Oak Lawn Man Mentions Pets During Public Indecency Sentencing

An Oak Lawn man convicted of public indecency mentioned his pets during his sentencing hearing on Friday, asking a judge for probation instead of being sent to prison.

Daniel Vorberg, 31, was found guilty of public indecency by a jury in connection to an April 30, 2013 incident in Mt. Greenwood, where two adult witnesses saw him masturbating in his BMW while aiming his cell phone at a group of children playing nearby.

One of the adults managed to snap a cell phone picture of the BMW’s license plate as Vorberg sped away. Chicago Police traced the plate number to Vorberg and arrested him the next day outside his Oak Lawn home.

Wearing a tan jail uniform, Vorberg appeared in a Bridgeview courtroom before Cook County Judge Stephen Connelly, where he faced probation and/or up to three years in prison after being convicted by a jury in May.

“I’m a son, brother, uncle and godfather, not to mention my pets. I need to be home,” Vorberg said, describing how his rescue dog had died during his incarceration at Cook County Jail.

During the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Tom Simpson said that a “crack in the law” did not require Vorberg to register as a child sex offender, because Vorberg was not a “child sex offender in definition.”

Simpson brought up Vorberg’s arrest history, including attempted child abduction charges in October 2009, when he offered three 11-year-old, Oak Lawn girls a ride on to school.

When the first trial ended in a hung jury, Vorberg was acquitted in a retrial in March 2011. He was arrested again months later for retail theft and battery after he battled loss prevention officers outside a Tinley Park Home Depot, according to police reports.

Simpson explained that Vorberg was turned down by the county’s Adult Sex Offender Probation Program, in part because Vorberg lived with his mother across the street from an Oak Lawn park.

The prosecutor asked that if given probation, Vorberg be subject to the same level of supervision reserved for adult sex offenders, including home inspections and monitoring his Internet activity for child pornography.

Calling Vorberg’s past arrests targeting young females a “disturbing pattern of behavior,” Simpson asked the judge to fashion a sentence that would protect the community.

“History has demonstrated that [Vorberg] will re-offend. He’s unwilling to address his problems in a meaningful way,” the prosecutor said. “I believe he will turn violent as with his recent retail theft. It’s only a matter of time.”

Vorberg’s attorney recounted his client’s troubled childhood growing up with an alcoholic father and his struggles with alcoholism as an adult.

“I would be disingenuous if I didn’t acknowledge Mr. Vorberg’s history of charged conduct,” attorney Hal Garfinkel said. “He has no punishable criminal background. I ask that you review this case as an aberration. There is no history of any significant violence. This is his first felony.”

Garfinkel praised Vorberg's intelligence, who was a year away from finishing an electrician's apprenticeship when he was arrested for public indecency. With services made available through the court, Garfinkel felt Vorberg was "rehabitable" and asked the judge for probation.

During his mother’s statement, Vorberg buried his face in his hands and appeared to be crying.

Sandra Vorberg told the judge her son was an alcoholic and that she had “spent many years of vigilance trying to change that flaw.” She believed it led to her son’s poor life choices.

“I’ve stayed silent through this whole thing,” Sandra said weeping. “I put up with statements fed to the press and I would not have spoken today if not for that. He is not a predator. He would never hurt a child. He is a good man.”

Reading from a prepared statement, Vorberg apologized for his “succession of bad choices that led to my ruination.” He said the past year in jail led him closer to God.

“I vow to rise from the ashes,” he said.

Judge Connelly lamented that a mental health evaluation was not included in the pre-sentencing report. He also stated that he would not take into account the 2009 attempted child abduction charges “because there was no conviction.”

Connelly then read Vorberg’s arrest history into the record, an assortment of teenage vandalism, a DUI and retail thefts. He noted that Vorberg had violated his last court supervision for the 2011 retail theft and battery charges.

“I don’t think he is eligible for probation,” the judge said, sentencing Vorberg to three years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, and a year of mandatory supervision after his release.

Vorberg was credited for the 409 days he has served in Cook County Jail, with the remaining two years to be served in an Illinois prison.