MAINE
Bangor Daily News
Maine man accused of defaming former priest says he defied a court order to protect more kids from sex abuse
By Seth Koenig, BDN Staff
Posted Jan. 30, 2015
PORTLAND, Maine — Child sex abuse victims rights advocate Paul Kendrick told a federal judge Friday he defied a court order and distributed confidential information because he believed more children were in imminent danger of abuse.
Former Catholic brother Michael Geilenfeld and a nonprofit in which he’s involved are suing Kendrick for defamation — Kendrick publicly accused the former priest of sexually abusing children — at the same time that Geilenfeld is facing potential criminal sex abuse charges in Haiti.
Attorneys for Geilenfeld and the nonprofit Hearts With Haiti are now seeking heavy sanctions against Kendrick for releasing confidential emails, as well as excerpts from depositions and a private investigation, gathered in the discovery process of their defamation lawsuit against Kendrick.
On Friday, Kendrick testified in a U.S. District Court hearing in Portland on those proposed sanctions. Attorney Devin Deane, representing Hearts With Haiti and Geilenfeld, said he’s seeking monetary sanctions of $50,000, a finding of contempt of court against Kendrick and a default judgment in favor of his clients, among other things.
Deane said Kendrick had been warned by Magistrate Judge John Rich not to distribute confidential court documents, but blatantly defied a court order by doing so again. The attorney urged the court to severely punish Kendrick for the second incident, because the prior warning was not an adequate deterrent.
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