Douglas Perlitz pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of children. Specifically, he set up a charity called Project Pierre Trussiant in Haiti and then used it as a means to seduce and sexual abuse orphans. He used food, shelter and affection to line up the children for sex. Perlitz was a Jesuit trained catholic. Fairfield University used him as an example of catholic service.
When I first posted on Perlitz, a catholic apologist gave me this sage (but wrong) advice.
Catholic workers are particularly vulnerable to false charges- ironic additional victims of priests and church leaders involved in these crimes.
In this case, watch for additional evidence to come to light, and for various motives for accusations such as these from a small subset of the relatively large at-risk population that Doug worked with in Haiti. Commencement speakers are not chosen without care, and Fairfield Universlty may, in the end, reaffirm that it made a wise choice, if not an easy one.
Fairfield University and the Catholic church has distanced themselves form Perlitz since his arrest. A pedophile only has friends if he is a priest.
Perlitz was a creep.
According to an indictment, Perlitz provided money and told one of the boys he would not be kicked out of the school even if he failed his classes. He allegedly offered another boy and his family money and other benefits, and in another case gave a television, shoes, clothes and meals to another boy, in exchange for sexual favors and their silence. Those who did not cooperate with Perlitz were denied the benefits, the indictment said.
What do they teach at Fairfield? Is pedophilia 101 on the curriculum?
