Judge Says No to Delaying Perlitz Sentencing Date, by Michael P. Mayko, CT Post, November 30, 2010

Judge Says No to Delaying Perlitz Sentencing Date

By Michael P. Mayko
CT Post
November 30, 2010

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Judge-says-no-to-delaying-Perlitz-sentencing-date-843849.php

A file photo of Douglas Perlitz, a graduate of Fairfield University, from a 2004 interview at the school. On Wednesday August 18, 2010, Douglas Perlitz pleaded guilty to one charge involving the sexual abuse of a minor boy. Perlitz will be sentenced on Dec. 21. Photo: ST, Jeff Bustraan / Connecticut Post | Buy This Photo

A federal judge refused to delay the Dec. 21 sentencing of Douglas Perlitz, who established Project Pierre Toussaint, an educational program for homeless boys in Haiti. He has admitted to sexually abusing at least one of his students.

U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton made the decision following a lengthy Monday afternoon telephone call with Perlitz's defense team and prosecutors for the government.

In the conversation, the defense claimed that damage from a January earthquake, Hurricane Tomas in October, the recent cholera outbreak and civil violence and riots have prevented them from being able to investigate the prosecution's claims that Perlitz abused at least 13 victims. They also claim all this forestalled efforts to meet with witnesses who would speak on Perlitz's behalf.

Perlitz, a 40-year-old graduate of Fairfield University, pleaded guilty in August to one charge of traveling from New York to Haiti on June 6, 2005, with the intention of engaging in sex with an underage student. He also did not dispute Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel's claim that she could prove he engaged in sex with at least eight underage boys and possibly as many as 13.

Under the terms of the plea-bargained agreement, Perlitz could face anywhere from eight years and one month to 19 years in prison.

The prosecution team -- through the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti and the Haitian government --arranged to have six of the alleged victims, two of the program's supervisors and two investigators from the Haitian National Police at the sentencing. Patel advised Arterton that a delay, combined with deteriorating conditions in Haiti, "might very well mean that the victims will not be heard at all and will not be able to attend the sentencing in this matter."

A group of advocates representing the alleged victims and led by Paul Kendrick, of Maine, as well as members of the Haitian community, are expected to attend the Dec. 21 sentencing, which will begin at 10 a.m. It could last much of the day as Arterton hears testimony from witnesses for both sides.

Meanwhile, advocates for the boys are preparing for round two. They were instrumental in contacting Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer, who told the Connecticut Post he is preparing to bring a federal lawsuit in Connecticut on behalf of the Haitian victims against several defendants.

Those defendants could include the Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic charity which funded Project Pierre Toussaint's establishment in 1997; Fairfield University, which promoted the program, sent student volunteers there and collected donations at its chapel; the Rev. Paul Carrier, who oversaw the program while serving as Fairfield University's director of campus ministry; Carrier's order, the Society of Jesus, New England Province of Jesuits; and the Haiti Fund, which collected and dispensed millions in donations.

Garabedian has successfully brought nearly 700 civil lawsuits against clergy members and employees accused of sexually abusing victims. In 2003, he won a $10 million settlement from the Boston archdiocese on behalf of 86 victims of John Geoghan, a Boston Catholic priest defrocked for being a serial sexual abuser. Geoghan was convicted and later killed in his prison cell after serving less than two years of a 10-year prison term.

Perlitz was instrumental in establishing Project Pierre Toussaint, named after a Haitian slave who became a wealthy New York hairdresser, then shared his wealth with orphans and the poor. The three-stage educational program, established in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, started in a parking lot as an intake center where street boys could bathe, eat and obtain clothes. It moved to a convent, then to a large downtown compound called Carinage where rudimentary schooling was offered.

As money poured in, it funded the construction of a second, larger site called the Village, built on 10 acres of land in Cap-Haitien's hills. The Village was comprised of eight buildings including dormitories, a chapel, classrooms, a soccer field and basketball court. A 16-foot wall topped with barbed wire and two massive castle-like entrance doors enclosed the campus.

Those who did well at Carinage might be picked by Perlitz to live at the Village, where classes in farming, roofing, carpentry and more were taught. The three-stage program involved the selection of a dozen promising high school students to live in a rented home where they would receive one-on-one schooling.

Fairfield University feted Perlitz for his work by giving him an honorary doctorate degree and choosing him as its 2002 commencement speaker.

But everything began unraveling in 2008 when Cyrus Sibert, a Haitian journalist and host of a radio program, broke the news of sexual abuse when he interviewed several of the alleged victims on air. This led to investigations and a split in the Haiti Fund board.

Contributions dried up, the schools closed and in September 2009, Perlitz was arrested in Colorado.

He has been incarcerated since that time.