Who's who: Major participants in the case of Perlitz and Project Pierre Toussaint

This story originally appeared in the Sunday, January 31 print edition of the Connecticut Post.

Douglas Perlitz, a 39-year-old Fairfield University graduate whose religious ministry inspired him to create Project Pierre Toussaint, an internationally recognized school for abandoned and orphaned boys in Haiti. He is charged with sexually abusing 18 of those boys and awaits trial in federal court in New Haven. He has pleaded not guilty.

• The Rev. Paul E. Carrier, S.J., a former longtime director of Campus Ministry at Fairfield University. He helped establish the Haiti Fund, a nonprofit that raised millions for Perlitz's program. He was a close friend and mentor to Perlitz and frequently visited him in Haiti.

• Cyrus Sibert, a Haitian journalist who exposed allegations of sexual abuse by Perlitz in his blogs and former radio program in Cap-Haïtien.

• Michael McCooey, a New York lawyer who was elected chairman of the Haiti Fund after Carrier resigned. His board ordered an April 2008 investigation by Haitian private detectives that board members believed supported accounts of Perlitz's sexual activities.

• Inspector Jean Myrthil Joseph, of the Haitian National Police in Port-au-Prince, who led the 2007 joint investigation with United Nations personnel into the allegations against Perlitz. The probe identified 29 alleged victims of abuse.

• Louis Petit-Frère, an inspector with a Haitian social welfare agency. He found several anonymous notes attached to his door claiming Perlitz was abusing boys. He confronted Perlitz, who denied

the allegations. Petit-Frère dropped his probe.

• Margarette Joseph and Joseph Excellent, both hired by Perlitz to work at Project Pierre Toussaint. They believe Perlitz allowed numerous boys to sleep in his room.

• Jacques Philome Jeanty, a Cap-Haïtien radio talk show host who shared an apartment with Perlitz in 1998. He said Perlitz would bring children to the apartment to sleep over.

• Georgemain Prophète, the north Haiti delegate who reports to the minister of the interior and is believed to be the most powerful politician in Cap-Haïtien. He vows to work with any group that wants to reopen Project Pierre Toussaint.

• Paul Kendrick, a 1972 Fairfield University graduate who now advocates for victims of sexual abuse by clergy and church workers. He expressed concern to Perlitz about his association with a former Catholic priest defrocked for abusing children who moved to Haiti. Kendrick recently traveled to Haiti to meet with abused students and is calling upon Fairfield University, the Order of Malta and New England Society of Jesus, as well as Catholic charities who supported Project Pierre Toussaint, to provide funding to reopen it.

• Assistant U.S. Attorneys Krishna Patel and Stephen Reynolds, prosecutors in the Perlitz case. Patel has developed an expertise in sexploitation cases.

• William F. Dow III and David Grudberg, members of a New Haven law firm who are defending Perlitz.

• Janet Bond Arterton, the federal judge presiding over Perlitz's trial. She heard the municipal corruption case against then-Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim and sentenced him to nine years in prison following his conviction.

• Michael Nowacki, a parishioner of St. Thomas More Church in Darien, who has urged state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to investigate use of money raised at the church by Carrier for Project Pierre Toussaint.