Human Predators Stalk Haiti's Vulnerable Kids

[Missizzy]

An article from the Idaho Statesman which details Silsby's funding woes. I guess as Personal Shopper failed and the house got foreclosed, she decided to write a new chapter of her life. I'm honestly starting to wonder about the Reality TV show angle. Stir up a huge disaster, fresh-faced Baptists, and a group of sad little orphan kids and whose going to say that wouldn't sell? Think what lack of good sense but a lust for sensationalism and fame did for Nadya Suleman and the Heene and Gosselin families. Kids don't come first for these people IMO.



http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/1074239.html


Laura Silsby's business couldn't pay rent, taxes

The company's struggles raise questions of how she could afford the Haiti mission


"Boisean Brian Johnson says he's on the brink of financial ruin after not being paid for months at a time while working at Personal Shopper Inc., an Internet-based company founded and led by Laura Silsby.

The 43-year-old single father of three says he's on the verge of losing his house due to Personal Shopper's failure to pay him at least once a month, as Idaho labor law requires.

"I had to borrow money from family and friends to go to my mom's funeral," he said Monday.

He is among the latest to complain about the company, but the problem dates back a decade."

and

"The stories told by these former workers show that she had inspired people to follow her vision before."

 

[pinkpuddytat]

Let's discuss the volunteers, what they knew + when they knew it. Start with an undisputed fact, Silsby and her group has just rounded up 40 children and put them on a bus. The group knows from their own flyers and the original call from their "Messiah" that they are in Haiti to collect orphans. Instead, they are now collecting children from parents. The police officer stops the group and orders the children off the bus.

Even if the volunteers never heard a word between the officer and Silsby, they have very good reason to believe that something is very, very wrong with this mission. They don't ask questions of their Messiah? A law enforcement officer has just stopped them in their tracks, emptied their bus and the Messiah explains to them, What? And they go on to the next roundup? Hello

This strikes me as a pretty naive bunch of people, more inclined to believe that God will make everything okay as long as they have their hearts in the right place, than to try to do much thinking and questioning themselves. Apparently they didn't ask any serious questions of Silsby before embarking on this crazy trip, nor did the pastors of the Central Valley Baptist Church and East Side Baptist Church (one of the latter being among the jailed group) before allowing their churches to be used to raise funds and volunteers for this scheme. And of course any questions that were asked, before the trip and since it started, would have been met with lies from Silsby in response. It would have been easy for Silsby to convince the group that it was okay to change the plan and take children who aren't orphans, when there were parents thrusting their children at the group, saying they have no way to feed them. After all, God led us to *these* children.

It's also not clear how many of Silsby's rounding up activities included the rest of the group. Many of the people who've reported being contacted by Silsby (parents, orphanage directors, etc) only mention Silsby herself being present. Whether that means the others were staying at some other location while Silsby travelled around trying to line up children to fill her bus, or whether the rest of the group was left sitting on bus while Silsby went to knock on doors and talk to people, isn't clear. I've gotten the strong impression, though, that the identification/location of children to be taken and the actual putting them on the bus didn't occur on the same day, at least with most of the children, and I suspect much of the locating process involved only Silsby or Silsby and Coulter. The rest of the group may have seen the flyers, but not realized that Silsby was deliberately giving parents and caretakers the impression that her group actually owned the facilities shown in the pictures, instead of telling them she was just planning to rent them and later build something similar (in both cases with money she didn't yet have).

What's clear to me is that Silsby became desperate when she realized that rounding up a busload of orphans wasn't going to be as easy as she'd imagined. Several orphanage directors and aid workers report having basically told her to get lost. Remember, all the evidence points to Silsby having been living off donations for this project for the past several months, and having no other source of income for the foreseeable future. She HAD to make this round-up happen, or the donations would stop flowing *and* the disastrous state of her personal and business finances was likely to be discovered, precluding any subsequent restart of this particular scam, at least in Idaho. She's clearly a talented con artist (see the Idaho Statesman article fron yesterday about the level of talent she managed to recruit when she was starting up her Personal Shopper business back in 1999). With her back to the wall, I'm sure she revved up her conning act in a big way, and shrewdly played to the particular type of naivete displayed by these church folks.

 

[Texas Mist]

Douglas Perlitz: Hero or sex predator?
Published: 11:42 a.m., Tuesday, February 9, 2010

<snip>

What happened at Project Pierre Toussaint?

A confidential Haitian police investigative report portrays, in shocking detail, how Perlitz may have preyed on even more students -- up to 29, investigators believe. Perlitz was warned not to continue taking children to his house for overnight stays, but former school employees told Hearst Connecticut Newspaper that a culture of silence grew out of the fear of wrecking the economically flourishing charity. A former friend of Perlitz's who shared a Cap-Haïtien apartment with him said that as far back as 1998, Perlitz was bringing young boys into his bedroom.

Project Pierre Toussaint probably would not have existed without the Rev. Paul Carrier, a charismatic Jesuit priest, close mentor to Perlitz and the longtime director of Fairfield University's Campus Ministry program. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing, but his role in setting up the charity that raised millions of dollars for Perlitz's programs -- and where that money went -- has aroused the interest of federal investigators.

And Perlitz might not be behind bars save for the work of Cyrus Sibert, a Haitian journalist who says he ignored threats and refused bribes to expose allegations that the boys of The Village were being abused.

In a land devastated by earthquakes and hurricanes, bloodied by despots and mercenaries, it might seem that what happened at Project Pierre Toussaint would be a footnote, at most, in Haiti's long history of despair.

Perhaps that is so. But this is also a riveting story of betrayal, all the more compelling because not everyone here agrees on who has done the betraying.

much more here on this human predator

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Douglas-Perlitz-Hero-or-sex-predator-357455.php

 

[truckbomb]

I have to give you credit, Pink. You would make a great defense counsel for the volunteers, certainly far better than any of the clowns engaged now.. Yes, if the facts are as you construct, the volunteers should be kicked loose with a wrist slap because they lack scienter, the basic knowledge that shows they knew of the illegality.

We both await the testimony of the police officer who stopped them in their tracks. According to Anderson360, there was a discussion of the officer having made it clear to the group that what they were doing was illegal and that they lacked proper paperwork.

So my hypothisis is the group was fully aware at that point they were doing something illegal where a reasonable person would inquire as to their status. You may be right, Pink, but one has to accept your assumtions that the volunteers were nowhere around when the cop stopped the operation and Sisly had rounded up all 40 kids herself.

 

[Melly53]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/world/americas/10prisoners.html?scp=2&sq=haiti&st=cse

The 10 Americans detained on kidnapping charges are pleading for the United States government to do more on their behalf and for the news media to focus on them less.

“Help us,” one of the detainees, Carla Thompson, said Monday as she lay on a bed in a scorching Port-au-Prince jail cell of about 8 feet by 5 feet, her ankles bandaged from infected mosquito bites. “That’s the message I would give to Mr. Obama and the State Department. Start helping us.”

Sitting on a dirty concrete floor in the cell, another detainee, Corinna Lankford, nodded in agreement, a frustrated look on her face. “I have faith in God,” Ms. Lankford said. “But maybe the U.S. government could help a little more, too.”

In an interview before the judge questioned her, Ms. Silsby said she, too, was frustrated with the level of American government involvement.

“It has mostly been missionaries, not the government, that has been providing us with food and medicine,” she said, adding that one of the prisoners, Charisa Coulter, 24, who is diabetic, was lacking insulin for the first week of her detention. On Sunday, a missionary was allowed to deliver medicine to her.

The Americans said that they were being treated well by guards and other prisoners. They said they were passing the time reading the Bible, napping, praying and snacking on sugared cereal and potato chips provided to them by missionaries.

:furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious: I think I need to cool off before I comment on this article!!

 

[truckbomb]

Pink, Check out this new video where the police officer talks about catching them ALL on the bus.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/09/haiti.border.arrests/?hpt=T2

He speaks english right in their presence so the volunteers must have known from him of the illegality, not just Silsby knowing. Looks bad for the bunch.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

You may be right, Pink, but one has to accept your assumtions that the volunteers were nowhere around when the cop stopped the operation and Sisly had rounded up all 40 kids herself.

Not necessarily nowhere around, but not actually hearing all the details of the conversations. I'm sure Silsby would have gone out of her way to prevent the others from hearing all the details. Mainly you'd have to accept my assumption that the volunteers were very naive, and very slow to replace their belief in and enthusiasm for Silsby's project with a realization that they'd been duped. But that's human nature. Some of us are just smart enough that the truth breaks through our psychological walls of wishful thinking faster and more easily.

Look at her employees, many of whom stuck around for months or even years after they stopped receiving regular paychecks, still convincing themselves that this was a legitimate business and that they'd get paid eventually. If they'd bothered to do even a little digging, they'd have sonn learned that the "angel investors" didn't exist, and that Silsby had also been stiffing creditors of the business for years, accumulating a pile of debt that would preclude any serious investor from ever investing any money in the business. And they'd have come out way ahead if they'd done this -- many would have found good new jobs before the economy totally tanked. And just a couple of days ago, I read a news interview with one of the stiffed business creditors, who sounded like he STILL believed Personal Shopper had been a legitimate business and that Silsby was still trying to make good on the business' debts -- he actually used the words "I want to believe" or "I need to believe".

And then there's this account from a woman who almost went on this trip, until her husband raised some concerns at the last minute http://www.idahostatesman.com/235/story/1073023.html?storylink=omni_popular ""Even if she's made some bad decisions, she's a very nice, good lady," Groom said. "I love who she is and what she stands for."" This was just published *yesterday*, probably based on an interview no earlier than the previous day, so this woman has a ton of information implicating Silsby in a long series of financial improprieties *and* has a husband who pushing a less gullible outlook, and yet she *still* hasn't been able to let go of her belief that Silsby is a wonderful woman.

People are very good at deluding themselves, and very slow to accept information and see the implications of information that will break down their self-delusions, especially in situations where this will also involve admitting to themselves that they've screwed up badly and made decisions with long-lasting negative consequences on their finances or other important aspects of their lives. I'm sure some of the these volunteers were starting to feel a few questions in their minds, when the first busload was stopped, if not sooner, but any nagging suspicions they had were still being drowned out by their original faith in the plan and its leader. The Haitian government finally gave them the impossible-to-ignore reality check they needed, when it arrested them and tossed them in a third world jail.

 

[truckbomb]

Pink, I accept your point that the volunteers were well into the Kool Aid based on their beliefs and the enticiments of the Con Artist, a female James Jones if you please. The volunteers may have been of good heart but in law the good heart defense seldom works.

The reasonable man standard is the rule. They all could be in conscious disregard, studious or wilful ignorance or turning a blind eye to obvious facts but they are still carrying out a serious illegality and will be adjudged criminals irrespective of their good faith. Good faith may be offered in mitigation at sentencing. That's all it is good for.

Anyhow, I admire your ability to see the more benign motivations behind the volunteers' acts. Please report to the nearest law school for training in the defense bar.

 

[i.b.nora]

A new Associated Press article:

Idaho Woman Faced Financial Woes Before Haiti Trip

Some things we already knew, some bits and pieces of new information. It talks some about her contacting the Picketts, here is a snippet of that:

"The Picketts said they were immediately suspicious of Silsby. The Kentucky couple didn't need her help -- the government had already given them permission to go pick up the children. But Silsby persisted, they said.

She showed up at the Compassion for All orphanage in Haiti, asking to collect the Picketts' three adopted children and claiming to be Malinda Pickett's friend, according to Richard Pickett.

When the orphanage told her the children had been moved, Silsby went on to ask for any other kids she could have, Richard Pickett said. She paid a worker to take her to other orphanages in the region and translate for her.

''She asked for kids at each of the orphanages, and at the end of the day when no one would give her any, she cried,'' Richard Pickett said. ''Why would you cry after you see these kids are being taken care of?''

The Picketts' adopted children are now with the couple in Bowling Green, Ky. Richard Pickett said he was recently interviewed by an agent with the Department of Homeland Security who is helping investigate the Silsby case."

It is an article worth reading.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

Richard Pickett said he was recently interviewed by an agent with the Department of Homeland Security who is helping investigate the Silsby case.

I think I'd seen everything in there before, except this last bit. Very interesting. I've had a nagging little question in my mind since early on in this sage, as to whether Silsby may have been encouraged into this particular type of scam by someone more sophisticated than she is, who is a "pro" in the international adoption industry, and who is laying very very low. With DHS involved, I think that will be discovered if it's the case.

 

[Texas Mist]

U.S. government denies ‘malicious intent’ on part of American missionairies imprisoned in Haiti

By Jon Ward - The Daily Caller 02/10/10 at 3:44 pm

The U.S. government has determined that the 10 American Baptist missionaries detained by the Haitian government on kidnapping charges and held in squalid conditions without medical care for days had no “malicious intent” in trying to take 33 Haitian children out of the country following the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

“Our judgment is that these were people that did not have malicious intent,” said a senior State Department official, who spoke about the government’s unofficial but “prevailing view” on the condition that he not be named.

“Most people that have looked into this particular case have come away with the impression that these were well intending people who, unfortunately, did not follow the established procedure that is a matter of not only Haitian practice but international practice,” he said.

The comments mark the first time that the U.S. government has in any way cleared the missionaries of the unspoken question around whether they were taking the children out of Haiti to sell them into some form of slavery, be it sexual, physical or some other form.

Nonetheless, the official said, the State Department also believes the 10 Baptist missionaries “have clearly done some things that have violated Haitian law.”

“Somebody can’t just swoop in, scoop up 30 children, many of whom may not have actually been orphans, and waltz out of the country, and that country should be agnostic to whether that has happened or not,” the official said. “I would be astounded if you were thinking that any sovereign country does not have a right to stand up and enforce its laws, even under the most dire of circumstances. Otherwise you have chaos.”

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley would confirm only that the State Department has tried to determine the motive of the 10 Americans, but would not discuss the finding.

“We have done our own background search to try to ascertain who these people are and what their affiliation is,” he said. “We have looked into this group to find out whatever we can about their background and their prior involvement in international adoptions.”

more here

http://dailycaller.com/2010/02/10/u...f-american-missionairies-imprisoned-in-haiti/

I get the feeling these statements are purely political in purpose, IYKWIM. Sounds like spin to me.

Saying that the Baptist 10's intentions weren't malicious, but 'hey, they broke the law...Haiti has to do what Haiti has to do'.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

Pink, Check out this new video where the police officer talks about catching them ALL on the bus. He speaks english right in their presence so the volunteers must have known from him of the illegality, not just Silsby knowing. Looks bad for the bunch.

There no longer seems to be a video link on there, just the article (though there's still a heading indicating that there was a video). At any rate, from the article, it's clear that this was the second time the group got stopped at the border with a busload of children. There's no question that at that point the rest of the group learned that Haiti regarded their activity as illegal, because they were promptly arrested. But it's still not clear that they realized that earlier.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

The volunteers may have been of good heart but in law the good heart defense seldom works. The reasonable man standard is the rule. . . . Good faith may be offered in mitigation at sentencing. That's all it is good for.

I have no idea how the Haitian legal system approaches this issue, but since it's fundamentally a "guilty until proven innocent" system, I wouldn't assume that English common law concepts like the "reasonable man" standard would be part of the system. But even in our system, "intent" is a critical element of many crimes (probably, most, in fact, except for a few special cases where statutory law has superseded the common law and created a "strict liability" provision).

Please report to the nearest law school for training in the defense bar.

Re law school, been there, done that, don't care to do it again thanks. Re defense bar, never considered it, and never would consider it except perhaps when I'm old and retired, on a pro bono basis, for very specific types of cases which look *nothing* like this one. Personally, I'm quite satisfied with the legal services (and jail accommodations) these 8.5 dimwits and 1.5 criminals are currently receiving.

 

[truckbomb]

Once again, you are correct Pink. Who knows what standard the Napoleonic Code provides in a reason to know setting?

I should have known from your postings that you were already at the Bar. As for “Old and Retired”, that is a good description of Ol’ Truck.

Let’s see where the evidence takes us. I am betting that Silsby’s Business Plan did not include actually building the DR and Idaho orphanages but rather these never-to-be-funded projects, existing only in the form of inexpensive corporate filings, were the paper excuse to be used if she was caught in trafficking the children.

Silsby, by my working hypothesis, was out to peddle kids for adoption at $10,000 per head minimum. The math working out for 100 kids would put her back in the black.

 

[Missizzy]

Has anyone ever determined just what role the eight followers of Silsby and Coulter planned to play? I fail to see the need for such a large group to descend on a country in crisis. Surely they all couldn't have intended to stay for months or years, did they? Do we know if they all had return tickets? I think you must to even be allowed in.

I have a strong suspicion, though, that Silsby, had no intention of using hers. She had far too many "woes" here in the US to want to come back. I think she truly intended to set herself up on the Mother Superior of an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. She'd visited last year and the whole plan met her needs like a glove. It would be tough for the US courts to extradite her due to low end level financial suits (and not too popular with the Christians). Because, remember, she'd be caring for all these needy children and helping match them up with adoptive parents, who could stay in their oceanfront "Adoption Suites" and leave their checks at the front desk.

BTW, is there a degree in social work that I've missed? That would come in handy, as would a working knowledge of the language and culture.

So what did these others plan to do? Guides and translators are available at every street corner. If Coulter didn't even take enough insulin, surely she wasn't planning on staying for long. Or did she think she'd just buy more at the Walgreen's? (I have a hard time buying that an insulin dependent diabetic went a week without insulin. She'd be in ketoacidotic shock by then.) I really want to know how each of these followers defined their role.

And concerning the Pickett family. I still strongly suspect that Silsby had every intention of transporting those kids over the border (somehow) and bilking the Picketts out of money for their "care" and "rescue".

This is why I have to agree with Pink that there might be someone behind the scenes with a finger in all this. The recent spin article which TM just posted makes me worry even more.

 

[i.b.nora]

U.S. government denies ‘malicious intent’ on part of American missionairies imprisoned in Haiti

By Jon Ward - The Daily Caller 02/10/10 at 3:44 pm

The U.S. government has determined that the 10 American Baptist missionaries detained by the Haitian government on kidnapping charges and held in squalid conditions without medical care for days had no “malicious intent” in trying to take 33 Haitian children out of the country following the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

“Our judgment is that these were people that did not have malicious intent,” said a senior State Department official, who spoke about the government’s unofficial but “prevailing view” on the condition that he not be named.

“Most people that have looked into this particular case have come away with the impression that these were well intending people who, unfortunately, did not follow the established procedure that is a matter of not only Haitian practice but international practice,” he said.

The comments mark the first time that the U.S. government has in any way cleared the missionaries of the unspoken question around whether they were taking the children out of Haiti to sell them into some form of slavery, be it sexual, physical or some other form.

Nonetheless, the official said, the State Department also believes the 10 Baptist missionaries “have clearly done some things that have violated Haitian law.”

“Somebody can’t just swoop in, scoop up 30 children, many of whom may not have actually been orphans, and waltz out of the country, and that country should be agnostic to whether that has happened or not,” the official said. “I would be astounded if you were thinking that any sovereign country does not have a right to stand up and enforce its laws, even under the most dire of circumstances. Otherwise you have chaos.”

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley would confirm only that the State Department has tried to determine the motive of the 10 Americans, but would not discuss the finding.

“We have done our own background search to try to ascertain who these people are and what their affiliation is,” he said. “We have looked into this group to find out whatever we can about their background and their prior involvement in international adoptions.”

more here

http://dailycaller.com/2010/02/10/u...f-american-missionairies-imprisoned-in-haiti/

I get the feeling these statements are purely political in purpose, IYKWIM. Sounds like spin to me.

Saying that the Baptist 10's intentions weren't malicious, but 'hey, they broke the law...Haiti has to do what Haiti has to do'.

I am suspicious of the statements as well, but possibly for different reasons. First of all, the Daily Caller is the only 'news' outlet reporting this. Second, it has a 'manufactured sound' to me. The quotes from the senior official sound made up. Third, the reporter was formerly with The Washington Times, that decidedly right-wing Moonie paper and not unknown to have published pure fantasy. Fourth, Tucker Carlson, half owner. You know, the bow-tie guy.
Anyhow, its just ringing hollow to me.

 

[Missizzy]

Truckbomb--If I might add, no adoption from Haiti (that I'm aware of) comes in at less than $12-20,000/not including travel. Besides not having the appropriate paperwork (like none!!), she also didn't have a license to run an orphanage or to work with the US or any other country placing children. You can't just hang out a shingle. Although, Silsby must have thought so.

 

[Blue_Dolphin308]

They are being released. Its on msnbc homepage. Can't link sorry

 

[Texas Mist]

I just got a tweet saying that Reuters is reporting a Haiti judge has decided to release the Baptist 10.

Still looking for an online article.

 

[i.b.nora]

Haiti judge to free U.S. missionaries in kidnap case

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - A Haitian judge has decided to release 10 U.S. missionaries accused of kidnapping 33 children and trying to spirit them out of the earthquake- stricken country, a judicial source said on Wednesday.

The source said the missionaries, who have been in jail since they were stopped at Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic on January 29, could be released as early as Thursday.

"The order will be to release them," the source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. The decision has not yet been made public.

"One thing an investigating judge seeks in a criminal investigation is criminal intentions on the part of the people involved and there is nothing that shows that criminal intention on the part of the Americans," the source said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61960R20100210

That's all it says, so far. We shall see.