Jury Awards Orphanage Founder and Charity $14.5 Million in Damages in Defamation Case

MAINE
MPBN

[with audio]

By PATTY WIGHT

PORTLAND, Maine – A Portland jury has ruled in favor of Haiti orphanage founder Michael Geilenfeld in his defamation lawsuit against Freeport activist Paul Kendrick.

The jury recommended that Geilenfeld be awarded $7 million in damages and that a related North Carolina-based charity known as Hearts of Haiti be awarded $7.5 million dollars in damages.

Paul Kendrick had accused Michael Gielenfeld, the founder of St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in Port au Prince, of being a serial pedophile, an accusation Gielenfeld vehemently denied. Gielenfeld said Kendrick was a cyber-bully and vigilante whose accusations caused him to be falsely imprisoned for 237 days and cost Hearts of Haiti $2 million in donations.

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