WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post
Prosecutors seek 17-year sentence for D.C. Rabbi convicted of voyeurism
By Keith L. Alexander and Michelle Boorstein May 8
Prosecutors have asked a D.C. Superior Court judge to impose a 17-year prison sentence for Barry Freundel, the once-influential Orthodox rabbi who secretly videotaped dozens of nude women as they prepared for a ritual bath.
Freundel, 64, was arrested in October on charges that he videotaped six women in the nude while he was at Kesher Israel synagogue in Georgetown. Prosecutors said a review of his computer equipment revealed that many more women had been recorded by Freundel as they prepared for the bath known as a mikvah — used as part of a purification ritual by people converting to Judaism and by married women as a way to sanctify sex.
Freundel ultimately pleaded guilty to videotaping 52 women, and the punishment proposed by prosecutors would translate to four months for each victim. The longtime rabbi had recorded about 100 additional women, prosecutors have said, but those alleged crimes occurred outside the three-year statute of limitations. The videotaping occurred between 2009 and 2014.
Sentencing is set for May 15 before Judge Geoffrey M. Alprin, and dozens of the victims — including several who will fly in from Israel — are scheduled to attend. The judge can adopt or reject the prosecutors’ recommended sentence.
In a 25-page memo, prosecutors attacked Freundel’s credibility as a religious leader and said he lived a “double life.” Prosecutors said they found videos of the rabbi, who is married, having sex with several women.
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