Rabbi Bernard “Barry” Freundel was arrested in Washington, D.C., on October 14, 2014, after police began investigating allegations that he had secretly recorded women in a changing and showering area at the National Capital Mikvah. Freundel was the rabbi of Kesher Israel congregation, which is located next to the mikvah in Northwest Washington.
The investigation began after an individual associated with the mikvah discovered a clock radio containing a concealed recording device in the facility on October 12, 2014. The device had allegedly been positioned to record women using the shower area. It was turned over to the Metropolitan Police Department, which subsequently obtained search warrants for Freundel's residence and office.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, forensic examinations of electronic devices and digital storage media recovered from Freundel revealed recordings of at least 52 women who were totally or partially undressed in the mikvah's larger changing and showering room. The recordings involving those 52 women occurred on 25 different dates between March 4, 2012, and September 19, 2014.
Investigators also discovered recordings of approximately 100 additional women who had been recorded between 2009 and September 2014. The women did not know they were being recorded and had not consented to the recordings. The 52 women identified in the charges represented the victims covered by the voyeurism counts to which Freundel ultimately pleaded guilty.
Freundel pleaded guilty in February 2015 to 52 counts of voyeurism in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The charges concerned his secret recording of women using the mikvah facilities without their knowledge or consent.
The National Capital Mikvah is a Jewish ritual bath used primarily by Orthodox Jewish women for monthly ritual purification and by other individuals in connection with Orthodox Jewish conversion. Freundel's position as a rabbi and his association with the congregation and mikvah placed him in a position of religious authority in the community.
On May 15, 2015, Superior Court Judge Geoffrey M. Alprin sentenced Freundel to six years and six months in prison. He also ordered Freundel to pay $13,000 to a crime victims' fund. Freundel was taken into custody following the sentencing to begin serving his sentence.
During the sentencing hearing, more than a dozen women addressed the court concerning the effects of the recordings and Freundel's conduct. The court treated the 52 counts as separate offenses corresponding to individual women.
The prosecution's case was based on electronic evidence recovered during the investigation. According to the Department of Justice, Freundel had installed and maintained electronic recording devices in the larger changing and showering room for the purpose of secretly recording women who were using the facility.
Freundel's criminal case concerned voyeurism, while the broader investigation identified recordings involving additional women. The Department of Justice stated that approximately 100 additional women appeared in recordings that were not among the 52 counts to which Freundel pleaded guilty.
Freundel later appealed his sentence, arguing that the six-and-a-half-year prison term was excessive and that the offenses should have resulted in a shorter sentence. In July 2015, Judge Alprin upheld the original sentence, rejecting the argument that the 52 counts should be treated as a single offense.
The case received significant attention because the recordings
