Rabbi Barry Freundel Appeals Prison Sentence for Mikveh-Peeping

Bumpy Road: Many converts say the opaque conversion process, which was spotlighted in the Rabbi Barry Freundel scandal, is only one of many hurdles they had to overcome. Image by meredith hamilton

By JTA July 13, 2015

Rabbi Barry Freundel is appealing the length of his prison sentence for filming women nude at a ritual bath.

Freundel, who was sentenced in May to 6 1/2 years for videotaping dozens of women at a Washington, D.C., mikveh, is arguing that he should have been sentenced to no more than one year in prison, the Washington Post reported Friday.

A hearing on the appeal will be held in Washington Superior Court on July 31.

Freundel, 63, was given 45 days for each of the 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism for the videotaping that took place between 2012 and 2014. He will serve the sentences successively.

His attorney is arguing that the rabbi should not have been sentenced separately for each of his victims and instead only for one act of videotaping, the Post reported.

Freundel is being held in isolation in a Washington jail after prison officials received threats against him.

The rabbi also recorded an additional 100 women beginning in April 2009 who were not part of the criminal complaint due to the statute of limitations.

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