The sexual abuse case involving a Fairfield University graduate student and 24 young Haitian boys has ended in a $12 million settlement, the Fairfield Citizen reported.
Graduate student Douglas Perlitz, was a founding member of the Project Pierre Toussaint program, which was started to help educate, feed and clothe Haitian boys in their country.
24 of the young boys in the program claim Perlitz sexually abused them. The lawyers representing the boys reached a settlement for $12 million with the people and charities who promoted Perlitz's program, but failed to properly advise him.
"This ends the litigation pending in the District of Connecticut in connection with the Perlitz matter," said Stanley A. Twardy Jr., Fairfield University's lawyer. He also said that Friday's settlement "is not an admission of liability by any defendant."
Other defendants named in the case were Rev. Paul E. Carrier Jr., former school chaplain and former officer at the Haiti Fund Inc.; the Society of Jesus of New England, Carrier's Jesuit order; the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta; American Association, USA, who provided funds; and Hope Carter, a Haiti Fund board of directors member, a New Canaan philanthropist and Malta memner.
"The settlement agreement does not constitute an admission of liability," said Alice Poltorick, provincial assistant for communications for the New England Province of the Society of Jesus. "It is our hope that this money will help those who were harmed by Douglas Perlitz."
Despite being named as a defendant, Poltorick said her organization was only connected to the Project Pierre Toussaint through one board member and that the program was not one of their missions.
Paul Kendrick, a Fairfield graduate student, was an advocate throughout for the boys and praised their bravery in pressing charges.
"They have left a legacy and sent out a very strong message for the first time in Haiti that NGO's (nongovernmental organizations) must put policies, practices and systems in place and be vigilant about the volunteers they send overseas to ensure the safety of the children in their care," he said.
The program began to crumble in 2007 when a Haitian journalist named Cyrus Sibert exposed the sexual abuse scandal involving Perlitz and the young boys. The program was shut down in 2009 amid an investigation involving the Haitian National Police, the United Nations and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division.
Perlitz pled guilty to traveling oversees to engage in sex with a minor, fined $49,000 and sentenced to 19 years in a federal prison in Seagoville, Texas. He is 43 and will not be released until Oct. 2026.
