Former CDC director Tom Frieden pleads guilty in sex abuse case, gets no jail time

Former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tom Frieden avoided jail time on Tuesday after pleading guilty to groping a longtime family friend in New York.

Frieden, who is also the former New York City health comissioner, turned himself in to police in August 2018 after the woman reported that he had grabbed her butt without her permission inside his Brooklyn apartment, court documents said.

By pleading guilty, Frieden wasn’t required to explain what happened during the October 2017 incident to Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Edwin Novillo. Frieden was facing up to a year in jail for misdemeanor forcible touching, third-degree sexual abuse and second-degree harassment charges, prosecutors said.

A representative for Frieden declined to comment on the case. Frieden’s defense attorney, Laura Brevetti, also declined to comment outside of court.

Frieden, 58, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and had all of the criminal charges dropped. Novillo sentenced Frieden to a conditional discharge that will be dismissed and sealed in a year so long as he does not get arrested during that time frame.