A Freeport man is appealing a $14.5 million defamation verdict after he accused a Haiti orphanage founder of serial pedophile. Lawyers for the Freeport man said that the founder has no jurisdiction to file a lawsuit against their client because he lives outside the U.S.
Paul Kendrick has alleged Michael Geilenfeld, the founder of St. Joseph Home for Boys for molesting several boys in his home care facility. The owner of the care sued him for defamation after the Freeport man started sending campaign emails about Geilenfeld being a serial pedophile, Salon reported. Kendrick even involved the Hearts with Haiti, a North Carolina charity that collects donations to fund Geilenfeld's orphanage. With the appeal of the Freeport man, the federal jury has set a hearing on Wednesday to determine where Geilenfeld was residing when he filed the defamation suit.
Last year, a Portland jury has found that the Freeport man was reckless and negligent in making accusations about Geilenfeld's serial pedophile, Yahoo reported. The judge didn't find enough evidence made by the seven former orphans in the care facility about the sexual assault. The jury awarded Geilenfeld $7 million and $7.5 million to Hearts with Haiti. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is still deliberating Kendrick's appeal over the verdict.
"If settlement is going to occur in this case, the time is now," Judge John A. Woodcock Jr., said in court Friday. "I've never held a hearing like this before." Woodcock presided the trial in the U.S. District Court in Portland last summer. However, an appellate court in Boston questioned whether the case belongs to the federal court, according to Press Herald.
On Friday, the judge didn't continue with the case, but summoned all the lawyers for both sides and both the plaintiff and the defendant to weigh the case. Both the Freeport man and the lawyers for Geilenfeld expressed their willingness for a settlement. Geilenfeld who's reportedly now living in the U.S. again return to Haiti after the trial. His orphanage had been closed while new sexual allegations were filed against him by former orphans.
