Haiti orphanage founder convicted in US court of abusing minors faces lengthy prison term
MIAMI (AP) — A jury in Miami has convicted the founder of an orphanage in Haiti of sexually abusing boys at the facility in Port-au-Prince.
Court records show 73-year-old Michael Geilenfeld was found guilty Thursday night of six counts of engaging in illicit sexual contact with minors in a foreign country and one count of traveling from Miami to Haiti for that illegal reason.
He faces up to 30 years in prison on each charge at his May 5 sentencing before U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz.
The trial included testimony from six Haitian men who said they were abused while living at Geilenfeld’s St. Joseph’s Home for Boys between 2005 and 2010. The boys, now in their 20s, were between 9 and 13 at the time.
Geilenfeld, who founded the orphanage in 1985, had pleaded not guilty. The orphanage, one of several Geilenfeld operated in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was closed in 2014.
Abuse allegations against Geilenfeld in Haiti have yet to be resolved.