Jury Awards Orphanage Founder and Charity $14.5 Million in Damages in Defamation Case

By Patty Wight
MPBN
July 23, 2015

http://news.mpbn.net/post/jury-awards-orphanage-founder-and-charity-145-million-damages-defamation-case

[with audio]

Paul Kendrick, of Freeport, has lost a defamation suit brought against him by the founder of a Haitian orphanage.

PORTLAND, Maine - A Portland jury has ruled in favor of Haiti orphanage founder Michael Geilenfeld in his defamation lawsuit against Freeport activist Paul Kendrick.

The jury recommended that Geilenfeld be awarded $7 million in damages and that a related North Carolina-based charity known as Hearts of Haiti be awarded $7.5 million dollars in damages.

Paul Kendrick had accused Michael Gielenfeld, the founder of St. Joseph's Home for Boys in Port au Prince, of being a serial pedophile, an accusation Gielenfeld vehemently denied. Gielenfeld said Kendrick was a cyber-bully and vigilante whose accusations caused him to be falsely imprisoned for 237 days and cost Hearts of Haiti $2 million in donations.

Patty Wight has been covering the trial and joined Maine Things Considered host Nora Flaherty with more background on the case shortly before the verdict was announced.