Police Suspect Washington D.C. Rabbi of Serial Voyeurism

A document filed in the Washington D.C. Superior Court maintains that Rabbi Barry Freundel's peeping on women in the mikveh affiliated with his Kesher Israel Congregation may have been going on since 2012, ABC 7 reported on Friday.

• Celebrating Simchat Torah With Your Rabbi Arrested
• Protecting Jewish Converts From Abuse
• Hidden Cameras in the Mikveh?
• Voyeur Rabbi Suspended
• Rabbinate to Review D.C. Rabbi's Conversions

Freundel was arrested last Tuesday and charged with setting up a recording device disguised as a digital clock radio in the changing and showering area of the mikveh. He was released to his home on Wednesday and banned from visiting the synagogue or being in touch with his alleged victims.

According to a police report, one of Freundel's alleged victims, a 35-year-old woman, told police she saw Freundel plugging in a black alarm clock that contained a video recording device while she was preparing to take a mikvah at the synagogue.

Freundel reportedly told her the device was for ventilation purposes, according to the report.

A few days later, the woman noticed that the clock was gone. When she saw it again on October 12, she grew suspicious and removed it, police said. She later found “what appeared to be a video camera” in the clock and a card for electronic storage. She called police and turned the clock over to them.

Another woman reportedly said that she recalled seeing the clock as far back as 2012.

On one recording device seized by police, they reportedly found more than 100 deleted files dating back to February. Some of the files were labeled with women’s first names.

An affidavit says police think the rabbi had been “engaging in the criminal act of voyeurism in several locations and with the use of several devices and over a period of time,” ABC 7 said.

In addition to the camera-equipped clock radio found in the shower area of the mikveh, police reportedly seized a similar device from Freundel’s home.

Also seized, according to the police list, were six external hard drives, seven laptop computers, five desktop computers, three regular cameras, 20 memory cards and 10 flash drives.

Police have said the camera in the mikveh and the one found in Freundel's home were part of clock-radios in which the hidden device was linked to a motion detector.