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River Forest police have charged a River Forest woman and three Oak Park men with the burglary of two schools in River Forest. Forest Park police, meanwhile, charged the four with two other schools burglaries there.
Arrested were Ashley A. Ronsen, 18, of 1414 Keystone, River Forest, Brandon Rowe, 17, of 1184 Gunderson, Oak Park, Rakeem Scatton, 19, of 742 S. Euclid, Oak Park and Alex Carraminana, 18, of 928 S. Wenonah, Oak Park. All four have been charged with felony burglary for the Dec. 2 burglary of Lincoln School in River Forest. Around 10 p.m. Dec. 2, a window in a basement well at the school was broken and a laptop computer was stolen from the principal’s office.
Around 10:30 p.m. Dec. 5, officers responded to multiple burglar and motion sensor alarms at Willard School, 1250 Ashland. They found a screen pulled from an open window, and several interior doors open, but no damage or loss.
Ronsen, who was out on bond from a number of previous criminal charges at the time of her arrest, is being held in Cook County Jail on $50,000 bond. She has a court date Dec. 31.
Ronsen was arrested by Oak Park police Sept. 7, and charged with residential burglary, burglary to auto, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and criminal defacement to property. On Oct. 30 she was arrested on a warrant charging her with an Oct. 12 battery outside Whittier School, during which she was allegedly found in possession of 18.5 grams of the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin.
She was also one of three Oak Park area adults arrested in connection with the theft of $224 worth of clothing from a Kmart in Indiana in early June.
Last May, Scatton was charged with aggravated battery to a police officer and resisting arrest following an under-aged drinking party on the 1100 block of Washington.
River Forest police praise WEDGE, FOREcast assistance
River Forest police say their utilization of both a newly instituted intelligence sharing cooperative and operational support from the WEDGE gang and drug task force was key to the arrest of the four burglary suspects. Deputy Chief Greg Weiss said officers from FORE cast identified a regional pattern of school burglaries tied to the two early December River Forest school burglaries.
Weiss said detective sergeant Marty Grill and officers from Forest Park and the WEDGE task force worked through the weekend tracking down stolen items and making arrests. Rowe was located and arrested on the 600 block of S. Ridgeland Dec.18 by WEDGE officers. Ronsen, Scatton and Carraminana were arrested later that day.
Weiss said the four suspects are also targets of “several other local and regional school burglary investigations,” including cases in Chicago. Those investigations are ongoing.
“It’s almost a snowball effect,” said Weiss. “You get a piece of information, and when you go verify it, something else comes up.”
In one voluntary property search, River Forest officers recovered $426 in what they characterized as drug related cash, and marijuana with a street value of nearly $10,000.
Weiss said the computer allegedly taken in the Lincoln school burglary was located in north suburban Lake Villa through cell phone technology, but has not been recovered.