'My Son Was Set Up,' Vorberg's Mom Says After Not Guilty Verdict

Daniel Vorberg, 33, was acquitted of a 2015 felony public indecency charge.

OAK LAWN, IL -- A Cook County judge acquitted an Oak Lawn man of a felony public indecency charge after a bench trial reportedly on the basis that DNA evidence collected from the man's car was "inconclusive."

Daniel Vorberg, 33, was arrested for allegedly committing a lewd act while out on parole for a similar offense. Vorberg was spotted by Oak Lawn police officer on June 19, 2015, who claimed that Vorberg was pleasuring himself while parked behind a doctor’s office and daycare center playground near 53rd Court and 95th Street.

• Also on Patch: Vorberg Held On No-Bond Parole Warrant for Latest Public Indecency Charge

In 2009, Vorberg was charged with child abduction when he offered three 11-year-old girls from Oak Lawn a ride to school. That same year, he was suspected in two other incidents, including driving by two 12-year-old girls and complimenting them on their looks, and later the same day allegedly exposing himself to a 19-year-old woman.

He was eventually found not guilty of the child abduction charges in March 2011, after an earlier trial resulted in a hung jury.

In 2013, two parents in Mt. Greenwood witnessed Vorberg allegedly pleasuring himself near a group of young children. He was convicted of public indecency in a jury trial and sentenced to three years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

It was while on parole for the 2013 charge when Vorberg was arrested again.

Vorberg was acquitted reportedly because Judge Kerry Kennedy ruled that DNA evidence collected from his vehicle was “inconclusive.”

Mayor Sandra Bury expressed shock over the not guilty verdict in a Facebook post:

“I am very sorry to report that Daniel Vorberg is back on the streets after being acquitted in a bench trial today and only received a ‘stern warning’ from the Judge. Please watch your children around this man. May God save us from our court system. Please share.”

Vorberg’s mother, Sandy, gave her son’s assistant public defender “a lot of credit who saw through the case.”

“As soon as the courtroom cleared out [the police and prosecutor] stood up and said ‘we’ll do it again,’” his mother said.

Sandy said her son had just been released from Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood after he had been electrocuted. He had a doctor’s appointment on the day he was arrested last summer for the alleged lewd act.

“Oak Lawn police never had a case against my son,” she said. “He had an appointment with his doctor and therapist and they told police that. He no longer has use of his left arm.”

Sandy Vorberg claimes that Oak Lawn police have had a vendetta against her sonever since 2008, when he refused to rat out a friend who punched a village police officer’s son in the head.

Her son had gotten beaten up at a party and then tied to some railroad tracks. Daniel texted the friend for help. The friend later punched the cop’s kid, causing a head injury.

“Dan was at home when that happened,” she said. “He never told police the friend’s name and because of that, the police said they would pin all sorts of heinous crimes on him. The last eight years have been a living hell.”

Since then, her son has had accusations of child perversion hurled at him. As for the 2013 conviction of public indecency charges, the jury was stacked with Mt. Greenwood residents.

“It was played up in the press. My son is gentle-hearted, my neighbors adore him and they see through all this,” she continued. “He gives more money and time to churches than anyone I know.”

Sandy compared her son to Laquan McDonald, the 17-year-old black youth who was shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer.

“Not only do black lives matter, everyone’s life matters,” she said. “The police do this to everyone.”

As an Oak Lawn police cruiser sits across the park facing the Vorberg home, Sandy says her family just wants to be left alone.

“Dan has a lot of reason to be angry,” his mother said, “but he’s not. He doesn’t have any angry bone in his body."