Public Officials Want Vorberg Kept Off Streets As New Case is Heard

Caption: Daniel Vorberg, 32, of Oak Lawn. | Cook County Sheriff

It was just a year ago that an Oak Lawn man was sentenced to three years in the Illinois Department of Corrections after a jury convicted him of public indecency.

Daniel Vorberg, 32, who had already served 409 days in Cook County Jail, was sent away to prison to serve the rest of his sentence stemming from an incident where he was caught pleasuring himself near a Mt. Greenwood school in the presence of children on April 30, 2013.

Confronted by a parent, Vorberg fled the scene, but not before the father took a picture with his cell phone of the back of Vorberg’s BMW as it sped away.

The photo, posted on neighborhood Facebook groups, showed the car’s license plate. The next day Chicago police arrested Vorberg outside his Oak Lawn home.

Convicted of the charge in May 2014, Vorberg stood before Cook County Judge Stephen Connolly at his sentencing hearing, asking for probation instead of prison.

Prosecutor Tom Simpson called Vorberg’s past arrest history a “disturbing pattern of behavior,” which included child abduction charges in October 2009, when he allegedly offered three 11-year-old, Oak Lawn girls a ride to school. He was also suspected in two other incidents on Aug. 27, 2009, including driving an SUV near two 12-year-old girls, complimenting them on their looks and asking their ages.

Later that same day, Vorberg allegedly exposed himself to a 19-year-old woman, who later picked him out in a police lineup, Southtown-Star reported in 2009.

He was charged with three felony counts of child abduction, and two counts of disorderly conduct and one public indecency charge for the Aug. 27, 2009 incidents.

Vorberg was handed a birthday present when his first trial ended in a mistrial on Aug. 24, 2010. He was retried in March 2011 and was acquitted by a second jury.

He was released from Cook County Jail, but It wasn’t long before Vorberg got into trouble again. In October 2011, he scuffled with loss prevention officers at a Tinley Park Menards who tried to stop Vorberg after he walked out of the store with Miracle Gro, Gillette razors, a candle and a leather tool pouch.

Vorberg was on probation for the Tinley Park retail theft when he was arrested on the Mt. Greenwood public indecency charge.

During his sentencing hearing, Vorberg’s attorney argued that his client was “rehabitable” and called the 2013 offense “an aberration” since it was Vorberg’s first felony conviction.

Vorberg expressed remorse during his sentencing that he was in jail when his dog died. He also apologized for his “succession of bad choices that led to my ruination.”

Judge Connolly expressly did not take into account Vorberg’s past arrests allegedly targeting young girls and women “because there was no conviction.” The judge, however, noted that Vorberg would not be eligible for probation since he had violated his court supervision on the 2011 retail theft charges.

Vorberg was sent away to prison and was paroled last October, according to Illinois Department of Correction records. He was not required to register for Illinois’s Sex Offender Registry because, according to prosecutors, he did not meet state statutes’ definition of a “child sex offender.”

On Tuesday, Vorberg will again be standing in a Bridgeview courtroom, answering to charges that he committed a lewd act near an Oak Lawn children’s center on June 18. An Oak Lawn tactical officer spotted Vorberg behind the school while children and adults were in the playground area, moving his arm and hand up and down for three minutes consistent with masturbation, according to the charges.

Police said Vorberg denied that he was masturbating, but was applying medicated lotion to a work injury. He was charged with one felony count of public indecency within 500 feet of a school and another felony for violating his parole. He is currently being held on a no-bond warrant on the parole violation. Bail for the public indecency charge was set at $150,000.

Vorberg is scheduled for a court hearing at 9 a.m. Tuesday on the newest charge in room 103 at the Cook County Courthouse, 10220 S. 76th Ave., Bridgeview. He is also expected to appear before Judge Connolly on the parole violation charge in room 105.

Chicago Ald. Matt O’Shea says he will be attending the hearing in show of support for the prosecutors. He wants to ensure that Vorberg is kept off the streets while a prison review board reviews this latest charge.

Oak Lawn Mayor Sandra Bury, who says she was haunted this past weekend by Vorberg’s arrest, also plans to be in attendance.

“What I’m hearing from residents is why is he out,” Bury said. “That’s a pretty darn good question. We want to send a strong message that it’s time for this guy to not endanger our children any more.”