4. After leaving the CDC, Frieden started a new initiative called Resolve, dedicated to reducing heart disease and strokes. The nonprofit is based in New York City. “I hope five years from now we’ll look back and see this was the inflection point for rapid progress in preventing global cardiovascular disease deaths and improving epidemic preparedness,” Frieden told The Washington Post. “In a few years, we hope that blood pressure control, sodium reduction, elimination of trans fats and strong public health systems will have become the new normal.” 5. Frieden was arrested Friday morning in Brooklyn, according to police. He was charged with forcible touching, sex abuse and harassment.<doc-sep>Tom Frieden turned himself in Friday morning and is expected to appear in a Brooklyn courtroom later Friday. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Former head of CDC Tom Frieden arrested, charged with sex abuse Tom Frieden, who led the CDC for eight years during the Obama administration and has global renown as a public health leader, was charged Friday morning with sex abuse and forcible touching, both misdemeanors, and harassment, a non-criminal violation. He appeared in a Brooklyn courtroom Friday afternoon for a quick proceeding and then was released with no bail. Judge Michael Yavinsky ordered Frieden to avoid any communication with his accuser and told the former CDC commissioner to surrender his passport. He’s due back in court on Oct. 11. The incident stemmed from an October dinner party Frieden, 57, held at his Brooklyn home. As the party was concluding, Frieden allegedly grabbed the buttocks of one of his guests, according to a CNN report, citing a law enforcement official. The New York Police Department said Frieden has known his accuser, a 55-year-old woman, for 30 years. Trailed by a pack of reporters as he left the courtroom, Frieden ignored questions and got into the back seat of a waiting car. Frieden rose to prominence as head of the New York City health department under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, tackling tobacco and fast food. Later, he spearheaded the Obama administration‘s response to Ebola. He now serves as president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, part of Vital Strategies, a global health nonprofit. He told colleagues at Resolve back in April that a longtime friend was accusing him of inappropriate physical contact, José Castro, the president and CEO of Vital Strategies, said in a statement. “In all of my experiences with him, there have never been any concerns or reports of inappropriate conduct,” Castro said. The woman accusing Frieden is not an employee. Still, Vital Strategies brought in an outside team to conduct an investigation and it found no incidents of workplace harassment, Castro said. A Frieden spokeswoman said “this allegation does not reflect Dr. Frieden’s public or private behavior or his values over a lifetime of service to improve health around the world." The city health department declined to comment.<doc-sep>Castro said he has known Frieden for nearly three decades and “there have never been any concerns or reports of inappropriate conduct” before this episode. He also said that this month, Vital Strategies launched “a thorough investigation by an external expert, which included an in-depth interview with every staff member on the Resolve to Save Lives team to determine whether there are any concerns about inappropriate behavior.” He said, “This assessment determined there have been no incidents of workplace harassment.”<doc-sep>Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who ran the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for eight years under President Obama, was arrested in Brooklyn on Friday morning and charged with groping a woman in his apartment in October 2017, the police said. A 55-year-old woman came forward to the police in July and said that Dr. Frieden squeezed her buttocks against her will nine months earlier, on Oct. 20, the police said. She told investigators the incident happened as she was leaving a gathering at Dr. Frieden’s residence on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. At 10 a.m. on Friday, Dr. Frieden surrendered to the police at the 77th Precinct in Crown Heights. He was arraigned Friday afternoon before Justice Michael Yavinsky in Kings County Criminal Court on charges of forcible touching, third-degree sexual abuse and harassment. The judge released Dr. Frieden without bail, ordering him to surrender his passport and to have no contact with the victim. Neither he, nor his lawyer, Laura A. Brevetti, commented as they left the courthouse. The woman who said she had been groped, an artist in New York City, had been a vocal #MeToo activist before the Oct. 20 incident, creating artwork related to the movement. In April, she wrote an article in an online publication describing her transition from activist to victim, and related the events of that night without naming her abuser.<doc-sep>
This image was removed due to legal reasons. The former director of the CenterS for Disease Control and Prevention was arrested in New York City and will be charged with sexual abuse, multiple outlets reported on Friday. Dr. Thomas Frieden, who served as the head of the CDC between 2009 and 2017, is expected to be arraigned on charges forcible touching, sex abuse, and harassment. The charges stem from an October 2017 incident at his Brooklyn home, a representative of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office told the Washington Post. According to a New York Police Department spokesperson who also spoke with the Post, Frieden—who spent seven years as New York City Health Commissioner prior to his time with the CDC—turned himself in to authorities on Friday morning, and stands “accused of grabbing a woman’s buttocks.” The incident was reported to police this past July. A representative for Frieden pushed back on—but did not deny—the allegations in a statement to CNN: This allegation does not reflect Dr. Frieden’s public or private behavior or his values over a lifetime of service to improve health around the world. Frieden currently serves as the CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a health-focused initiative overseen by the global NGO Vital Strategies. In a statement to CNBC, Vital Strategies CEO Jose Castro explained that while Frieden had told him about the allegations of misconduct this past April, a review conducted by an “external expert” concluded that “there have been no incidents of workplace harassment” by Frieden within the organization itself. “Vital Strategies greatly values the work Dr. Frieden does to advance public health and he has my full confidence,” Castro added. As head of the CDC for nearly a decade, Frieden oversaw the response to a number of major health crises, including the E bola outbreak that occurred in West Africa from 2014– 2016 and the Zika virus outbreak of 2016.