US man who founded Haitian orphanage convicted for sexually abusing boys in his care
MIAMI, United States (CMC) — The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) says a man who founded a home for impoverished children in Haiti, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5 and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for each of the seven counts of sexually abusing boys at the facility.
“This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice,” the DOJ said.
It said that a federal jury in Miami has convicted Michael Karl Geilenfeld, 73, from Colorado for sexually abusing numerous boys at the orphanage he founded and directed in Haiti.
The DOJ said that based on court documents and evidence presented at trial, Geilenfeld founded St Joseph’s Home for Boys, a home for orphaned, impoverished and otherwise vulnerable children in Haiti, in 1985 and operated it for more than two decades.
“Geilenfeld repeatedly travelled from the United States to Haiti, where he sexually abused the boys entrusted to his care,” the DOJ said.”
The DOJ said the jury last Thursday convicted Geilenfeld of one count of travelling in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct and six counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place, between 2005 and 2010.
Each of the six counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place relates to a particular victim who was a child at the time of the offence.
The DOJ said each of the six victims testified about the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Geilenfeld, as did four other victims who were not the subject of the charged offences.
