American founder of Haiti orphanage faces men accusing him of sex abuse at Miami trial.-

American founder of Haiti orphanage faces men accusing him of sex abuse at Miami trial.-

By Jay Weaver February 05, 2025

Dozens of impoverished Haitian boys looked up to Michael Geilenfeld as a “father figure.”

But Geilenfeld, an American who owned and operated an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, looked down on them as objects to satisfy his sexual desires, prosecutors said during opening statements in his sex-abuse trial in Miami federal court on Tuesday.

A young man who had lived at St. Joseph’s Home for Boys testified that when he was 12, Geilenfeld brought him into his bedroom to help him learn a prayer. But instead, he said, Geilenfeld sat him down in a chair and kissed him on the mouth, fondled his genitals and tried to have anal sex.

“His pants were down and his penis was rubbing against my behind,” the 28-year-old man testified through a Creole interpreter, saying that he “pushed him” and “ran outside” the owner’s bedroom. Geilenfeld later told him “not to tell anybody else about this,” the man testified.

The man is among six Haitian boys who have accused the orphanage founder of sexually abusing them while they resided at St. Joseph’s between 2005 and 2010, according to an indictment. The boys, then between 9 and 13, are now in their 20s.

Geilenfeld, 73, is charged with six counts of engaging in illicit sexual contact in a foreign place and one count of traveling from Miami to Haiti for that purpose. If convicted by the 12-person jury, Geilenfeld faces up to 30 years in prison on each of the charges.

READ MORE: American founder of orphanage in Haiti is charged with having sex with minors.

Before trial started with jury selection on Monday, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz that they made a plea offer to Geilenfeld but he rejected it, asking the judge to note that in case the defendant makes any appeals or attacks on his conviction.

Preyed on the boys: Prosecutor

During opening statements on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lacee Monk portrayed Geilenfeld as a predator who used his powers to prey on the vulnerable Haitian boys, who came from broken families or had no parents. Geilenfeld, who founded St. Joseph’s orphanage in 1985, offered the boys a life of shelter, schooling, meals, chores and prayers that turned into a “nightmare.” “This defendant preyed on the very boys he was supposed to help,” Monk told the jury. “They will tell you that this defendant was not the caring missionary he pretended to be. ... Many of the victims suffered in silence. ... They are going to tell you about some of the darkest moments in their lives.”

No boys abused: Defense

Defense attorney Jean-Pierre Gilbert argued that Geilenfeld abused no boys at St. Joseph’s, saying that the six minor victims named in the indictment were recruited and paid off with money and the opportunity of asylum in the United States.

“No abuse ever occurred,” said Gilbert, with the federal public defender’s office, noting there is “no forensic evidence” to prove it. He said defense witnesses, including other boys and a social worker at St. Joseph’s, will testify that Geilenfeld never touched any of the residents improperly.

But during his testimony, the first former St. Joseph’s resident questioned by prosecutors detailed how Geilenfeld sexually abused him in the owner’s bedroom behind a locked door and that he was coming forward to testify because it was his right. He said he was not paid or promised any benefit by anyone for his testimony.

“I was ashamed at what had happened to me,” the man testified on Tuesday, recalling that when he talked with other residents about the alleged sexual abuse, he was stabbed by a St. Joseph’s boy close to Geilenfeld. Prosecutors showed an image in court of the man’s scar from the stab wound near his left collarbone.

“I’m very sad and I hope to get justice,” he testified. “I’m a victim. It’s my right to testify.”

Colorado arrest

The federal investigation into Geilenfeld’s past was launched by Homeland Security Investigations and joined by the FBI, leading to his arrest in January of last year in Colorado. Although Geilenfeld was granted a bond by a magistrate judge to stay in a halfway house, that decision was put on hold.

In April, Leibowitz, the federal judge in Miami, found that he should not be released before trial because he was a danger to the community and a flight risk to the Caribbean.

At that point, the U.S. criminal case changed significantly, with prosecutors filing a superseding indictment accusing Geilenfeld of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct” with minor boys at St. Joseph’s in addition to the original charge of traveling to Haiti for that purpose.

During a detention hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eduardo Palomo said Geilenfeld “sexually abused 20 boys” at his orphanage and then threatened them not to say anything or they would be harmed.

Photos discovered by feds

Palomo said Geilenfeld kept a dossier with photos of his alleged sexual-abuse victims — evidence that was discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in May 2019 when Geilenfeld was traveling through Miami International Airport to the Dominican Republic. The array of photos included pictures of a few of Geilenfeld’s victims cited in the indictment, Palomo said.

In court papers, prosecutors said Geilenfeld held “himself out as a missionary while using his position and privilege to sexually abuse young boys and cover up his crimes.”

Between the mid-1980s through 2014, Geilenfeld operated multiple orphanages in Haiti, including the St. Joseph’s home. He also opened a home in the Dominican Republic after fleeing there to escape sexual abuse allegations in Haiti, where he had been jailed and still has a court case pending.

The original St. Joseph’s home in Port-au-Prince was closed by the Haitian government in 2014 following Geilenfeld’s arrest there over sexual abuse allegations. After Geilenfeld spent a year in jail on suspicion of charges of indecent assault and criminal conspiracy, his case was dismissed by a judge after his alleged victims didn’t appear at a key hearing. The victims filed an appeal. Though it was granted, the case has yet to be retried.

Allegations of sexual abuse have followed Geilenfeld for more than a decade. After a children’s rights advocate, Paul Kendrick, and Haitian journalist Cyrus Sibert launched a campaign to have him arrested, Geilenfeld and a Raleigh, North Carolina, nonprofit group that supported his St. Joseph’s orphanage sued for defamation in federal court.

They initially won a judgment against Kendrick, who lives in Maine, but that was later vacated due to a lack of jurisdiction.

A second lawsuit was filed in state court in Maine by Geilenfeld and the nonprofit. Kendrick settled and his homeowner’s insurance policies paid the charity $3.5 million. Geilenfeld, he said, signed a document with the court dismissing all charges against him with no financial remuneration. Miami Herald Caribbean correspondent Jacqueline Charles contributed to this story.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article299765334.html