Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse and may be upsetting to some readers. Please see the bottom of this story for additional resources.
In the early hours of Oct. 31, 2022, an American University Wi-Fi database recorded a phone moving through McDowell and Leonard Halls.
The phone was logged into the AU account belonging to David Kramer-Fried, the now-former student who pleaded guilty to and received a suspended sentence for the sexual abuse and burglary that he committed in Leonard Hall around 2 a.m. that day, according to court documents reviewed by The Eagle.
The database — which was turned over to Metropolitan Police Department detectives — allowed police to corroborate security camera footage and AUID swipe access records that showed Kramer-Fried moving between McDowell and Leonard Halls.
An AU Police Department investigator also used the Wi-Fi records to verify that a device registered to student Kris Estrada, who was arrested on Aug. 1 for reported voyeurism in Bender Library, was in the library at the time it was reported.
The data showed police exactly when the suspects’ phones connected to Wi-Fi access points, which are located every few rooms in campus buildings, providing approximate locations of the devices.
In Kramer-Fried’s case, AU’s Office of Information Technology provided MPD with the records, which document the device on the network and the user information of the devices’ owner.
A University spokesperson declined to comment on specific cases, saying it was “prohibited by law for us to comment on on-going litigation,” but pointed to two Office of Information Technology policies.
The Responsible Use of University Technology Resources Policy says authorized staff only review “private, individual accounts and data” when required by a judge or to assist with “legitimate requests from law enforcement or other regulatory bodies.”
The Information Technology Policy echoed that language, and said that “[a]ll external requests for information from system logs or other usage records must be submitted to the Office of General Counsel for review.”
Police, in their investigation into Kramer-Fried, compiled a timeline of events in an affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court on Nov. 14, 2023, to support a police request for an arrest warrant.
The timeline laid out the three hours between when Kramer-Fried first entered McDowell and when he returned to his dorm room, after illegally entering two rooms on the all-female eighth floor of Leonard.
In the affidavit’s timeline, MPD Detective Eric D. Johnson writes that the records showed Kramer-Fried at the location of each access point. But in a search after his arrest, police were unable to match either of Kramer-Fried’s two phones to the device that was recorded in AU’s database.
However, when he pleaded guilty to the charges, he agreed that the police’s version of events in the affidavit was accurate. It’s still unclear which device was connected to AU’s Wi-Fi, but his plea nullified missing pieces in the investigation.
The device was connected to the eagle-secure Wi-Fi network using Kramer-Fried’s log-in, Johnson said in the affidavit. The network prompts users to enter their AU username and password before connecting.
Creating the timeline of Oct. 31, 2022
Shortly after midnight, Kramer-Fried’s AUID swiped into Hughes Hall and security footage showed a man wearing a dark red Patagonia hoodie and black sweatpants walk through the front doors. Police later found those clothes when they searched Kramer-Fried’s dorm room.
He lived on the sixth floor of McDowell Hall, but had to enter through Hughes “due to the university’s late hours security protocols that have been implemented,” the police detective wrote in the affidavit.
At 12:28 a.m., security footage captured Kramer-Fried walking across the footbridge into Leonard Hall. At the same time, the device logged into his account connected to an access point in Leonard room 304, the closest access point to the footbridge.
The device then connected to the access point near the bathroom on the second floor of Leonard at 12:39 a.m. Over the next 20 minutes, he traveled up five floors, the device connecting to bathrooms on the third, fourth, fifth and eighth floors.
A witness told MPD investigators they saw a man wearing a red hoodie using a phone while standing outside a room on the fifth floor between 12:54 a.m. and 12:58 a.m., Johnson, the detective, wrote in the affidavit.
The device logged into Kramer-Fried’s account connected to several access points on the eighth floor between 1:02 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. The eighth floor housed the all-female floor in Leonard at the time.
Two women are referred to in the court filings as victims. The Eagle will refer to them as survivors. The two survivors lived in different rooms on the eighth floor, each with a roommate, who are identified as witnesses in the filings.
The survivor who first reported the incident told police she awoke some time after 2 a.m., and saw a man standing above her bed, who left her room silently and quickly as he noticed her wake up.
Johnson wrote in the affidavit that the survivor “thought she felt herself being touched” as woke up, but she “did not react.”
About five minutes later, the device connected to an access point in the second survivor’s room, down the hall from the first. She awoke around 2:30 a.m. to a man fitting the same description — tall, wearing a red sweatshirt and dark sweatpants — standing over her bed. He then crouched and fled her room.
The survivor then jumped out of her bed, ran to her doorway and watched him run down the hall into a stairwell.
The device is recorded between 2:33 a.m. and 2:44 a.m. descending to the third floor, where it lingered for about ten minutes before Kramer-Fried was recorded on video running across the footbridge into McDowell Hall just before 3 a.m. The device traveled to the sixth floor, where he lived at the time, and the police timeline ends.
Students who have experienced sexual assault or harassment can seek support through confidential resources such as the University’s Center for Well-Being Programs and Psychological Services, the Student Health Center, the Kay Spiritual Life Center or the following hotlines:
- Collegiate Assistance Program: 1-855-678-8679
- Rape, Abuse, Incest, National Network (RAINN) anonymous chat
- RAINN hotline: 1-800-656-4673
- DC Rape Crisis Center: 202-333-7273
Non-confidential resources include the University’s Title IX Office and AUPD.
This story was edited by Walker Whalen, Tyler Davis, Abigail Turner and Abigail Pritchard. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks.
