“He has dedicated his life to serving the poor and indigent,” Houlihan told the judge, noting that Geilenfeld was living in a studio apartment in Denver that had been offered to him by the pastor of a church that he attended there every day. “This is a gentleman who doesn’t have significant means.”

But Judge Leibowitz disagreed, pointing out that Geilenfeld was charged with “extremely serious crimes” that carry up to 30 years in prison. “The weight of the evidence has really changed,” he said, citing the superseding indictment filed last Thursday.

In addition, Leibowitz issued a protective order to shield the identities and other personal information about Geilenfeld’s alleged sexual-abuse victims from the public and other parties.

No trial date has been set for the case, which includes about 100,000 pages of evidence, according to prosecutors.

In court papers, prosecutors said Geilenfeld has held “himself out as a missionary while using his position and privilege to sexually abuse young boys and cover up his crimes.” Between the mid-1980s through 2014, Geilenfeld operated multiple orphanages in Haiti, including the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys. He also opened a home in the Dominican Republic after fleeing there to escape sexual abuse allegations in Haiti, where he had been jailed and still has a court case pending.

Allegations of sexual abuse have followed Geilenfeld for more than a decade. After a children’s rights advocate, Paul Kendrick, and Haitian journalist Cyrus Sibert launched a campaign to have him arrested, Geilenfeld and a Raleigh, North Carolina, nonprofit group that supported his St. Joseph’s Home for Boys orphanage sued for defamation in federal court. They initially won a judgment against Kendrick, who lives in Maine, but that was later vacated due to a lack of jurisdiction.

A second lawsuit was filed in state court in Maine by Geilenfeld and the nonprofit, Hearts with Haiti. Kendrick settled and his homeowner’s insurance policies paid the charity $3.5 million. Geilenfeld, he said, signed a document with the court dismissing all charges against him with no financial remuneration.

Following Geilenfeld’s arrest in January, the non-profit’s executive director, Emily Everett, told McClatchy’s sister newspaper, The News & Observer, that the charity “severed all ties with Mr. Geilenfeld years ago.”

“Mr. Geilenfeld was never an employee, volunteer nor member of the Hearts with Haiti Board of Directors,” she said in an email to the newspaper. “Hearts with Haiti has no knowledge regarding the guilt or innocence of Michael Geilenfeld concerning these federal charges.”

The original St. Joseph’s Home for Boys was closed by the Haitian government in 2014 following his arrest over sexual abuse allegations. Hearts with Haiti, Everett said, continues to support the St. Joseph Family, an organization that provides education and housing to “children and adults with disabilities and economically disadvantaged children” in Jacmel, Haiti.

Federal prosecutors, who have issued an appeal in Haitian-Creole, French, Spanish and English for victims to come forward, said about 20 different people have reported being sexually abused by Geilenfeld over the years. FBI and Homeland Security Investigations agents have spoken to individuals who were not part of the civil defamation suit, prosecutors wrote in court papers.

Prosecutors have highlighted allegations by four victims who say they were forced to engage in sexual acts with Geilenfeld while they stayed at the Haiti orphanage. They were between the ages of 9 and 13 years old at the time. Prosecutors also pointed out that in May 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped Geilenfeld after he tried to fly to the Dominican Republic, where he lived after fleeing sexual abuse allegations in Haiti.

During the stop at MIA, an officer found in Geilenfeld’s possession 11 copies of a three-page photo array of victims/witnesses involved in the sexual-abuse allegations. Prosecutors said they believe the purpose of the photos was to aid Geilenfeld in intimidating or bribing witnesses and victims.

In a September 2022 deposition, Geilenfeld stated that all of his efforts were to “get back to the Dominican Republic because that is my wealth, my life, that is my everything,” prosecutors said.

Geilenfeld was charged as part of a nationwide initiative launched by the U.S. Justice Department to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. Anyone with related information or who may have been a victim or witness is being asked to call Homeland Security Investigations at 877-4-HSI TIP (877-447-4847).

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