Ex-Catholic brother being held on abuse charges in Haiti could delay slander trial in Maine

By Judy Harrison
Bangor Daily News
September 09, 2014

https://bangordailynews.com/2014/09/09/news/state/ex-catholic-brother-being-held-on-abuse-charges-in-haiti-could-delay-slander-trial-in-maine/

PORTLAND, Maine — A plaintiff in a slander suit pending in federal court has been taken into custody in Haiti after being accused of sexually abusing children, according to The Associated Press.

Michael Geilenfeld, executive director of St. Joseph Family of Haiti and a former Catholic brother, was detained Friday by police in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his Maine attorney, Russell Pierce of Portland, confirmed Tuesday.

“He’s been detained without an arrest warrant,” Pierce said. “It’s arbitrary, illegal, and it was done without proof and no due process.”

Geilenfeld’s detention most likely will delay the trial in the defamation case scheduled to begin Oct. 7 in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Hearts With Haiti Inc., based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Geilenfeld, 62, of Port-au-Prince in February sued Paul Kendrick, 64, of Freeport. The plaintiffs alleged that Kendrick’s false allegations that Geilenfeld has sexually abused children defamed Geilenfeld and the organization, causing fundraising events in the U.S. to be canceled.

The plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge John Woodcock to order Kendrick to stop making the statements and to remove all those that have been published on the Internet. The lawsuit also sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Kendrick, who has advocated for years on behalf of survivors of clergy abuse, on Monday praised Haitian authorities for arresting Geilenfeld.

“It is encouraging that the government of Haiti is being proactive and vigilant in protecting children from being sexually abused,” he said in an email to the Bangor Daily News.

Pierce called the timing of Geilenfeld being taken into custody “suspicious.”

“There was no basis for his arrest,” Pierce said. “We consider it to be false arrest and will pursue that position legally with the Haitian authorities through Geilenfeld’s attorney in Port-au-Prince.”

Kendrick said that at least seven men would support his allegations by testifying at the slander trial that Geilenfeld sexually abused them as children. Kendrick’s attorney, David King of Bangor, said Tuesday the alleged victims would testify either in person or in videotaped depositions.

The judge on Aug. 28 denied Kendrick’s motion for partial summary judgment in a 54-page decision. Woodcock found that Hearts with Haiti and Geilenfeld could seek punitive damages from Kendrick if they could prove to a jury that he acted with actual malice.

A conference of counsel with Woodcock is to be held Friday that could determine if the trial needs to be rescheduled in light of Geilenfeld’s detention. The telephone conference was scheduled before Geilenfeld’s arrest, attorneys for both sides said Tuesday.

If the trial is rescheduled, it most likely would not be held before the first of the year.

Geilenfeld founded and operates a network of “nonprofit institutions that provide residence, room and board, formal education, and religious education to disabled and disadvantaged Haitian children,” according to a previously published report.

About 57 children lived in the residential facilities and 135 attend the day school. Shortly after the first residential home, St. Joseph’s Home for Boys, was established in 1985, Geilenfeld founded the Resurrection Dance Theater of Haiti, according to the complaint. The troupe has performed throughout the U.S. and raises significant funds for the facilities in Haiti through Hearts with Haiti.

Since 2001, the North Carolina nonprofit has raised nearly $5 million, the complaint said. Because of Kendrick’s emails, blogs and website postings over the past two years, performances by the dance troupe were canceled in Iowa, Maryland, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Pierce said that to his knowledge, the day schools are still operating.

“There has been no cessation of the charitable work those two homes conduct,” he said.

He said that most of the children placed in the homes were left there by their parents who could not afford to support them.

The Associated Press reported that United Nations personnel and Haitian police from the child protection unit went to the orphanage and were expected to remove the children but did not do so and did not explain why officials left without them.