A former State Department official who pleaded guilty last year to charges of stalking and voyeurism was reportedly convicted Monday of soliciting sex from a police officer who posed as a teenage girl.
The guilty plea entered by 46-year-old Daniel Rosen with prosecutors in Fairfax County, Virginia, this week marks the second criminal case to yield convictions against the former counterterrorism official following the launch of an undercover investigation nearly two years ago.
Rosen was initially taken into custody after Fairfax County police say he answered an online sex ad in November 2014 penned by an officer pretending to be a 14-year-old girl. Authorities discovered a collection of lewd videos on Rosen’s cellphone during the course of that investigation, spurring prosecutors in Washington, D.C., to open a case of their own against the District resident.
Prosecutors said Rosen used his Apple iPhone to secretly film dozens of his female neighbors from outside of their homes between early 2012 and late 2014. He pleaded guilty to 11 misdemeanor charges of stalking and voyeurism last year and was subsequently sentenced to 32 months in prison.
“Daniel Rosen trawled city neighborhoods in the late-night hours, sneaking into alleys and aiming his camera into the windows of women who had no idea they were being recorded,” U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips said when the guilty plea was announced last year. “This sexual exploitation and invasion of privacy took place over a period of years and shattered the victims’ sense of safety and security. This sentence holds him accountable for the harm he caused to so many women and hopefully will deter others from similar conduct.”
Rosen now faces a mandatory five-year prison sentence after entering into a plea agreement Monday with respect to the underage solicitation case in Fairfax County. A judge will decide at a later date how to allocate that sentence while Rosen continues to serve time for the secret sex tapes, The Washington Post reported.
The most recent case against Rosen started when he responded to a November 2014 internet posting that read: “No School!!!! Mon and Tues are teacher workdays!!! My parents will be at work, come entertain me…Ask my real age if interested … ;)”
The meeting never took place, but prosecutors charged Rosen with one count of using communications device to solicit a minor when he began talking with the supposed teen again in February 2015.
Rosen was employed as the director of counterterrorism, plans, programs and policy for the State Department when his arrest was revealed in early 2015. His security clearance was immediately revoked as a result of the investigation.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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