A prosecutor stated Friday {that a} Haitian orphanage’s American founder pressured 4 boys to interact in sexual acts greater than a decade in the past.
Michael Geilenfeld, 71, is a “harmful, manipulative and crafty little one sexual predator” who for many years has preyed on poor kids whereas working overseas as a missionary, Jessica City, a prosecutor with the Justice Division’s Little one Exploitation and Obscenity Part, stated throughout a detention listening to in Denver federal courtroom.
Her statements marked the primary time authorities have disclosed particulars of the investigation that led to Geilenfeld’s Jan. 18 indictment in Florida on fees of kid sexual abuse. City, talking through a video feed, supplied the proof to assist her argument that Geilenfeld shouldn’t be launched on bond as his case proceeds. She stated authorities worry he or his supporters will attempt to intimidate victims to stop them from testifying in opposition to him.
The abuse occurred between November 2006 and December 2010, in line with the indictment, a time interval when Geilenfeld was working the St. Joseph’s Residence for Boys orphanage. The cost carries a most sentence of 30 years in jail.
In keeping with the Florida indictment, Geilenfeld traveled to Haiti to interact in illicit sexual conduct with one other particular person underneath the age of 18.
Authorities in Haiti have lengthy investigated intercourse abuse allegations in opposition to Geilenfeld and arrested him in September 2014 primarily based on allegations made in opposition to him by a toddler advocate in Maine, Paul Kendrick. Kendrick accused Geilenfeld of being a serial pedophile after talking to younger males who claimed they have been abused by Geilenfeld after they have been boys in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital the place he based the orphanage in 1985.
Geilenfeld known as the claims “vicious, vile lies,” and his case was dismissed in 2015 after he spent 237 days in jail in Haiti. In some unspecified time in the future, Geilenfeld and a charity related to the orphanage, Hearts for Haiti, sued Kendrick in federal courtroom in Maine. The go well with blamed Kendrick for Geilenfeld’s imprisonment, harm to his fame and the lack of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in donations.
Hearts with Haiti obtained $3 million from Kendrick’s insurance coverage corporations in 2019, however Geilenfeld didn’t obtain a cost.
Liberal People and Haitian orphanages don’t appear to have a nice observe report.
