Judge orders US to seize $42000 from Perlitz

lundi 7 mars 2011

Judge orders US to seize $42000 from Perlitz

NEW HAVEN -- A federal judge ordered the government to seize $42,000 from three of Douglas Perlitz's accounts and use the money to provide education, counseling and other services to the young boys he sexually abused in Haiti.

But U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton stopped short of deciding how the money will be dispersed to the victims. Instead, she is expected to conduct another hearing in about a month at which representatives from Kids Alive International, an Indiana-based charity that has operations in Cap-Haitien, Haiti will attend.

Since December, Kids Alive has been providing food and overseeing the education of about 60 homeless boys displaced by the closing of Project Pierre Toussaint, a program that Perlitz established for them in Cap-Haitien. The organization has been using funds from Fairfield University and the Order of Malta, two of the primary fundraisers for the Haiti Fund, a nonprofit charity that dispersed money to Project Pierre Toussaint.

During the Monday morning hearing, both Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel and Michael McCooey, chairman of the nearly defunct Haiti Fund, said rumors of expected large cash payouts have led to some of the victims threatening Kids Alive supervisors in Haiti.

"Ten dollars becomes $10,000 becomes 10 million dollars, "McCooey said of the rumor mill in Haiti. "The boys think the court is sitting on millions and millions of dollars here."

He told Arterton that both Fairfield University and the Order of Malta each agreed to provide $11,000 for vocational, educational and counseling programs, with the money provided through periodic payments.

However, the judge said she is "leery" of the court handling money coming from private institutions. Instead, she suggested the university and the Order of Malta look for a way to dispense the money in Haiti.

Arterton sentenced Perlitz, 40, an honored Fairfield University graduate, to 19 years and seven months in prison. While he pleaded guilty to a single charge, he also acknowledged what prosecutors said was his systematic and prolonged abuse of at least 16 of his students. He has almost $42,000 divided among a bank and two IRA accounts.