WASHINGTON:
A “predator” rabbi in the US capital could spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting Thursday he hid cameras to secretly record scores of women preparing for a Jewish ritual bath.
Bernard Freundel, 63, pleaded guilty to numerous counts of voyeurism and faces a maximum of 52 years behind bars when sentenced in May, the US justice department said.
“Bernard Freundel exploited his position of power to victimize dozens of women who entered a sacred, intimate space of religious ritual,” said attorney Ronald Machen.
“He betrayed the trust of every woman whose private moments he caught on camera along with an entire community that counted on him for moral leadership. We hope that this guilty plea will allow each of his victims to move forward and heal.”
Cathy Lanier, chief of police for Washington, DC, added: “This predator committed an outrageous breach of trust.”
Freundel, rabbi of Kesher Israel Congregation in the northwest of the capital, was arrested in October after a clock radio that contained a hidden recording device was discovered facing a shower area of the National Capital Mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath adjacent to Kesher Israel.
A search of his home and office at Towson University in nearby Baltimore turned up recordings of at least 52 women who were totally or partially undressed in the changing room of the Mikvah between March 4, 2012 and September 19, 2014.
“He must be punished for abusing his position to deliberately and repeatedly violate women s privacy,” said Lanier.
“My heart goes out to the victims and all members of the community who have been deeply wounded by this criminal s actions.”
In addition to the 52 recordings he pleaded guilty to, computer forensic examinations revealed that Freundel secretly filmed about 100 more women in various states of undress, stretching back to 2009.
He will be sentenced on May 15.