By Michael P Mayko
Stamford Advocate
March 5, 2010
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/Prosecution-in-Haitian-abuse-case-wants-probe-of-393945.php
NEW HAVEN -- Prosecutors called for an inquiry by a federal judge to determine who is paying for Douglas Perlitz's defense against charges that the honored Fairfield University graduate abused Haitian boys at the charity he created to help them.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Krishna Patel and Stephen Reynolds also filed a request for a protective order in court prohibiting any transcripts, video-taped recordings of victims or grand jury testimony from being shown to anyone not connected with the defense team.
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| Doug Perlitz in 2004. |
"If Perlitz has paid for his legal fees, obviously no further inquiry is necessary," the prosecutors advised the judge. "To the extent, however, that any legal fees have been paid by potential trial witnesses or by any subject of the ongoing investigation, the government requests that the court determine whether any actual or potential conflicts of interest are presented by such circumstances."
If Perlitz's defense costs are being paid by others, the prosecutors have asked that Perlitz, be questioned to "ensure he will waive any such conflict and thereby give up his ability to complain at a later date."
They point out that if a witness who has paid for any part of Perlitz's defense is "a subject of investigation or becomes a target of an investigation" the defendant has waived his right, he then can't complain that his lawyer did not have his best interests in place.
"This is an unusual request in an unusual case," said William F. Dow III, who with David Grudberg is representing Perlitz. "I can state with confidence there is nothing inappropriate about how my client's legal services are being compensated for."
Instead, Dow said he and Grudberg are more focused on "disproving the allegations and outlining legal flaws in the government's complaint."
Perlitz, 39, established the charity, Project Pierre Toussaint in Cap Haitian, Haiti's second largest city, with the help of the Rev. Paul Carrier, a Jesuit priest and former Fairfield U. chaplain and director of campus ministry. The program included Carinage, an intake center for boys living on the street where they could shower, eat and be schooled. Those who did well over a six-month period could graduate to the Village, a place where they could live as well. High school-age boys who needed special tutoring were assigned to live with chaperones in a home.
The program shut down completely last summer just before Perlitz's arrest and indictment on 19 charges of traveling from the U.S. to Haiti to engage in sexual conduct with under-age boys. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is detained while awaiting trial.
Prosecutors have been investigating claims that Perlitz or his supporters wired money to some of the alleged abuse victims in an attempt to "buy their silence."
No one has been charged with any crime of obstruction of justice at this time.
The prosecution claims federal appeals courts have held the identity of individuals who pay a defendant's legal fees "is not privileged, as the attorney-client privilege normally does not extend to the payment of attorney's fees and expenses."
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