BishopAccountability.org
	Perlitz Defense Denied Delay in Sentencing By Alexandria Hein The Mirror December 1, 2010 http://fairfieldmirror.com/2010/12/01/perlitz-defense-denied-delay-in-sentencing/ The defense team for Douglas Perlitz was denied its plea for a delay in his sentencing by a federal judge in New Haven, Connecticut. Perlitz, 40, a Fairfield University graduate, is awaiting his Dec. 21 sentencing after confessing to sexually abusing at least one underage student at his Project Pierre Toussaint School in Haiti. The Connecticut Post reports that the defense claimed that damage from the January earthquake, a hurricane in October, the cholera outbreak and civil violence riots has prevented them from properly investigating the prosecution’s claims that Perlitz abused at least 13 of his victims. They claimed that because of the above, they were not able to meet with all of the witnesses who would be able to speak in favor of Perlitz. U.S. District Janet Bond Arterton said no Monday to such a request. Perlitz pled guilty to traveling from New York to Haiti on June 6, 2005 with the intention of engaging in sex with an underage student. It is vital to the defense to talk to those witnesses in Haiti in favor of Perlitz because he did not discredit Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristna Patel’s claim that there were at least eight underage boys that he engaged in sex with, and as many as 13. “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 victims; two of the program’s supervisors and two investigators from the Haitian National Police to be present at the sentencing. Patel advised Arterton that a delay, combined with deteriorating social 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,” reported the Post. The article also states that advocates for the abused boys contacted a Boston Lawyer, who told the Post that he is “preparing to bring a federal lawsuit in Connecticut on behalf of the Haitian victims against several defendants.” Among the defendants are, Fairfield University, and Rev. Paul Carrier, S.J. who raised money for Project Pierre Toussaint School and oversaw the program while serving as Fairfield University’s director of campus ministry and others. The school was closed after allegations of the abuse broke in Haiti and the contributions stopped pouring in. Perlitz, who has been in jail since September of 2009, may be facing up to 19 years in prison under the plea-bargained agreement.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.