Former Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, has reportedly entered a guilty plea in response to charges that he groped a woman in a Brooklyn apartment in October 2017.
Frieden turned himself in and was arraigned on August 24, 2018. The New York Police Department charged him with a class A misdemeanor of forcible touch, in addition to second degree harassment and third degree sexual abuse (also a misdemeanor).
In Brooklyn Criminal Court on June 4, Frieden, 58, pled guilty to disorderly conduct, according to a report from ABC News. In return, Frieden will not face jail time, and the criminal charges will be dropped, said ABC News.
Former CDC Chief Tom Frieden.
Buzzfeed reported that Frieden also accepted an order to stay away from the woman — a longtime family friend — for a year. His record will be expunged at the end of the year if he has no further violations, said multiple reports.
Frieden is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit organization aimed at improving health in developing nations. The organization has backing from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
At the time of Frieden's arrest, Jose Castro, president and CEO of Vital Strategies, the parent of Resolve to Save Lives, told CNN that an internal review conducted earlier that month found that Frieden had not acted inappropriately in the workplace.
Medscape Medical News' request for an updated comment from Vital Strategies had not been answered at press time.
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Cite this: Former CDC Chief Frieden Pleads Guilty to Disorderly Conduct - Medscape - Jun 04, 2019.
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