Don’t spit on the suffering of Haitian kids who were sexually abused - Letter

IGNATIUS GROUP_____ Cyrus Sibert is a Haitian journalist who, in November 2007, was the first to report the sexual abuse of children by Douglas Perlitz, former Executive Director of Project Pierre Toussaint (PPT) in Cap Haitian, Haiti. PPT had links to both Fairfield University (Jesuit)and the Catholic Order of Malta. In September 2008, several disgruntled PPT board members, led by Rev. Paul Carrier, S.J. (former Campus Ministry Director at Fairfield University), wrote a letter to donors, in which they defended Perlitz and disparaged the remaining board members who, in the interests of protecting children, fired Perlitz as executive director. Donations dried up and the school was forced to close. In September 2009, a federal grand jury indicted Perlitz on the first of 20 child sex abuse charges involving 18 boys. Fairfield University and the Order of Malta have offered zero financial support to help the victims. Learn the details: www.ctpost.com/betrayal Perlitz's trial was scheduled to begin in October 2010. Two weeks ago, Perlitz's lawyer, William Dow, succeeded in getting the trial moved to New York. Cyrus Sibert addresses the change of venue issue with Mr. Dow in this very moving letter. ___________________________ OPEN LETTER July 27, 2010 William F. Dow III Attorney at Law 350 Orange Street New Haven, Connecticut 06511 wdow@jacobslaw.com Dear Mr. Dow, Your decision to refuse Connecticut as the venue for the trial of Douglas Perlitz, accused of pedophile against 20 street kids from Project Pierre-Toussaint, does not conform to your public declaration regarding my work as an investigative journalist who, in late 2007, first disclosed the story of Douglas Perlitz's sexual abuse of children who were students at Project Pierre Toussaint in Cap Haitian, Haiti. In your declaration in the Connecticut Post, you described me as "a shock jock ...whose familiarity with veracity is infrequent and insubstantial." I thought you were so convinced by the facts and evidence that you could prove that the boys who said: "they were raped and abused by your client" are not telling the truth. But, instead, you are trying to delay the trial, instead of being willing and enthusiastic about going to trial. I was confused when you decided to request a new venue in what seemed to me to be a way so that your client would not have to face the testimony of 20 sex abuse victims. In the Connecticut Post of July 16, 2010, your declaration about the new venue is: "We intend to again enter not guilty pleas and address these four charges, which are 20 less than he was facing and involve only two, not 18 complainants." You were so happy for your client to not face 20 charges, 20 boys who were raped and sodomized (by the way, Mr. Dow, it is expected that there will be many more re-indictments). I finally understood that you don't care about the truth. You found a technical, jurisdictional loophole to escape the point. Your client Douglas Perlitz, did he really abuse those street kids? If you believe the victims are lying and Cyrus is "a shock jock ...whose familiarity with veracity is infrequent and insubstantial.", why are you and Douglas so afraid of a trial? I have never seen an innocent person prefer to stay in prison instead of facing what the person considers to be false accusations. The trial was scheduled to arrive in 2 months. Now, because of you, the trial will be delayed. The victims want a trial. Why does your client who is in prison keep trying to stall a trial? Mr. Dow, as I told in my last letter, there is a difference between justice and law. You build your reputation on your ability to not let a criminal face allegations and accusations against him. You will earn much money for helping a pedophile escape a trial. You will be richer. But you won't serve your community. While you try to guarantee impunity to a pedophile, you work against the children of your country and the children of Haiti. Your work is against your own children, against the children of your brother, of your sister, against the children of your neighbors, of your community. With your strategy to fight the truth by looking for technical jurisdictional loopholes, you will help a pedophile to become free. He will walk again in the street, go to the park; play with kids of the Catholic Church choral. He will have more opportunity to abuse other kids as he is a sick man addicted to committing crimes by abusing young boys. Believe that I am satisfied to see that even though you said bad things against me in the Connecticut Post, you are afraid to face the accusations. You and your client are hiding. You are afraid to have 20 victims in the court telling with courage the suffering they endured when Douglas decided, as director of Project Pierre Toussaint, to sexually abuse them. The Devil needs men like you to perpetuate bad behaviors in the world. With a great attorney like you, able to help criminals get their impunity, the world will belong to Satan with this kind of bad behavior. I take this opportunity to tell you that I am proud of my achievement in this case. Douglas Perlitz will not be able to abuse any other kids in Haiti. With the support of a few good people of your country, we are helping these victims to feel loved and comforted. We have raised small amounts of money to feed the boys rice, beans and spaghetti. They stand with courage to tell the truth. They don't care if the trial will be held in Connecticut, New York, Colorado or Florida. They are not afraid to look Douglas Perlitz in his eyes and tell the TRUTH. Mr. Dow, take your time. Find all kinds of technical ways to not let your client face the truth. But, be sure of this. The victims are ready to testify. They will not be discouraged. God bless the people with good hearts, who have decided to support them. Misery will not kill the boys. This strategy to qualify their allegations as false, while Douglas's friends in Connecticut are pushing to stop the school project from reopening, with the hope that the victims will become unavailable to testify, will not work. With my little contribution in defending the street kids of Cap-Haitian, I defend all the kids in the world; I defend American kids too. Be sure, that with your strategy, you are not honoring all the children who believe that you are a great man with moral values. I tell you that you can defend your client with respect for justice, truth, human rights and moral values. But don't spit on the suffering of Haitian kids. Cyrus Sibert is a journalist who lives in Cap-Haitian, Haïti. He can be contacted at: reseaucitadelle@yahoo.fr http://reseaucitadelle.blogspot.com/