Marlboro Camp Counselor Gets PTI For Sexting Charges
Matthew Kleinstein. Photo via FelicianAthletics.com
Freehold, NJ- Robert Honecker, Esq. smiled broadly as he left Judge Ronald Lee Reisner’s courtroom at 9:10 a.m. on Friday morning, followed closely by his client Matthew Kleinstein and the Kleinstein family.
Judge Reisner was not on the bench. A reporter sat in the last row of the courtroom with a perplexed look on her face. Kleinstein, the former Marlboro Camp Counselor who pleaded guilty in August to 4th degree Cyber Harassment after sending images of his penis to four 11-13 female campers in his care the previous summer, had his sentencing hearing outside of the presence of the media.
It is a rare occurrence that Court proceedings start promptly at 9 a.m. when so scheduled. If you’re summoned to Court at 9 a.m. and bring an attorney, chances are pretty good that you’ll be paying for an hour or two of his/her time to work on other cases from his/her phone and/or laptop computer.
Judge Reisner started his calendar promptly on Friday morning. Maybe even early. He dealt with the Kleinstein matter and then apparently left the bench as approximately 30 other defendants patiently waited in the courtroom for their sentencing hearings.
Kleinstein was admitted to the Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) program for a minimum of one year, according to Charles Webster, spokesman for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. Judge Reisner told Kleinstein that should he fail to comply with or be terminated from the the PTI program, that he will be sentenced pursuant to his guilty plea, Webster said. Kleinstein must pay a $50 PTI enrollment fee and a $75 safe neighborhoods assessment. He must submit to mandatory drug and alcohol monitoring as determined by the probation department. If Kleinstein goes one year without getting in any trouble with the law, the record of his conviction will be expunged.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office and a civil lawsuit filed in the matter, Kleinstein sent photos, via text message and SnapChat, of his penis to four female campers, ages 11-13, on or about June 28, 2014 while he was working as a counselor at the Marlboro Township Summer Camp at Marlboro High School.
The lawsuit alleges that Kleinstein remained employed by the Township Recreation Department for the remainder of the summer and was transferred to work with a group of second and third grade campers. A Marlboro official who requested anonymity confirmed to MMM that Kleinstein remained employed throughout the summer of 2014 and that he was transferred to work with a different group of campers after the texting incident become known to the Recreation Department.
No legal action was taken against Kleinstein until the father of one of the victims filed a complaint in February of 2015.
A joint investigation was conducted by the Marlboro Police Department and the Special Victims Bureau and Computer Crimes Unit of the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office, according to Webster.
The defendant waived his right to have the matter presented to a Grand Jury and pleaded guilty to an Accusation on August 17, 2015. At that time Judge Reisner released him on his own recognizance.
Kleinstein, 20, was 18 when the sexting incident occurred. He was an All Star baseball player at Colts Neck High School, from where he graduated in 2013. He now plays baseball for Felician College.
Kleinstein’s father, Darrin, was the Vice Chairman of the Marlboro Township Recreation Department while his son was employed as a camp counselor. A recent Recreation Department newsletter distributed to Marlboro residents lists the elder Kleinstein as the current Vice Chairman of the Rec Committee. Township Administrator Jonathan Capp was quoted by The Asbury Park Press stating that Darrin is no longer the Vice Chair of the Recreation Committee.
The lawsuit filed by one of the victims on September 18th, alleges that Darrin participated in a cover-up of the sexting incident.
This incident was first publicized only after MMM discovered the lawsuit filed against Marlboro Township and the Kleinsteins on a subscription service provided by CourtHouseNews.com.
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I guess we have to love stupid reporters who just need to get papers sold. As a longtime resident of marlboro and knowing believe it or not alot of things what I don’t see the reporter saying is after two years of an investigation no pictures were found???
But they keep saying that they were sent.
I guess it is easy to point figure and
Assume than to get the facts because that don’t sell papers
Amazing how foolish people are to believe everything that you read.
I am sure about a dozen foolish people will comment also.
Unless you are one of the Kleinstein’s, Township resident, you can’t possibly know for certain that “no pictures were found.”
What is certain is that Matthew admitted sending the pictures.
Wow art you actually respond to a comment I quest when you are questioned.
First I am the furthest thing from a Kleinstein. Actually I know the girls involved but do not even want to get into the whole thing. I just do not like the entire thing. It’s a bad thing all around. You as a reporter know that you are reporting on certain accusations.
Either way I am not going to go up and back just so your blog keeps getting comments.
Please spare us Township resident. Art responded after you called him stupid, of all things. You claimed to have inside information, but then you say I will not advance the very site that I post twice on. How noble!
“Township resident” actually sounds as if he wants to see the young man’s pictures. Maybe we should just refer him to Anthony Weiner.
a lesson was learned by this kid- but I fear it may be that who you are or are related to/ protected by affects how you are judged/ saved when you do something disgusting/ wrong: only time will tell if the boy truly learned the right lesson or not: some other past such incidents have shown that people who do these things have a difficult time in repressing those urges- my personal take on it is, if it were my kid, his butt would’ve been kicked, and he’d have gotten more severe punishments, ( like, maybe having to work fir a year before college,)
and been made to either raise money for some childrens’ cause, or do some other good work to make amends to society, rather than skip off to college, (likely paid for by the family, )to have fun and play baseball..accountability and personal responsibility for one’s actions continue to take a real hit in our society
, today..
I grew up with this kid and his father and I have just some short opinions / things to say. Knowing Matt this is far from suprising. I knew him pretty well but kept my distance ….. for obvious reasons. If you know him probably 1/2 of a person out of 10 people will have good things to say. His father as well is no angel. Basically obstructing justice, the man is one of the most self centered people I’ve ever met. I personally recall multiple parents furious over a situation where kleinstein (at the time one of the heads of the travel baseball program) held tryouts while little to anyone’s knowledge the team was already picked days before any tryout existed when some parents took notice ending in outrage. Now this man was beyond unaware of what his selfish actions did to others. Just wanted to give a little background to anyone defending the kleinsteins and their “innocence”. Plain and simple and a complete opinionated response (i will admit) from someone who knew the family and son very well, this sentence is botched. If anything it’s continuing their legacy of getting away with whatever they want in our town. No offense but these girls were children and easy to manipulate and the kid was more than aware of his entire situation. In regards to no pictures being found, it was told that snapchat was used to send these pictures which is an app that deletes pictures permanently after viewing but the company keeps them in a database only for a certain amount of time though until those too are deleted. No kid of that age is unaware if what hes doing and unaware of the mind set of a 11, 12, or 13 year old. All in all this was a horrible sentence and ruling by our justice system. Seeing this kids face in public should make our entire community sick.
Marlboro Voice I to know the Kleinstein as well as the family involved. My son also went through the travel program as well. While yes this is a terrible situation you coming on here to bash your personal agenda or own feelings does what? You if you are a parent you sound like you felt your son was a Derek jeter and never made it complaining about travel ball what does that have to do with anything. because I have lived in this town for 25 years. That program was a good thing and I still have grandchildren playing in there. I have seen pleanty of parents feel their kids deserve to be on a team. What do you think the high school team tryouts are any different. Grow up. This was a bad situation plain and simple leave it that. What bothers me about this stupid website is everyone becomes an email tough guy.
And to tell you the truth the father is the furthest thing from being a self centered person. Just because you or your kid didn’t make a team or did not agree is not his fault. I have dealt with him in the past on several things and had gotten nothing but help and respect. Yes you are entitled to your opinion but calling names.
If you know him give him a call and have to balls to say it to him in person not on here.
This just makes me sick with all the people and phony people out there. Let it be already
Maybe it’s time to move
Oh, I must chime in to this BS!
Just so y’all know ?…The police have been investagating for two years! I don’t know any specific details but I’m pretty sure that if there was overwhelming evidence, the investigation would not have taken that long.
This kid pleaded to cyber harrassment…did he rob a bank?…kill someone?…rape someone?
The civil suit ALLEGES he sent pics…where are these pics? This is an assertion made with little or no proof.
I honestly think that all you people need to get your FACTS straight and dont believe everything you read!
Does anyone know the girls involved? As a mother of a middle school girl I know for a fact there are girls who routinely send naked pictures of themselves out via twitter and snapchat.
Some of you make disagree with me, but u don’t think these girls were completely innocent…I THINK NOT!
I was a camp counselor with Matt for numerous summers. These GIRLS, were obsessed with him. They would take pics of him at the pool and post them on their twitter and snapchat accounts. I remember this one girl changed her name to I LUV MATT.
These girls are trouble….
Honestly yo, leave the man alone id still smoke a doobie with him 🙂
I love how you are trying to imply that the courts did something special or wrong. Grow up people and stop believing this obviously slanted reporting. There was guilt on both sides. And the prosecutor never said he said pictures of his genitals, the lawsuit says that. And a lawsuit can say anything you want.
Another thing I find suspicious if the incident happened in June 2014, why didn’t the father do anything until February 2015.
And before you ask, I am the mother of girls, some in middle. I see the pictures these girls send out on the internet.
For those who say it was made up and no pic’s… really? Guilty plea… why? Girls were trouble… really? Who was the adult and in charge of them?
Sounds like Matt took a chapter out of Jerry Sendusky’s playbook. Something smells here…
I heard that Felician is meeting with him and reconsidering his presence at the school and the team. With all the scandals around clergy and the like, I am sure the college is has had enough of the bad press lately and he’s just a liability. From what I understand most of the players don’t want him or his father who runs the “diamond” club around. Many have to remember that the vast majority of these players are of good moral character and have younger siblings that took issue when a kid was faced with type of crime.
the societal behaviors of the day, which have become lax and frankly, low class: too many young kids with unsupervised use of devices, and too much acceptance of this oversexed culture: everybody’s a star, and any fame or notoriety is better than none.. why 10-11 year olds get their own phones at all, ( and don’t tell me they might have an “emergency,”) and have them at school/camp,and why those who are supposed to be caring for them seem to have too much time on their hands to do mischief,is beyond me,to begin with.. The parents are somewhat to blame, the people who run the place are to blame, and the system that often does”selective enforcement,” is also to blame.. our culture has become far too self- absorbed and sex- obsessed, and there are far too few checks on unacceptable behaviors, of various types,period..
RE:Escapes Prison
You must either be a player or a parent of a player at Felician to know all these things and if you are then you must be aware of the problems that the team has had from last year from other players.
As i am a Parent of one of the Athletes in the school and know oh too well of what goes on there. If my daughter could have gone somewhere else we certainly would have done it but with only a year left it doesn’t pay.
If you think that all the players on that team or any of the teams are squeaky clean than you obviously are a very biased person. and to say anything regarding the father running the Diamond Club only either a parent or player would know that as you know that is not true as coaches would not allow that.
And to bring the Clergy into this is beyond me. If you believe everything that is in the papers today you really need a reality check.
Some of you saying the girls “are trouble” and things like that are really sick ducks. 20 year old fully developed mind sending pictures of his penis to girls half his age, some of which haven’t even started puberty yet is a little something known as being a sexual predator. The fact that he’s getting off with nothing on his record is disgusting.. he’s a fully grown male and 100% knows better. I hope none of you blaming the girls have children of your own.
I will reiterate what someone said above…
This kid pleaded to cyber harrassment…did he rob a bank?…kill someone?…rape someone?
The suit ALLEGES he sent pics…where are these pics? This is an assertion made with little or no proof.
I honestly think that all you people need to get your FACTS straight and dont believe everything you read!
Well here we go again… someone’s mom is still saying alleged while he pleaded guilty. I mind you he didn’t plead not guilty, or no contest… he pleaded guilty. If you don’t believe what is written on this website, go look at what was in the judges order. People don’t confess to something unless offered a better deal rather than go to trial.
having children who have grown up in this town I can tell you this is not the first time this boy has done this.mwhile my child was in 7 th grade he sent a penis picture to a girl in her class. Trust me it was the talk of the school for the rest of the year! He is not a rapist but without a doubt has some sexual issues.
I am truly amazed at Township Resident, Marlboro Parent, Alleged Claim, and Must chime in. I hope you are not raising children or ever have. I have nothing to do with either Marlboro or Felician College but I do have a 12 year old girl. This MAN is a pedophile/sex offender/rapist in the making! Especially because he keeps getting away with his abhorrent actions! He pleaded guilty, and probably to a LESSER charge, one, because his parents obviously pulled strings and two, to avoid publicity. Anyone who blames the children who were the victims of this abuse by someone in their care should also be charged. You entrust your children to these camps to be safe. I don’t care if they walked up to him naked…He should and does know better. He chooses not to do the right thing and we all know that this was only what he got caught doing. There is more there that we don’t know about. That entire family needs counseling. If I were on his baseball team, I wouldn’t want to have him there either…tarnishing my team. Shame on the college for continuing to have someone of his caliber on your team. Shame on the legal system…SHAME ON HIS PARENTS – they are raising a monster!!!!!!!
I am told that he is still a member of the baseball team. I am sure Felician will do the right thing and send him on his way. It will be hard for the school to move forward with this. The school is surrounded by elementary and middle schools and in good faith will need to notify them if stays.
Can you imagine is something else happens regarding him on or near the campus (s) and they knew and allowed him to stay? He needs help and I hope he and his family address this disorder and get him help. God Bless!
Felician is doing nothing. The kid needs help. The administration is turning a blind eye to the entire situation and, thus, to the other 30+ student athletes on the team and the greater college community/surrounding community at large. They should be ashamed.
IF the people knew the truth about jon hornik they would never vote for him again. his father saul was a good man who would help anyone. but on the other hand he only looks to make a name for himself,and doesn’t care who he hurt’s to do it,i have worked for the town for some time now and haven’t had a chance for promotion , because of my race, i know that because of the fact i’m african american i’ll never get the chance!he treat’s us different, a complete racist!!!!! he’s not the only one jon capp the b.a. is also!!!!!
If anyone has any information about this matter or the Marlboro Recreation Program they wish to share please contact me at [email protected]
Team update… he’s been suspended definitely and nobody has heard a word from him except maybe the coach. We are wondering about our trip to HI in the spring… his dad was running it as head of the Diamond Club. No love loss here… he caused enough problems for us and now we can move on!
Well this tops it …. mommy K sent an email to the entire team and parents saying her son was Innocent and the newspapers and web is all made up. Says her son never sent nude pics and no crime.
Hey mom…. let me get this right…Son pleaded guilty to a reduced sentence for what? Why not fight it and really clear his name?
Why embarrass yourself by sending an email to the parents and players. Face the facts… precious needs help. Be a parent and help save the world from another predator… rather then blame everyone else!