Thomas Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct violation, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Frieden was arrested last August and charged with third-degree sexual abuse, harassment in the second degree, and forcible touching stemming from a 2017 incident in Brooklyn in which he allegedly grabbed a woman's buttocks without her consent.
The Journal reports that Frieden pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, a disorderly conduct violation, which is an offense lower than a misdemeanor and not considered a crime. It adds that he was sentenced to a conditional discharge and that his case will be sealed and dismissed after a year if he is not arrested in that time. ABC News adds that Frieden was told to avoid contact with the family friend who reported that he groped her.
Prior to leading the CDC, Frieden served as New York City's public health commissioner, and he is now the president and chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives, which is part of Vital Strategies, the Journal adds. At the time of Frieden's arrest, Vital Strategies said it had conducted an investigation and found no instances of workplace harassment.