The doctor who served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for almost the entirety of Barack Obama’s presidency has avoided sex abuse charges by pleading guilty to disorderly conduct.
Dr. Tom Frieden, 58, was arrested and charged last year with third-degree sexual abuse, forcible touching, and second-degree harassment after a court complaint from a 55-year-old woman alleged that he grabbed her buttocks without her consent in 2017. He was facing up to a year in jail over the charges.
Tuesday’s plea in Brooklyn court drops all of the initial charges in lieu of the disorderly conduct violation. A violation is not a crime, which means Frieden will not have a criminal record. He will be subject to an order to avoid contact with the woman for a year.
Frieden served as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2009 to 2017 and helped handle the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Frieden has declined to comment on the plea deal.
