52 Pickup: Voyeur Rabbi Properly Sentenced

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed consecutive sentences

Appellant Bernard Freundel pleaded guilty to fifty-two counts of voyeurism. The trial court sentenced Mr. Freundel to consecutive sentences of forty-five days of incarceration on each count and also imposed a fine on each count. Mr. Freundel argues that the consecutive sentences violate the Double Jeopardy Clause. We affirm.

The crimes

In pleading guilty, Mr. Freundel acknowledged the truth of a proffer that included the following facts. Mr. Freundel was a rabbi in Washington, D.C. His congregation was affiliated with a nearby mikvah, which is a ritual bath primarily used by Orthodox Jewish women for spiritual purification. There were two showering and changing rooms connected to the room housing the mikvah. On numerous occasions between 2009 and 2014, Mr. Freundel placed video-recording devices inside one of those rooms. Mr. Freundel installed and maintained the devices “for the sole purpose of secretly and surreptitiously recording women who were . . . totally and partially undressed before and/or after showering” in the room…

At sentencing, defense counsel argued that it would be illegal for the trial court to impose consecutive sentences on the fifty-two counts, because Mr. Freundel engaged in a single course of conduct. The trial court disagreed. Mr. Freundel filed a motion to correct illegal sentences pursuant to Super. Ct. Crim. R. 35 (a), again arguing that the trial court could not lawfully impose consecutive sentences. The trial court denied the motion, and Mr. Freundel seeks review of that ruling.

The court here held that there were 52 victims and 52 separate crimes.

By his own acknowledgment, Mr. Freundel used multiple recording devices over a period of years to record multiple victims, each of whom was recorded undressing separately. Because each victim was recorded undressing separately, we need not decide whether multiple punishments would be permissible based on a single recording depicting more than one victim at the same time. Nor need we address what other factual circumstances might reflect a “fork in the road” or “new impulse” permitting multiple punishments…

section 22-3531 (c) unambiguously permits separate punishment for each of Mr. Freundel’s fifty-two victims in this case. 

 (Mike Frisch)