Man sentenced to 210 years after abusing ‘vulnerable’ children at orphanage he founded in Haiti
DENVER, Colo. (KKTV/Gray News) - A man in Colorado has been sentenced to 210 years in prison for sexually abusing children at an orphanage he founded and ran in Haiti for decades.
According to court documents, 73-year-old Michael Karl Geilenfeld founded St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in 1985 and operated it for over two decades.
Officials say during this time, Geilenfeld repeatedly traveled from the United States to Haiti, where he sexually abused boys in his care.
Officials say he also physically and emotionally abused the children in the home, including through physical assault and other forms of punishment.
The trial included testimony from six Haitian men who said they were abused while living at Geilenfeld’s St. Joseph’s Home for Boys between 2005 and 2010. The boys, now in their 20s, were between 9 and 13 at the time.
Victims and witnesses also described the “manipulation that he employed to keep his operation running and financially ed by others,” officials say.
A federal jury in Miami convicted Geilenfeld in February of one count of traveling in foreign commerce to engage in illicit sexual conduct and six counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place between 2005 and 2010.
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