WASHINGTON (DC)
Courthouse News Service
By DAN MCCUE
(CN) – A prominent Washington D.C. rabbi pleaded guilty on Thursday to 52 counts of videotaping naked women as they prepared for a ritual bath, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
Rabbi Barry Freundel was arrested on October 14, 2014, on charges he videotaped six women while was the spiritual leader at the orthodox Kesher Israel Congregation, in Washington’s upscale Georgetown neighborhood.
According to prosecutors, the 63-year-old rabbi was seen entering the synagogue’s large changing area and shower room two days earlier and placing a digital clock radio on a countertop facing the private bath.
A short time later, an unidentified individual associated with the mikvah, a ritual cleansing bath, discovered the clock contained a hidden recording device and turned it over to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
After an initial investigation, the department executed search warrants to seek evidence at Freundel’s home and office at Towson University, and computer forensic exam revealed the rabbi had taped scores of women on 25 different dates between March 4, 2012 and Sept. 19, 2014.
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