Br. Michael Geilenfeld

Brother of the Missionaries of Charity, entering in 1974. From Iowa. Worked as a brother in Los Angeles, Cambodia, El Salvador and India before settling in Haiti. Left the order and founded St. Joseph’s orphanage for boys in Port-au-Prince in 1985. The boys were destitute, living in the streets. Geilenfeld would take boys across the U.S. and in England for fundraising tours, in which the boys performed as a dance troupe. Allegations first surfaced publicly in 12/1995 when 8 boys on tour in Detroit told authorities that Geilenfeld sexually and physically abused them at the orphanage. A judge ordered them to return to Haiti with Geilenfeld, saying he had no jurisdiction. The boys’ attorney said there were allegations as early as 1987, and that boys also complained while touring England. In 2011 Haiti journalist Cyrus Sibert broke the story of allegations against Geilenfeld after a missionary contacted him. Survivor advocate Paul Kendrick, from ME, got involved; he and Sibert worked together for years to demand Geilenfeld’s arrest. Dozens of boys and young men came forward. Geilenfeld was arrested in 2014 in Port-Au-Prince and spent a year in jail. The case was dismissed after 5 alleged victims did not show up for a hearing. Geilenfeld and a charity funding him, Hearts with Haiti, sued Kendrick for defamation. A jury decided for Geilenfeld, dismissed on appeal. Settled in 2019, $3M for the charity, nothing for Geilenfeld. Arrested in the Dominican Republic in 4/2019, to where he allegedly had fled from Haiti to avoid arrest there. He had also opened a home for boys in the Dominican Republic. Arrested in Denver CO 1/22/24, charged with traveling from Miami FL to Haiti to have sex with children between 11/2006 and 12/2010. Pleaded not guilty in Miami federal court 2/16/2024. Ordered to be held in federal prison while awaiting trial.