MAINE
Portland Press Herald
BY ERIC RUSSELL STAFF WRITER
erussell@pressherald.com | @PPHEricRussell | 207-791-6344
The attorney for an Iowa man who has sued Paul Kendrick of Freeport for defamation said Tuesday that Kendrick launched a “campaign of vicious, merciless and unrelenting attacks” against his client based on discredited information.
Peter DeTroy, attorney for Michael Geilenfeld, told jurors in U.S. District Court during opening statements that Kendrick’s claims that Geilenfeld sexually abused boys at an orphanage in Haiti were unfounded.
Geilenfeld, his attorney acknowledged, has been dealing with allegations of abuse dating back to the 1980s but has been exonerated numerous times.
DeTroy said Kendrick didn’t care whether the allegations were true.
“His goal was to destroy this man,” the attorney said.
Kendrick’s attorney, David Walker, countered in his opening statement that sexual abuse allegations involving Geilenfeld have swirled in Haiti and beyond for years. He said Kendrick, a longtime activist against child sexual abuse, was simply asking Haitian authorities to aggressively investigate those allegations and challenging a nonprofit group, Hearts with Haiti, which provided funds for Geilenfeld’s orphanage, to look into them as well.
Walker also told jurors that he planned to offer testimony from seven people who claim that they were sexually abused by Geilenfeld.
The trial is expected to last up to three weeks.
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