Coloradan gets 19 years in prison for abuse of kids in Haiti - Denver Post |
| Coloradan gets 19 years in prison for abuse of kids in Haiti - Denver Post Posted: 22 Dec 2010 07:36 AM PST  Douglas Perlitz, convicted of abusing kids, named his school after philanthropist Pierre Toussaint, shown in the picture held by lawyer Ezili Danto, above, as she faces reporters Tuesday at the federal court in New Haven, Conn. (Christian Abraham, Connecticut Post) NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Colorado man was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison Tuesday for sexually abusing children for more than a decade at a school he founded in Haiti, including some who faced him in the courtroom and testified that he threatened to put them back on the streets if they did not submit to his advances. Judge Janet Bond Arterton called Douglas Perlitz a serial rapist and molester as she imposed the sentence in federal court. She said she believed he would commit the same crimes again if he were in a similar position. Perlitz, 40, apologized to his victims while speaking in Creole before the sentence was handed down. He said he knew his crimes were horrible but pleaded for leniency nevertheless, asking the judge to consider the good work he did in the impoverished Caribbean nation. "I began losing my head. . . . I was using you," Perlitz said while facing the six young men who testified earlier. "I mistreated you because you were afraid. Perhaps you were confused. Perhaps you thought, 'How could this man, Douglas, who's protecting me, be touching me like this?' " "I wasn't thinking about you or your feelings or how my actions would affect you," he added. "I'm asking for forgiveness." More than 100 people filled the courtroom including the victims, two Haitian police officers and Perlitz's family and supporters. Perlitz admitted in August that he engaged in illicit sexual conduct with eight children who attended the Project Pierre Toussaint School for homeless children in Cap-Haitien. Prosecutors said Perlitz gave the children money, food, clothing and electronics and threatened to take everything away and expel them from the program if they told anyone. Arterton said she believed there were at least 16 victims, based on testimony that authorities recorded on video by others who attended the school. Some of the six young Haitian men said in court that dozens of other boys  Douglas Perlitz. (Connecticut Post file photo.) Perlitz, a resident of Eagle, founded the school in 1997 when he lived in Fairfield County, Conn. Authorities said he began abusing the children, some as young as 11, in 1998 before the school was built. The abuse scandal led to the collapse of the school and its fundraising arm, the Haiti Fund, forcing the children back into homelessness on the streets, prosecutors said. In court documents, Perlitz said one factor in the crimes was his "dark and abusive relationship" with a priest — whom authorities have not named — he met while attending Fairfield University. The six young men were flown to Connecticut and detailed the abuse they suffered. "He always told me: 'Don't tell anybody about it. If you tell anybody about it, I will put you out on the street,' " one victim said through a Creole interpreter. He said Perlitz first abused him in 1998 and once sodomized him after plying him with rum. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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