A counterterrorism official with the U.S. State Department, who already faced charges of soliciting a child for sex in Fairfax County, now is accused of peeping through the windows of dozens of women’s homes in the District and videotaping them as they showered or undressed.
Daniel Rosen, 44, was charged Monday with one count of voyeurism and one count of stalking. He could face additional charges, as D.C. police are still collecting evidence and working to identify each of the 24 women they say were unknowingly videotaped.
Police said detectives discovered 40 separate videos of women taped in various “states of undress” on Mr. Rosen’s cellphone as officials investigated a separate incident in which he is accused of soliciting a minor for sex.
Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Peter Newsham said seven victims were videotaped more than once. One woman was filmed five times over several nights — one video included footage of her washing her face at a bathroom sink while naked from the waist up, according to an affidavit for Mr. Rosen’s arrest that was filed in D.C. Superior Court.
“The disturbing thing was that the videos appear to have been taken through the curtains and shades that were drawn, so the camera was utilized in a way that it could see through very small areas,” Chief Newsham said. “The victims were trying to be in the privacy of their homes with their windows and curtains drawn, and he was still able to get these images.”
Police said the videos found on the cellphone date back to June 2012 and all appear to have been taken in D.C. neighborhoods close to where Mr. Rosen lived, including in Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan and U Street, according to the affidavit. Police alluded to the possibility that Mr. Rosen masturbated while filming the women, saying that he can be heard “breathing heavily in a rhythmic manner” in some of the videos.
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State Department officials said Mr. Rosen, who works as the director of programs in the agency’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, has been placed on administrative leave and had his security clearance revoked while the cases move through the courts.
Chief Newsham said it did not appear that the alleged crimes were in any way related to Mr. Rosen’s employment. Police also said they did not believe Mr. Rosen knew the women he filmed.
Mr. Rosen was initially arrested in February for the solicitation charge. A search warrant in that case states that 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, Mr. Rosen canceled a planned meeting, but police arrested him shortly afterward. He was charged with one count of using of a communications device to solicit a juvenile.
Mr. Rosen was arraigned Monday in D.C. Superior Court on the voyeurism and stalking charges and pleaded not guilty. He was released under a high intensity supervision agreement that included use of a GPS ankle monitor, according to court records.
Chief Newsham encouraged anyone who had reason to suspect they might have be one of the videotaped women to contact the police, noting that a few victims had expressed paranoia about recent events.
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“There was some concern by some of the people that we spoke to that something might have happened but they weren’t exactly sure what,” Chief Newsham said.
This is the second high-profile voyeurism case brought in the District in recent months.
A prominent Orthodox rabbi, Barry Freundel, pleaded guilty last month to 52 counts of voyeurism for secretly taping women as they prepared for baths at a ritual bathhouse. Each count is a misdemeanor that is punishable by up to a year in jail. He is to be sentenced May 15.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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