dealt marijuana and cocaine while living in a taxpayer-funded house at the popular Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva.

Kalvin L. Grimes, 46, was indicted July 8 on multiple felony drug charges stemming from an undercover investigation involving the sheriff's office, court records show. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the most serious offense.

Police said Grimes was arrested March 20 after investigators seized 322 grams of marijuana and several grams of cocaine from his car trunk while executing a search warrant at his home at the forest preserve along Batavia Avenue. Also seized were suspected Vicodin pills, cash and drug paraphernalia, according to court documents.

Laurie Metanchuk, spokeswoman for the Kane County Forest Preserve District, said Grimes was hired as an assistant ranger in 1997 and, at some point, became a full ranger. He resigned in April and has since moved out of a house funded by the forest preserve district for full-time employees at the park, which straddles the Fox River and features a Japanese garden and house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

"He resigned shortly after his arrest. He no longer lives at Fabyan," Metanchuk said, declining further comment.

According to police, Grimes used a "stash house" on Fifth Avenue in St. Charles where he sold drugs to an informant four times in February and March. The informant told police Grimes sold illegal drugs for years. Grimes also is suspected of delivering drugs to locations in Aurora, Bristol, Geneva, Oswego and Kendall County, according to police.

Defense attorney Kathleen Colton, who is representing Grimes, could not immediately be reached for comment. But court records indicate she intends to ask a judge to throw out the bulk of drug evidence, arguing police had the authority to search her client's house - but not his car.

Grimes is free on $150,000 bond and due in court Aug. 20.