Oak Park Michigan Resident, Mordechai Klainberg, Charged with Stalking, Home Invasion, and Criminal Sexual Conduct
WARNING!!!!! EXPLICIT MATERIAL!!!
According to a transcript of testimony given in court by the alleged victim, the alleged victim moved to Oak Park in 2024. About a month after moving, according to the transcript, the alleged victim went to Borenstein’s and encountered Mordechai Klainberg, who was working there, for the first time. The alleged victim described Klainberg approaching her, telling her that he could help her meet people in the community, and asking for her phone number, which she gave him. She described being under the impression that Klainberg worked for the Detroit Vaad. In the transcript the alleged victim described moving to Oak Park to complete a conversion which would have been taking place under the supervision of the Detroit Vaad.
Klainberg, according to the transcript, offered to connect the alleged victim with other people in the community – other women or organizations – that could help her get better acquainted with people in the neighborhood. At the time of the transcript, March of 2025, the alleged victim described herself as still in the conversion process. When asked to characterize the relationship she had with Klainberg the alleged victim said it was like a mentorship, acquaintanceship, and that it wasn’t very mutual. A lot of it, as the alleged victim described, involved Klainberg burdening her with his numerous problems and expecting her support.
The alleged victim stated that from the very beginning Klainberg had a sexual interest in her, describing the initial incident for which Klainberg was charged, when he came to her house for the first time. She said that he had asked her where she lived, which she found to be a very typical question in the frum community in Oak Park, but that she didn’t expect him to come over. She said that he hadn’t called her, knocked, or anything like that, he had just come into her home. According to the transcript this first incident occurred in Late July or August of 2024, right around when they first met.
The alleged victim stated that Klainberg had just walked into her house, walked upstairs while she was showering, and walked into the bathroom off of her bedroom. She described panicking, yelling, and asking him to get out, telling him that she was uncomfortable. According to the transcript Klainberg asked her if he could take a shower with her. He described feeling very exposed in the shower, which was clear glass on top, and being worried that Klainberg would be able to see her. She described getting out of the shower and wrapping herself in a towel.
Afterwards, according to the transcript, Klainberg stepped out of the bathroom and into her bedroom, crying, begging her for forgiveness, and saying he didn’t know what was thinking, and that he had misinterpreted when he had asked for her number. The alleged victim stated that she believed him at that point and forgave him. They continued talking after this incident, according to the transcript, and when asked why the alleged victim said that coming as an outsider to the Orthodox community, which is very close knit, she knew she was going to see the same people very often, and at the time she thought he worked for the Vaad, and she was worried that if she started off in the community making enemies in her first month it was going to set her up for a very hard time in the conversion process.
She said that she tried to get the two of them to a point where even if they weren’t friends they could be cordial and polite to each other in passing. She described telling Klainberg about her background – nothing she wouldn’t tell anyone else – and in return Klainberg started sharing with her about issues he was having with his wife and children, and asking her advice. One point she mentioned he asked her about in particular was about foster care because she had been raised in the foster care system and he wanted more information about dealing with systems pertaining to children in unsafe homes. She said that she thought she was helping him at the time.
According to the transcript, he then became very assertive and demanding that she give him her time and attention, texting her that he was outside of her house without prior arrangements, calling her a lot, and putting a lot of his stress on her. Eventually, the alleged victim stated, Klainberg started subtly threatening her that if she didn’t make him happy he was going to sacrifice her, eventually threatening that she would be dropped from the conversion process and that Oak Park would be history for her – all in pursuit of getting her to have sex with him.
Some time following the shower incident, according to the complaint, the alleged victim described setting a number of boundaries with Klainberg, telling him that she didn’t want him coming over to her house at night, that she preferred to talk to him only by phone, and that she didn’t want him coming to her house at all unless it was an emergency. She stated that she told him several times that she was not interested in anything romantic or physical, and asked him several times if he had any interest in just being friends with her under those terms because she would never see him in any other way other than friends. The alleged victim stated that Klainberg reacted to these boundaries being set by telling her in the moment that he would abide by them or work on it.
About a month or so after the shower incident, according to the transcript, Klainberg came over to her home in the middle of the workday – her office was in her home – saying he had an emergency and needed to talk. The alleged victim stated that Klainberg kept trying to convince her to go talk with him in her bedroom and she kept refusing, saying that she didn’t want to and that she was working, offering to talk to him in her home office. Eventually, the alleged victim stated, she got annoyed with his insisting and agreed to go to the bedroom. Once there, according to the transcript, he pinned her down on the bed, standing over here while holding her hands down above her head with his own hands. The alleged victim described kicking and screaming at him to leave the house, which he eventually did, but she stated that she believed that if she hadn’t fought he would have raped her.
According to the transcript, when they spoke later about this incident, Klainberg’s excuse was that he had taken a Viagra that day and didn’t know what he was thinking.
The alleged victim went on to describe other incidents where Klainberg would touch her sexually, including grabbing her butt and breasts repeatedly, and try to limit her ability to move around her house while he was over. In general she described these incidents happening when she was doing something else or not giving him attention. In one specific incident she described doing the dishes while he was talking to her, and because he felt that she wasn’t giving him enough attention he smacked her butt hard with an open hand. According to the transcript the alleged victim told Klainberg that what he’d done upset her and that she wanted him to stop, and tried walking past him to the other room, but he put his arms around her, cornering her, blocking her path. The alleged victim stated that this incident happened before the incident in the bedroom where he pinned her down.
She emphasized that by the time the incident in the bedroom happened she had told given him chances to understand when he was making her uncomfortable and that she didn’t want him to be doing these things, but because of her fears of him interfering with her conversion process she felt she had no choice but to keep allowing him in her house even after he did all these things.
She described these incidents where he would touch her inappropriately happening sporadically and that she would call him on it when they did happen, but certain incidents she remembered in vivid detail because they were so severe that they made her angry. She described his grabbing of her breasts and butt as happening regularly. She described him regularly asking her to have sex with him, asking if she would be willing to do something with him one time. During the same time period, according to the transcript, he would occasionally complain to her about his situation at home, telling her that he needed relief, that he was miserable at home, being mistreated by his wife, and that he didn’t have any way to relieve himself, and using that as an excuse for his behavior with the alleged victim.
By late October or early November, three or so months after they initially met, according to the transcript, she completely cut off all communication with him, blocking his number. According to the transcript, after the alleged victim blocked Klainberg’s number he got her email address and started emailing her, in addition to continuing to coming to her house. She described one incident in late December of 2024 or January of 2025 where he knocked on her door while she was home with her son, and she opened the door to tell him that she didn’t want him to come in. Rather than listening to her, according to the transcript, Klainberg pushed the door enough to widen the gap in the door, then reached his hand in, put it on her chest, and pushed her backwards, using the opportunity to enter her house against her will.
In one of the emails Klainberg sent her, according to the transcript, the alleged victim states that he had told her he could get into her house through her garage, which he said was broken. She stated that he’d said that she has very precious cargo in her house that would need to be protected, and that it wasn’t safe for her house for her garage to be broken. The alleged victim interpreted that as him saying he could come into her house any time he wanted to but was choosing not to.
She described other threats he made to her, including getting her children kicked out of the yeshiva they were in – the same yeshiva he sent his kids to – saying that his kids were there longer, and that if she brought any conflict to the administration they would choose his family over hers because she’s in the process of converting. She described the intent of these threats as being to coerce her into giving in to his demands for sexual favors.
In late January of 2025, according to the transcript, the alleged victim was granted an order of protection against Klainberg.
Klainberg was arrested in March of 2025 and charged with stalking, first degree home invasion, and fourth degree criminal sexual conduct. If convicted of those charges he may have to register as a sex offender. The case is still ongoing. Next hearing date is set for July 23rd.
Klainberg is currently on house arrest. Conditions were modified a number of times to allow him to attend shul at Yagdil Torah and Ahavas Olam, and attend Shabbos and meals with families in the area.
Link to full transcript: https://1drv.ms/.../Ec1S...
No comments:
Post a Comment