Officials for a Hinsdale church that advocated for the parole of Yorkville mass killer Carl Reimann now say they are no longer involved in placing him with another home.
Reimann, who murdered five people at a restaurant in Yorkville in 1972, was paroled April 26 by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board in a split 8-4 decision. He is 77.
Representatives of the Hinsdale Covenant Church, along with senior paralegal Wilder Kendric “Ken” Berry of the Winston and Strawn legal firm, spoke in favor of Reimann’s release at the April hearing.
Pastor Lars Stromberg of Hinsdale Covenant Church wrote in an email Sunday that the church is “not currently involved in advocating for Carl’s next placement.”
Stromberg referred questions about Reimann’s case to Berry, who had not responded to emailed inquiries as of Monday.
Victims’ family members also have started an online petition on Change.org urging the Prisoner Review Board to revoke Reimann’s parole. The title of the petition is “URGENT – REVOKE PAROLE for Mass Murderer Carl Allan Reimann #C01252.”
Reimann was placed with a couple affiliated with the church who had communicated with Reimann for several years while he was in prison.
Reimann, however, had to be removed from the home in suburban La Grange after neighbors, parents and officials with La Grange School District 105 voiced concerns about him living across the street from an elementary school.
Reimann had been charged with contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor child in the 1960s and his profile on the Illinois Department of Corrections website had been marked “sex offender registration required” until his release on parole.
Shortly after Department of Corrections officials moved Reimann to a home in Calumet City, officials with that city and school district voiced complaints to state legislators saying that Reimann was living a block away from another elementary school, as well as a park and a recreation center.
The Department of Corrections since has removed Reimann from the Calumet City location and he currently is housed as a “temporary resident” at the Dixon Correctional Center, where he had been serving his original sentence.
Prisoner Review Board spokesman Jason Sweat said Reimann will have the opportunity for a preliminary hearing, and he has the option to waive his right to that hearing. Reimann’s case will then be reviewed by one of the Prisoner Review Board members and decided by a panel of three board members.
Sweat said the panel will determine if Reimann committed a violation of his parole, and whether to re-release him. They will then determine if he has a place to live that adheres to his parole restrictions, Sweat said.
“The question becomes, does he have a place to go?” Sweat said. “In order to be re-released, he would have to have a specific place to live.”
Victims’ family members have been told that the three-member panel will meet June 12, but Sweat could not confirm that date.
Those opposing or supporting Reimann’s re-release can still send correspondence to the Prisoner Review Board, 319 E. Madison St., Suite A, Springfield, IL 62701, and there is more contact information in the Victim Services section of the board’s website at illinois.gov/PRB.