Will 'sex tourism' laws apply in this case?

Published: 11:43 a.m., Tuesday, February 9, 2010 Related Stories Douglas Perlitz: Hero or sex predator?02.09.2010 11:42 a.m. Fairfield U. alum, honoree charged with sex abuse of Haitian boys09.17.2009 04:42 p.m. Fairfield U. honoree faces more charges of sex abuse in Haiti01.28.2010 08:21 p.m. This story originally appeared in the Sunday, January 31 print edition of the Connecticut Post. Click here to subscribe.   The man who had seemingly worked tirelessly to help desperate orphans through a charity in Haiti had been charged with sexually preying on those same boys.   This is not the case against Douglas Perlitz. Rather, it is a description of charges filed by Canadian law enforcement officials last October against John Duarte, a former Roman Catholic priest who worked as a missionary for Hearts Together for Haiti. He is accused of plying teenage boys in Port-au-Prince with gifts in exchange for sex.   And there's more. In December, Armand Huard, once praised in Canada as a "Father Teresa," and Denis Rochefort were sentenced by a Canadian judge to three and two years in prison, respectively. The pair admitted sexually abusing young Haitian boys while volunteering at an orphanage in Les Cayes, just outside Port-au-Prince.   In 2007, 108 Sri Lanka soldiers assigned to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti were sent home for buying sex from young girls.   Haiti has been the backdrop for five recent sex-crime cases involving foreigners who engaged in charitable or religious work. Haiti and other Third World countries with only embryonic social services and an overwhelming need for charitable missions have proven to be a fertile ground for abuse. "Pedophiles come here because they know a lot is tolerated that would not be tolerated in our countries," said Liam Pigott, a Canadian retiree who lives part of the year in Haiti.   The United States now is attempting to apply to cases such as Perlitz's a fairly recent law aimed at "sex tourism." Perlitz has been charged under the law, signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, designed to crack down on those who travel abroad, typically to Third World countries, to engage in sex with minors. "Sex tourism victims are particularly vulnerable to predators who lure them with the most basic human needs, then rob them of their innocence," said John Morton, U.S. Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for immigration and custom enforcement, following Perlitz's arrest.   Perlitz's lawyers have challenged the indictment. David Grudberg and William F. Dow III said the indictment falls short of meeting a key requirement of the sex-tourism statute -- specifying the date their client traveled to Haiti and allegedly engaged in illegal sexual conduct. "The omission of more detailed allegations about the defendant's alleged foreign travel is more than a mere technicality, and instead strikes at the heart of the constitutional indictment requirement," they claim in their 27-page motion to dismiss the charges. "Likewise there is no way to tell from the indictment whether those counts are multiplicitous -- improperly charging a single offense in multiple counts." They point out that Perlitz, while a U.S. citizen, was hardly a "tourist," having lived for 11 years in Haiti. "It is quite possible that months or even years could have passed between any foreign travel and the sexual misconduct alleged in the indictment," the defense maintains.   As of September 2009, the Justice Department had arrested 67 people under the travel law, which carries a maximum federal prison term of 30 years. The foreign travel law is just a subsection of a larger federal statute that encompasses all travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct.   Perlitz is not the first Connecticut case being prosecuted under the travel law by Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel.   Edgardo Sensi, a 53-year-old former vice president for a travel company based in Stuart, Fla., is accused of traveling to Fairfield County to have sex with an 8-year-old and to Nicaragua to have sex with a 4-year-old. He is awaiting trial.   Prosecuting American citizens who commit these crimes in foreign countries presents challenges, said Drew Oosterbaan, chief of the U.S. Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in Washington, D.C. "Evidence can be problematic," said Oosterbaan. "It is not always collected in a way that makes it admissible in an American court."   There's the possibility that witnesses or victims in impoverished countries might change their stories for money. In those cases, Oosterbaan said, U.S. investigators may work with their foreign counterparts to help prosecute that crime in the country where it occurred. In instances where individuals have assisted offenders by arranging travel, prosecutors can bring conspiracy cases in the U.S. against foreigners.   Then there's maintaining and protecting the security and location of child witnesses. "They have to remain available, not just to the prosecution, but also the defense," Oosterbaan said. That means the Justice Department has to be aware of where a witness is going and when.   The first man prosecuted in the United States under the law was retired Army Sgt. Michael Clark, then 70, who traveled to Cambodia and was accused of paying two young boys for sex.   Clark's lawyers attacked the constitutionality of the law, claiming the law enforcement arm of the U.S. could not extend into a foreign country. But in a split vote, judges on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected that claim. Clark was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison.   -- Michael P. Mayko