Freundel Victims Notified of Wrong Release Date

By Dan Schere
Washington Jewish Week
April 26, 2018

http://washingtonjewishweek.com/45820/freundel-victims-notified-of-wrong-release-date/breaking-news/

Victims of convicted voyeur Barry Freundel received an email Wednesday saying he will be released two years early. But that email was wrong, Freundel’s attorney, Jeffrey Harris, said today.

The District of Columbia Department of Corrections incorrectly informed victims that Freundel’s release date had been moved up to Aug. 21, 2018.

Today, the same people received another email saying that Freundel will be released on the same date in 2020, Harris said. Harris said he received both emails, which the head of the Department of Corrections said was the result of an error in its automated notification system.

Freundel, former rabbi of Kesher Israel, an Orthodox congregation in Georgetown, pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism and was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison in 2015. He was arrested in 2014 for videotaping naked women undergoing conversion to Judaism while he was in charge of the National Capital Mikvah.

A statement from Department of Corrections Director Quincy Booth confirmed that the erroneous email had been sent out as part of the department’s automated notification system that informs crime victims when the person sentenced for committing the crime is scheduled to be released, known as VINE.

“In the case of Mr. Freundel, the email incorrectly calculated his scheduled release date and sent the email to Mr. Freundel’s victims who signed up for the VINE service. DOC has corrected the error that caused the incorrect release calculation and email notification,” Booth wrote.

“The Department of Corrections is responsible for the safety and security of inmates in its custody and this must be balanced with the trust and respect of the victims affected. This error compromised that trust and we offer our most sincere apologies to the victims. The Department is initiating a full review of its internal records management processes to determine how this error occurred and prevent it from happening again.”

Booth also wrote that Freundel is eligible to earn “good time” credits during his incarceration for good behavior, which can shorten the length of a sentence.

Harris said Freundel’s sentence has already been shortened from 6.5 years to five for this reason.

“If you don’t get into any trouble, you get so many days a month [reduced],” he said.

Harris said in January he received an email stating Freundel’s release would be in November 2020. In subsequent emails, the release date was moved up to October 2020 and the September 2020.

Contact: dschere@midatlanticmedia.com