A former rabbi convicted of secretly videotaping women at a Jewish ritual bath was released early on Wednesday from D.C. jail.
Bernard "Barry" Freundel got released 551 days early for "good time credits" plus an extra two weeks because of the coronavirus. Existing legislation states that during a public health emergency, the D.C. Department of Corrections "shall have discretion to award additional good time credits to defendants serving misdemeanor sentences."
Freundel was the rabbi at the Kesher Israel synagogue for a quarter-century before he was arrested in October 2014, accused of hiding a video camera inside a clock radio and pointing it at a shower at the National Capital Mikvah, a ritual bathhouse affiliated with Freundel's former synagogue.
Freundel pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism and sentenced to nearly six and a half years in prison.
He managed to reduce his sentence by by repeatedly taking a job training course, law enforcement sources said. Each time he took the course, he got 21 days taken off his sentence.
He will not be legally required to register as a sex offender.
