Crime & Safety
'Orland Ghost Rider' Awaiting Trial in McDonough County on More Felony Charges
The Orland Park man couldn't make it to his Cook County court hearing on Thursday because he was sitting in McDonough County jail for breaking the terms of a bail posted in 2010.
Justin Jachimiec, the alleged wheelie-popping motorhead known better by the nickname “Orland Ghost Rider,” remained in McDonough County jail Thursday awaiting trial on more charges of fleeing and eluding authorities.
His arrest in March, for allegedly having dodged and mocked Orland Park police officers on a stolen motorbike, violated the terms of his previous McDonough County bail.
In November 2010, he was arrested in Macomb, Ill., and charged with reckless driving, criminal damage to property, DUI, unlawful consumption and three counts of aggravated fleeing and eluding.
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Trial on those charges is set to begin Tuesday, though John Farano, a one-time attorney of Jachimiec’s, said a plea deal reducing some of the charges to a misdemeanor may be reached before then.
Bail was reset at $100,000, according to the McDonough County State’s Attorney’s Office, which declined to comment on the details of its case, after he was picked up recently in Macomb.
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Two months ago, when they searched Jachimiec’s home, found a helmet camera.
“Watch this,” a man’s voice says over the purr of a motorcycle engine within the first minute of a video posted on YouTube, under the nickname “Orland Ghost Rider,” late last year. He speeds by a cop, popping his front wheel up into the air as he zips by, and then rounds back in defiance of the circling emergency lights.
On Thursday, Cook County Assistant Judge Colleen Ann Hyland recused herself from Jachimiec’s case, citing a search warrant that she had signed when Orland Park police were still investigating the matter.
A new judge with no prior knowledge of the evidence will be assigned to the case when attorneys meet again on June 26.
Charges of disorderly conduct and resisting a peace officer are also dogging Jachimiec in Will County. Tinley Park police say they arrested him in a field outside Target, on Feb. 14, after he burst through a fire escape door with bags of groceries.
At 22 years old, Jachimiec’s rap sheet includes convictions for reckless driving and obstructing justice.
Farano, the former attorney, said Jachimiec has aspirations to become a cop.
— Orland Park Patch Editor Ben Feldheim contributed to this report
