MIAMI — The American founder of an orphanage in Haiti pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to new federal charges accusing him of traveling from Miami to the island and sexually assaulting four underage boys under his care more than a decade ago.

But during his detention hearing in Miami federal court, a prosecutor said Michael Karl Geilenfeld “sexually abused 20 boys” at his orphanage and then threatened them not to say anything or they would be harmed.

“We have multiple people saying the defendant sexually abused them in the same way,” Justice Department prosecutor Eduardo Palomo told a federal judge.

Palomo argued that Geilenfeld, who was granted a bond by a magistrate judge in Denver before his recent transfer to Miami, should not be released before trial because he’s a danger to the community and a flight risk to the Caribbean.

U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz agreed, ordering that the 72-year-old founder of St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in 1985 in Port-au-Prince be detained in a federal lock-up until trial. In doing so, Leibowitz overturned the decision of the magistrate judge, who in February allowed Geilenfeld to be released to a halfway house pending trial. That decision, however, was put on hold in March while prosecutors appealed it.

Between then and now, the U.S. criminal case changed significantly, with prosecutors last week filing a superseding indictment accusing Geilenfeld of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct” with four minor boys between 2006 and 2010 in addition to the original charge of traveling to Haiti for that purpose. The four boys, now adults, are expected to testify at Geilenfeld’s trial.

Palomo, assisted by prosecutor Lacee Monk, told the judge during the detention hearing that one of the four underage boys cited in the indictment was stabbed in the chest by a Haitian friend of Geilenfeld’s because the alleged victim had reported his abuse to authorities in Haiti.

Palomo said Geilenfeld paid the associate as much as $27,000 for various tasks, including helping him open another home for the poor in the neighboring Dominican Republic after the orphanage operator was shut down in Haiti and charged with crimes there in 2014.

Palomo also said Geilenfeld kept a dossier with photos of his alleged sexual-abuse victims — evidence that was discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in May 2019 when Geilenfeld was traveling through Miami International Airport to the Dominican Republic. The array of photos included pictures of two of Geilenfeld’s victims cited in the new indictment, Palomo said.

Geilenfeld’s lawyer, D’Arsey Houlihan with the Federal Public Defender’s Office, argued that his client should be released to a halfway house in Miami as he awaits trial because he is elderly and has no prior criminal history.

...continued

©2024 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.