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	American to Be Sentenced in Haitian Sexual Abuse Case By Vladimir Duthiers and Hannah Yi CNN December 21, 2010 http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/12/21/haiti.abuse/ [with video] Cap-Haitien, Haiti (CNN) -- An American who set up a school for homeless street boys in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, could face nearly 20 years in prison after he admitted sexually abusing some of the same children he sheltered, clothed and educated. Douglas Perlitz, 40, will be sentenced Tuesday in New Haven, Connecticut. In September 2009, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Perlitz. He denied all accusations, but in August Perlitz pleaded guilty to one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He also admitted to engaging in sexual conduct with eight minors. Federal prosecutors are asking that Perlitz be sentenced to at least 19 years in prison. The defense requested a delay in sentencing, contending Haiti's January earthquake, cholera outbreak and election-related street violence made it impossible to thoroughly review the prosecution's claims against Perlitz. The court denied the request. Perlitz went to Haiti in 1997 and started a charity called Project Pierre Toussiant (PPT). Over the years, PPT grew into a 10-acre compound with dorms, classrooms and a soccer field. Perlitz frequently flew back to Fairfield, Connecticut, to raise money. According to court documents, from 2002 to 2008, donors gave Perlitz more than $2 million to help care for the kids. His alma mater, Fairfield University, also gave him an honorary degree in 2002 for helping homeless boys in Haiti. Francilien Jean-Charles was 12 years old and living on the streets when Perlitz found him. "I thanked God when I met Douglas," said Jean-Charles. "But when things started to turn bad, I realized it would have been better if I never came to PPT." Jean-Charles and a dozen other boys said they were routinely raped by Perlitz for years. They would lie awake in their dorms wondering who would be Perlitz's victim. Fredlin Legrand said he could never sleep peacefully. "He always had a watch with a light on it, and he'd use the light to look for his victims," said Legrand. "I'd be sleeping then I'd suddenly wake up and see Douglas." In 2007, some of the boys began to speak out about the sexual abuse. However, no one, including donors back in Connecticut, believed them. Brian Russell was a donor and said Perlitz was a miracle maker, not a pedophile. "There was no way that this man could have committed these things that people were accusing him of. It seemed utterly out of the realm of possibility," Russell said. "There was too much goodness. The heart was too big." It wasn't until a year later that board members of Perlitz's charity began an internal investigation and discovered that in fact Perlitz had been abusing several boys for 10 years. Russell said he felt just as betrayed as the victims. "When I heard these stories, I felt broken and betrayed," said Russell. "I felt like all the money I had donated, the time that I had given, something that we had worked so hard for was gone." The defense has maintained that Perlitz himself was a victim of sexual abuse. According to a defense memorandum, while he was at Fairfield University, "a priest began a relationship with Doug that ... ultimately took on a dark aspect, both physically and spiritually, that had a significant and long-lasting impact on him." The prosecution quickly responded, saying: "Perlitz's sexual abuse of minors, abuse which lasted for a decade or more, shows him to be nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing -- an American man who traveled to Haiti purporting to care for homeless children when in reality he preyed upon the desperation of these children so that he could sexually abuse them." Despite the legal wranglings, Perlitz's victims believe justice will finally be served Tuesday. Some of them -- now young adults -- will be in the courtroom to face the man, pledged to their care, who abused them for years.
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