Crime & Safety

Vorberg Found Guilty of Public Indecency

Jury returns guilty verdict for Oak Lawn man after four hours of deliberation.


A jury found an Oak Lawn man guilty of felony public indecency on Wednesday after a two-day trial at the Bridgeview Courthouse on Friday.

Daniel Vorberg, 31, was arrested after two adults witnessed him him “fondling and exposing himself” near Cassell Elementary School in Mt. Greenwood on April 30, 2013.

During the trial, Kelly Maloney, the Mt. Greenwood mom who placed the 911 call, testified that she saw Vorberg from an upstairs window parked in front of her house in the 11200 block of South Spaulding Avenue, stroking himself while pointing his cell phone at her 9-year-old daughter and her friends playing nearby.

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Her fiance, John Gregus, ran outside when she called out to him from upstairs. Gregus confronted Vorberg sitting in his 2004 BMW with his pants folded down over his waist holding his exposed erect penis.

Asked what he was doing, Vorberg told Gregus he was making a phone call and threw his phone down on the passenger seat. Gregus was able to take a picture of Vorberg’s license plate as he fled the scene, which became a key piece of evidence in trial.

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Cook County Prosecutor Tom Simpson recalled the afternoon of April 30, 2013 in his closing argument where children played outside after school on a warm spring day, and Vorberg tooled around the neighborhood in his BMW “looking to stimulate his perverse desires.”

“So aroused was he by these small blessings, it became a happy hunting ground for the depraved,” Simpson said. “He’s on a street in broad daylight, kids are present, people are walking by. Anyone could see this was an added thrill for him.”

Simpson charged that two days after he was arrested, Vorberg emailed Apple to wipe his iPhone 3GS clean of data while it was in police custody.

“The phone had a little memento of those kids so he could  remember the fun he had,” Simpson said. “Don’t let him get away with it.”

Vorberg’s attorney, Hal Garfinkel, described Kelly Maloney as a "Mama Bear who panicked" left in charge of caring for several neighborhood children.

Garfinkel attempted to poke holes in the initial statements that Malony and Gregus gave to the first Chicago police officer to arrive on scene moments after Kelly placed the 911 call, which differed from testimony they gave the next day to a Chicago police detective. 

The defense attorny  called the jury’s attention to the couple’s consistent “discrepancies” in the information they gave to the first police officer of Vorberg circling the block and the position of his pants inside the car. There was also no mention of a cell phone.

“The very first interview she gives to Officer Fellman, the car was circling around the block,” Garfinkel said. “Do not fall for that he was stalking or that it was a hunting ground, don’t fall for that. Stay with the evidence.”

Also in dispute was the couple’s description what hand Vorberg was using to pleasure himself. Maloney told police it was his right hand. Gregus said it was his left.

“Why are they so uniform in their mistakes,” Garfinkel asked.

In the rebuttal, prosecutor Cheryl Galvin said that it didn’t matter which hand Vorberg was using to fondle himself.

"It's not a 'free public indecency," she said.

Galvin commended Kelly Maloney and John Gregus as rare individuals who get involved. “They should be treated as heroes.”

The jury deliberated four hours and at one point, asked to have the recording of Maloney’s 911 call replayed. Three more times the jury sent questions out to Associate Judge Stephen Connolly.

Vorberg took the announcement of the guilty verdict calmly. The judge revoked bond, and a sheriff’s deputy followed Vorberg into the prisoners holding room, carrying a garment bag with his court clothes.

After the verdict, Garfinkel expressed his disappointment with the verdict. He called replaying Maloney's 911 call for the jury "highly prejudicial."

“I was expecting a ‘not guilty,’” he said. “The jury obviously took great care to analyze all the evidence. I think they got it wrong but I respect the process.”

Moments after the verdict was read, Vorberg’s sister said she loved her brother.

"I love my brother, and I will each and every day until I die,” Brittany Vorberg said after she left Room 107. “And you can say the same for my mother.”

Garfinkel said planned to file for a new trial on May 12, when sentencing is expected to take place.

This was not Vorberg’s first time facing serious criminal charges. He was acquitted of a 2009 charge when he allegedly attempted to lure three young Oak Lawn girls to his car after two trials.

Sentencing for Vorberg is expected to take place on May 12 in the Bridgeview Courthouse. He faces at least a one year jail sentence.



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