A former senior official with the State Department pleaded guilty Wednesday to voyeurism and stalking charges stemming from incidents over a period of three years during which he secretly videotaped women in their D.C. homes as they showered or undressed.
Daniel Rosen, 44, admitted in D.C. Superior Court to hiding outside the women’s homes and peering through their windows to videotape them with his cellphone.
While Metropolitan Police initially said Rosen had videotaped at least 24 different women, he pleaded guilty to six counts of voyeurism and five counts of stalking involving 11 victims. In his plea agreement, prosecutors noted that Rosen could have faced up to 34 separate criminal charges in the case.
Police discovered 40 videotapes of women recorded in various states of undress on Rosen’s cellphone as officials investigated a separate incident in which he is accused of soliciting a minor for sex.
“Daniel Rosen crept through alleys and peered through windows to secretly film women during intimate, private moments in their own homes,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Vincent Cohen. “Today he admitted to being a serial stalker and voyeur who robbed women of the privacy they expected in their own bedrooms and bathrooms.”
The videos, which date back to June 2012, were shot in the Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan and U Street neighborhoods. Officials said Rosen would take his dog out on a walk for cover and then target women who lived in basement-level apartments. In many instances, the women had blinds or window shades drawn, but Rosen would aim his cellphone to take video through cracks. Several of the women were videotaped multiple times.
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The videos include one of a woman reading a book in her bathtub; another victim was recorded three separate times as she walked around her home naked; and another was videotaped as she undressed to take a shower.
Police alluded to the possibility that Rosen masturbated while filming the women, saying that he can be heard “breathing heavily in a rhythmic manner” in some of the videos.
Each of the 11 counts is punishable by a maximum of one year in prison. Rosen is set to be sentenced in the case on Oct. 9.
Rosen, a former counterterrorism official at the State Department, initially was arrested in February for the solicitation charge.
According to a search warrant in that case, he exchanged messages with an undercover Fairfax County Police officer, whom he thought was a 14-year-old girl, in order to solicit sex. Fearing that the girl was an undercover officer, Rosen canceled a planned meeting, but police arrested him shortly afterward.
That case is still pending in Fairfax County District Court.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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