WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post
By Keith L. Alexander and Michelle Boorstein February 19
Barry Freundel, a long-time D.C. Orthodox rabbi, is expected to plead guilty Thursday afternoon to dozens of charges involving the secret videotaping of nude women as they prepared for a sacred bath, Freundel’s defense attorney said.
A D.C. Superior Court hearing in the case, initially set for 10:00 a.m., was pushed back to 1 p.m. and moved to a larger courtroom to allow enough space for any victims who wished to attend.
Freundel’s attorney, Jeffrey Harris, said his client planned to plead guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism. A guilty plea is not final until a defendant formally enters it in court and it is approved by a judge.
Prior to the hearing, D.C. prosecutors sent a note to victims saying Freundel had agreed to a plea involving all women whose images were identified and who were allegedly videotaped during the past three years. Any older cases would be outside the statute of limitations.
Prosecutors wrote that they wanted to “assure everyone that if this plea goes through, as victims of crime, you will have the right to submit a written as well as an oral victim impact statement at a sentencing hearing, expressing how this crime has impacted you.”
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