Carla said she and Kleiman had not met in person as he was living in Canada and she was still going to school in Central America. She said he began demanding more and more personal time from her until her routine was messaging Kleiman when she woke up, before class, and as soon as she was home from school and he'd become angry with her if she played online games with her friends without him. Eventually, she said he asked for her social media and e-mail passwords and Carla complied, but she knew it this wasn't what she wanted from a relationship. She tried to break things off with Kleiman in early 2014.
This prompted what Carla described as a cycle of harassment. Carla stated that Kleiman began calling her home phone number at all hours until she relented and began communicating with him again. She learned that Kleiman had discreetly recorded their Skype conversations, including illicit images and videos. She said he then expressed interest in flying to see Carla at her home. Carla became scared that if she did not relent to his requests, he would share her photos with her strict parents. She also felt that in the event of a sexual assault, she would not be able to turn to her country's authorities for assistance.
“I wanted to be with someone special, I wanted [my first sexual experience] to be something that was positive. I kinda knew that I might have to give that up. So at the end of the visit I gave up...what I had left of myself.” Carla described putting on a "facade" for Kleiman with the hopes that she would be able to escape the relationship once she moved to Toronto for college in 2014. She began changing all of her passwords in order to lock Kleiman out of her accounts and cease contact with him.
But Carla said Kleiman found a way into her accounts once she entered Canada. She reported it to her local precinct but hit a dead end. Eventually, she said he showed up at her place of work at the local shopping center. Carla relented by giving Kleiman the address where she was living with her father. On Halloween, she said he showed up at her home. Carla's father, who met Kleiman in Central America prior, let him into the house. Carla said he came into her room and put his arms around her.
"I told him 'don't fucking touch me,' and I bit him before eventually going limp,” Carla said. She intended to call the police for sexual assault when he left, but said she noticed Kleiman outside her window during the night. When she did call the police and reported the assault, Carla said they didn't take her seriously. Carla said Kleiman returned to the house again and once again she called the police who, without her knowledge, allegedly escorted him to shelter downtown to stay the night. Carla met up with a friend from out of town and the two headed for an evening out. She said she later received a text from Kleiman that described how he watched her. Carla slept in her father's room that night, but decided she had to handle the situation herself.
Kleiman returned to Carla's home a third time and her father let him into the home. She locked herself in the bathroom and called the police for the third time. Carla said the arriving officers were not the same as her previous two calls and they urged her to make a statement regarding the previous sexual assault. Carla gave a video interview with police and for the first time since her harassment began over a year ago, Kleiman was arrested. While the sexual assault charge was pending trial, the court put in place a No Contact order and sent Kleiman back to British Columbia. The court would eventually drop the charge due to lack of evidence, the no contact order would remain, and Carla would move to Newfoundland for college.
Carla said Kleiman continued to have access to her online address book and would contact her new friends or pull phone numbers from her messages to call them and inquire about where she was and what she was doing. Carla reported the harassment to Newfoundland police as a violation of the no contact order in 2015. This led to a criminal harassment charge against Kleiman and headed to trial.
When speaking about the cross-examination process, Carla candidly stated, "I don't know what I get more PTSD from, the legal system or Bram." The defense would accuse Carla of leading Kleiman on, taking advantage of his feelings, and manipulating him with knowledge of his ASD. Carla said she began crying loudly during the trial and was dismissed from the stand.
