Catholic school sued for Haiti sex abuse

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BRIDGEPORT, Conn., July 18 (UPI) -- Former students at a school in Haiti run by a Jesuit university say they were sexually abused by the school's director for years.

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut names Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn., the Society of Jesus and the Rev. Paul Carrier, a former Fairfield chaplain now living in Weston, Mass., the Boston Globe reports. More than 20 plaintiffs say the university, Carrier and others ignored the actions of Douglas Perlitz, a Fairfield alumnus who headed Project Pierre Toussaint in Cap-Haitien.

Perlitz, 42, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in 2010 in federal court in Connecticut to molesting students at the Haitian school.

Stanley Twardy Jr., a lawyer representing Fairfield, said Perlitz did not work for the university. He expects Fairfield to be dropped from the case.