Georgetown 3L sues over prof's alleged secret recordings at ritual bath
A third-year law student at Georgetown law school alleges an adjunct law professor who is a rabbi may have secretly recorded her taking a Jewish ritual mikvah bath that was part of a class project.
The unidentified 3L says Rabbi Bernard “Barry” Freundel encouraged her to take the ritual bath for a paper in a Jewish law seminar that he co-taught in the spring of 2014. The defendants are the law school, the synagogue led by Freundel, and the National Capital Mikvah where the baths took place. The National Law Journal (sub. req.), the Washington Post, My Fox DC and NBC Washington covered the allegations.
Freundel was charged with voyeurism in October after a worker found a secret camera in the area where women undressed and showered before the bath. Police say Freundel’s computer contained images of naked women preparing for the bath.
The student filed the would-be class action suit (PDF) on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., superior court. “This case involves an unfathomable breach of trust by a Georgetown professor and religious leader and defendants’ utter failure to prevent and/or stop it,” the suit said. “Plaintiff was devastated when she learned that,” under the guise of his positions with the defendants, Freundel had “lured” her to the bath “to sexually exploit her,” the suit says.
The plaintiff got an A on her paper.
The law student’s lawyer, Steven Silverman of Baltimore, told the Washington Post his client does not know whether she was recorded. She has given police a photo of her face to see if it matches any images from Freundel’s computer. Freundel had directed her to the changing room on the two occasions she visited for the bath, the suit says.
A spokesperson for the law school told the National Law Journal that Freundel is not teaching any courses this academic year, the school is conducting its own investigation, and it is cooperating in the police investigation. “We are horrified by the behavior reported to have taken place at the mikvah,” the statement says.
