CONNECTICUT
CT Post
Michael P. Mayko, Staff Writer
Published 07:35 p.m., Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Seventeen more Haitian street boys claim they were abused sexually by Douglas Perlitz, who created a program to feed, clothe, educate and even house them, and that nothing was done to stop the abuse by people and organizations involved in the program.
The suits, filed in federal court Wednesday by New Haven attorneys Steven Errante and Marisa Bellair, seek $20 million in damages for each plaintiff from each of the 18 defendants.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has successfully sued numerous Catholic priests for sexually abusing children, drafted the complaints and will seek permission to represent the plaintiffs at trial.
The suits bring to 21 the number of plaintiffs who claim they were abused by Perlitz in his Project Pierre Toussaint program between 1998 and 2008. The suits allege that the youngest student was 9 years old when first abused and the oldest 21; most were between 14 and 16, according to the lawsuits.
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