Rabbi Freundel wins early release; will walk free Aug. 21

By Dan Schere
WashingtJewish Week
April 25, 2018

http://washingtonjewishweek.com/45808/barry-freundel-to-be-released-aug-21/breaking-news/

Barry Freundel in 2015

Rabbi Barry Freundel, who pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism and was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison in 2015, will be released Aug. 21, according to social media reports.

A tweet one of Freundel’s victims, Lauren Landau, showed a screenshot of an email  that said “This notification is from the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. The offender for whom you registered, BERNARD FREUNDEL, with the DCDC number 346271, is scheduled for release from the Correctional Treatment Facility on 8/21/2018.”

“Barry Freundel was supposed to get out in 2021,” tweeted Landau.

Freundel was rabbi of Kesher Israel, an Orthodox congregation in Georgetown, when he was arrested in 2014 for videotaping naked women undergoing the conversion process while he was in charge of the National Capital Mikvah. He had appealed the sentence twice according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, but was denied in both cases.

A second tweet came about Freundel came from another of his victims, conservative writer Bethany Mandel.

“Just got an automated email from the DC Corrections Dept that Barry Freundel’s release has been pushed up by two years; he’s apparently getting out in August. That’s a nice punch in the gut,” she tweeted.

This report has not been confirmed by the Department of Corrections, as officials could not be reached for comment.