Mom comments on incident involving mayor at party
Recent press publications have reported an incident occurring this summer in Old Bridge involving my 13-year-old son and Marlboro Mayor Robert Kleinberg. Although I was not at the bar mitzvah in question, I am writing this letter based on what I have been told and to defend my child against the lies and distortions issued by Mayor Kleinberg.

On June 16, my son celebrated the bar mitzvah of a close friend. Also in attendance at the party were Mayor Kleinberg and his family. During the affair my son was dancing and enjoying the party with other 13-year-olds.

While dancing, my son, as well as others, exchanged unacceptable gestures to each other. These gestures were observed by Mayor Kleinberg's daughter who told her father. Mayor Kleinberg immediately took it upon himself to confront my child.

He verbally assaulted my 13-year-old child with profanity and said my son would grow up to become a "drug addict" and end up in jail. He then followed my crying son out of the room and continued to verbally berate him.

When the mayor was confronted by other guests and asked what occurred, he lied and said he did and said nothing. A number of guests surrounding the adults and the mayor who witnessed the incident said he was lying and that he did yell and use profanity toward my son.

After the event, we, as a family, discussed what my son had done and disciplined him accordingly, as parents are supposed to do.

Now questions have been asked as to why we filed our complaint on July 27 after the event occurred on June 16. The answer is simple.

As a family we wanted to let it go, move on and not insult our friends. However, the extensive verbal abuse taken by my son had continued to hurt him; especially as it came in the form of profanity and abuse from the mayor of his town.

As a parent I decided that in support of my child I would file an incident report with the police and show our son that no one is permitted to treat another human being so terribly and that even a mayor is not above the law.

The press discovered the incident report and reported it. In his responses Mayor Kleinberg was quoted as saying that my son "pushed his daughter." My son never laid a hand on his young daughter.

He was quoted as saying that he "does not curse." He cursed my child, made him cry and followed him out and continued to verbally abuse and bully him, while using profane language toward him.

The mayor is being dishonest about this and should apologize for an uncalled for outburst toward a child. Our actions in reporting this were not meant for public consumption, but since the issue has risen to that level, the truth had to be told.

Marlene Alterman

Marlboro

Editor's note: In an article about this incident that was published on the Internet Web site politicsnj.com, Marlboro Mayor Robert Kleinberg was quoted as saying, "I didn't use profanity. I yelled at a kid who had pushed my daughter and stuck his (middle) finger in her face. I don't curse. Ask people who know me and they'll tell you."