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Forest Hill resident Steven Jay Friedman has been sentenced to 30 years in prison with all but 18 suspended after being convicted earlier this year on rape and other charges in January.
A jury found Friedman complicit in supplying a 16-year-old girl with alcohol before sexually assaulting her in February last year.
Specifically, Friedman was convicted of and sentenced for:
- Second-degree rape (20 years, suspended all but 18 years to serve);
- Sexual offense in the third degree (10 years);
- Providing alcohol to a minor ($1,000 fine);
- Second-degree assault;
- Furnishing for or allowing underage consumption.
Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey said that the teen testified that she regularly took walks in her neighborhood, and Friedman approached her at approximately 5 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2022, “stating that he had been watching her take walks and thought she was very attractive.”
Friedman then invited the girl into his home to provide her alcohol, and while inside, he reached under her shirt and bra to inappropriately touch her chest, according to prosecutors.
The victim testified that she was too intoxicated to say no at the time and did not consent.
“Friedman overcame her attempts to resist and performed oral sex on her while digitally penetrating her without consent,” officials said, noting that during the assault, his family came home and he interacted with them before escorting the teen out of the home undetected.
The teen was able to preserve video evidence of Friedman providing her with alcohol and confirming the sexual contact. Friedman later admitted to the incident to members of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigative Division.
“The conviction of Steven Friedman for this heinous and predatory crime gives the victim of this case closure to a difficult chapter that no individual deserves, and especially not a child,” Healey said following the announcement of his guilty verdict. “I commend the victim and her family for reporting the assault and for the bravery she exhibited by testifying at trial.”
Upon his release, Friedman will also be placed on five years of supervised probation, according to the judge who sentenced him, and he will also have to register as a lifetime sex offender.
As part of his probation, he is also ordered to have no contact with the victim or her family, be subject to DNA testing and COMET supervision, sex offender treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy, abstinence from alcohol and drugs, drug testing, drug/alcohol treatment, and no unsupervised contact with minors.
"I am very grateful that we were able to obtain justice for the victim in this case, who showed incredible resilience and bravery by facing her abuser not just at trial, but at the sentencing hearing as well," Healey added.
"This offender is a danger to our community, and we are grateful that Judge (Yolanda) Curtin’s sentence in this case will ensure that the citizens of our community are free from him for a long time and that he will be monitored extremely closely when he is eventually released.”
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