While Fairfield County residents try to raise money for the nearly $5 million bond imposed on Douglas Perlitz following his arrest last month for allegedly molesting boys at his Haitian charity, a group of Haitian lawyers and an advocate for sexual assault victims have launched a letter-writing campaign to keep him behind bars.

Perlitz, a Fairfield University graduate presented with an honorary degree in 2002 by the school for establishing Project Pierre Toussaint, a program to house, feed and school homeless Haitian boys, was arrested on federal charges Sept. 16 alleging that he sexually abused at least nine of the children during the past decade. He has denied the charges in court and to a federal agent.

On Oct. 19, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis will consider releasing Perlitz if the approximately $5 million bond is raised and additional people volunteer to watch him during his release.

But not if Marguerite Laurent, president of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, and Paul Kendrick, co-founder of the Maine chapter of Voice of the Faithful, which advocates on behalf of individuals sexually abused by Catholic clergy, have any say about Perlitz's release.

The pair is urging members of their groups to send letters to Margolis, who is considering releasing Perlitz on Monday. Kendrick also wrote William F. Dow III, Perlitz's lawyer, and Philip Allen Lacovara, a New York lawyer who was a board member of the Haiti Fund, which raised money or Project Pierre Toussaint.

"I'm not going to stand by and let Dow throw as much mud against the wall, hoping to kick up a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with this case," said Kendrick, who with Laurent say they will attend the Oct. 19 hearing at U.S. District Court in New Haven. "I want to know how certain they can be that Doug Perlitz didn't abuse any victims in Haiti and they can guarantee he won't abuse any more in the Fairfield neighborhood where he is allowed to live," he said.

Under the terms of a preliminary release order suggested by Dow last week, Perlitz would be allowed to work in the law office of Thomas Tisdale on Spruce Street in Fairfield and live in the Congress Street home of Anthony and Laura Sirianni. Anthony Sirianni is a retired lawyer who has multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair.

But if Perlitz is released as expected, Kendrick said he will be distributing "warning leaflets to neighbors about Perlitz's background and dangerous presence in the Fairfield community."

"After all," Kendrick added, "children depend upon the adults in their lives to protect them."
In a letter to Dow, Kendrick wrote, "I am asking you to act as a responsible and accountable member of the community by using your own common sense to help protect children from being sexually abused. ... You must know that you are gambling with the lives of innocent children. It is not possible for anyone, Mr. Dow, other than his prison guards, to supervise and monitor Perlitz's every move."

"When people bring out the pitchforks and the torches, they infect everybody and cripple the presumption of innocence," Dow responded Tuesday.

The New Haven defense lawyer maintains that sexual abuse allegations may be the result of a "Hatfield-McCoy" dispute between factions of Haitian boys and supervisors at Project Pierre Toussaint in one of the poorest nations in the world.

"There's no claim of any misconduct by Mr. Perlitz in the United States," Dow said. "Mr. Perlitz is presumed to be innocent. His supporters fervently believe his innocence. He's legendary for a history of good works."

But Kendrick claims that if Perlitz is released on bail, "there is nothing to stop him from using prepaid phone cards or prepaid cell phones to continue his threats and intimidation of his victims in Haiti."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel, who is prosecuting the case, has raised that same concern.

Patel told Margolis last week that Perlitz received 17 phone calls from Haiti on Sept. 15, a day before his arrest in Colorado. She also filed documentation showing Perlitz traveled five times to the Dominican Republic and once to El Salvador as recently as March, supposedly to meet with people formerly associated with his program.

Laurent's letter to Margolis warns the judge that Perlitz's release "will cause greater fear among the victims who were abused as well as allow Perlitz more opportunity to continue his campaigns to stop victims from testifying."

She claims most of the victims are "vulnerable orphans with no parents, no shelter and little or no state protection in Haiti."

Laurent urged other Haitian lawyers in an e-mail to write the judge.

"The children victims have already suffered the unspeakable, now powerful forces and collaborators connected with this case with money and influence may be hunting them down to prevent their testifying," the letter reads.. "Opportunists abound everywhere to influence these small victims."