Dr. Frank Ostir Pleads Guilty, Learns Sentence For Child's Fall

SHOREWOOD, IL — The Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow has worked out a plea bargain with Dr. Frank Ostir resulting in the long-time Joliet chiropractor being sentenced on one count of child endangerment to 18 months of conditional discharge plus $1,000 in fines.

Dr. Ostir does not have to serve any time in jail in connection with his Feb. 13 incident in Shorewood that resulted in a little boy, age 2, falling out of Ostir's vehicle and landing on River Road during the daylight hours, an incident witnessed by other motorists.

In March, Ostir was charged with two counts of child endangerment; as a result of the plea bargain, one of his charges was dismissed by Will County's prosecutors.

Joliet Patch previously reported that Shorewood police were notified of the incident by another motorist around 2:35 p.m. on Feb. 13.

"The female caller saw a small child fall out of the back door of a vehicle. She was driving behind him while it happened," Shorewood's deputy chief has said. "The child fell out of the rear passenger seat, the driver stopped, got out and picked up the child and put him back on his lap and left the scene."

In August, Patch reported that the Joliet chiropractor is now reunited the child, according to a judge's ruling. Ostir's, lawyer, Chris Rouskey of the Rouskey Law Offices on Joliet's South Hammes Avenue, filed an affidavit with the court from Brittany Jenkins, the child's mother. According to her affidavit, "the defendant, Frank J. Ostir, has been providing for me financially and emotionally since we have been together and "defendant Frank J. Ostir has been providing for and caring for the minor child ... since he was born."

Jenkins informed the judge that "defendant Frank J. Ostir is the only 'father' that the minor child ... has known" and "it is in the best interests of the minor child ... that the defendant, Frank J. Ostir, be allowed to be a part of his life on a daily basis."