WASHINGTON D.C.
A federal judge sentenced a 63-year-old rabbi who worked for a Jewish congregation in Washington D.C. to six years and six months in prison for secretly recording at least 52 women preparing for a Jewish ritual bath, officials said.
Bernard “Barry” Freundel plead guilty in February to 52 misdemeanor counts of voyeurism stemming from a series of incidents between 2009 and 2014 in which he secretly took video recordings of the women, federal officials said.
An additional 100 victims were found on the computer and other electronic equipment seized by police after they executed a search warrant at Freundel’s home, officials said.U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey M. Alprin on Friday sentenced Freundel after a three-hour hearing in which more than a dozen women told the court of the emotional impact they continue to endure because of Freundel’s abuse of his position of trust.
Judge Alprin sentenced Freundel to 45 days in prison for each of the 52 victims, calling his actions “a classic abuse of power and violation of trust.”
“Today the court heard the heart-wrenching accounts of the victims of Barry Freundel’s exploitation,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Vincent H. Cohen Jr. “Their stories make clear the lasting scars that will be left by this outrageous abuse of power. This prosecution was an effort to restore the dignity that Barry Freundel tried to steal from these women. We hope that the scores of victims of his crimes will find some solace in the justice meted out by the court today.”
Kesher Israel is adjacent to the National Capital Mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath.
A mikvah is used primarily by Orthodox Jewish women for monthly spiritual purification and by other individuals as the final step in the Orthodox Jewish conversion process, officials stated.
The National Capital Mikvah has two changing-showering rooms connected to the room with the ritual bath.
On Oct. 12, 2014, Freundel entered the larger showering room with a clock radio that contained a hidden recording device. He placed the clock radio on the countertop of the sink and positioned the recording element so that it faced the shower area, authorities stated.
He then left the changing area. Shortly thereafter, the clock radio was taken by a person associated with the Mikvah, who immediately turned it over to the police, leading to an investigation, officials said.
Freundel was arrested on Oct. 14, 2014.
Law enforcement executed search warrants to examine the contents of the clock radio and to seek evidence at Freundel’s home and office at Towson University, officials stated.
Computer forensic examinations of all of the electronic devices and digital media storage devices seized from the defendant’s home and office revealed recordings made by the defendant of at least 52 women who were totally or partially undressed in the large showering/changing room on a total of 25 different dates between March 4, 2012 and Sept. 19, 2014, according to authorities.
In addition to the 52 recordings that were the subject of the plea, officials said computer forensic examinations revealed that Freundel secretly recorded about 100 additional women totally or partially undressed between between 2009 and September 2014.