MIAMI — A jury in Miami has convicted Michael Geilenfeld, the founder of an orphanage in Haiti, of sexually abusing boys at his facility in Port-au-Prince. Court records reveal that the 73-year-old Geilenfeld was found guilty Thursday night on six counts of engaging in illicit sexual contact with minors in a foreign country, as well as one count of traveling from Miami to Haiti for that illegal purpose.
Geilenfeld faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison on each charge, with his sentencing set for May 5 before U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz.
The trial featured testimony from six Haitian men who claimed they were abused while living at Geilenfeld’s St. Joseph’s Home for Boys between 2005 and 2010. The victims, now in their 20s, were between 9 and 13 years old at the time of the abuse.
Geilenfeld, who founded the orphanage in 1985, pleaded not guilty to the charges. The St. Joseph’s Home, one of several orphanages Geilenfeld operated in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was shut down in 2014.
The abuse allegations against Geilenfeld in Haiti have yet to be fully resolved.
In Haiti, sexual violence against children has surged by an alarming 1,000 per cent, turning their bodies into battlegrounds. The shocking increase, recorded between 2023 and the previous year, coincides with the escalating violence perpetrated by armed groups, subjecting children to unspeakable horrors.
Equally disturbing is the lack of attention this horrific statistic has received. cases like highlight the dire situation in a country where children continue to be subjected to terrible abuse by those who swear to protect them.
