Ex-Penn prof gets 25 years for child porn, lies

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer Maryclaire Dale, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 29, 4:42 pm ET

PHILADELPHIA – A longtime Ivy League professor preyed on vulnerable teenage boys at home and abroad as he pursued them for sexual encounters and pornographic videos, prosecutors argued at his sentencing Tuesday.

Lawrence Scott Ward, 66, was sentenced to 25 years for manufacturing child pornography and lying to authorities to get one of his young victims into the U.S. He also must pay $100,000 restitution and remain on probation for life.

The former University of Pennsylvania professor already is serving a 15-year sentence for importing the illegal images when he returned from a 2006 trip to Brazil. Defense lawyers called the additional charges excessive.

According to prosecutors, Ward let one teenage victim live at his vacation home in Fortaleza, Brazil, paid for the boy's education and supported his family.

"I want you to know that you and your mom can keep having a good life as long as you keep giving me good things," Ward wrote the 16-year-old victim in a May 2006 e-mail. "(S)how me lots of love and respect especially in bed."

Ward was a marketing professor at Penn's Wharton School of Business when he was arrested returning to the U.S. from Brazil in August 2006. Authorities later found more child pornography in a search of his campus office.

In court papers, prosecutors allege that Ward also has molested boys in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and the Phillipines.

"The defendant has been preying on disadvantaged boys for decades. (He) has spent the last 30 years using his extensive financial resources and his position as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania to induce minors to succumb to his depraved desires," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben wrote.

The airport stop marked Ward's third arrest on child-sex charges.

He was acquitted of sexual-assault charges in Montgomery County in 1995 after a videotape appeared to show the victim extorting him. He received probation after pleading to two misdemeanor charges in 1999, stemming from his alleged solicitation of an undercover trooper.

Defense lawyers pointed out that Ward will be 78 when he finishes serving the 15-year term. Additional time is unnecessary, they argued.

"When is enough, enough?" lawyer Mark Sheppard asked in a defense memo.

Ward told probation officials that he was sexually abused in his youth by an assistant pastor of his Pittsburgh-area church.

A 2002 lawsuit filed in Suffolk County, Mass., alleged that Ward had sexually abused two juvenile offenders in the late 1970s, when he served as a counselor for a nonprofit group, prosecutors said. The suit also accused a Catholic priest assigned to the organization of sexual abuse.

A defense psychologist who evaluated Ward said he is sexually attracted to teens, a condition termed ephebophilia. His lawyer said he is amenable to treatment after three years in prison and has been sufficiently punished.

"His fall from internationally renowned academic to internationally reviled sex offender has been well documented in the press and academic circles," Sheppard wrote.

 

 

Man charged with Haiti sex abuse pleads not guilty

• By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer John Christoffersen, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 8, 5:45 pm ET

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A Colorado man pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges that he sexually abused nine boys at a school he founded in Haiti for poor children.

Authorities accuse Douglas Perlitz of enticing children at the Project Pierre Toussaint school in Cap-Haitien into sex acts by promising them food, shelter, cash, cell phones, electronics, and shoes. They say he also withheld benefits and threatened to expel the boys if they refused his wishes.

Perlitz, 39, who founded the school when he lived in Connecticut, pleaded not guilty in federal court in New Haven to charges of traveling outside the United States to engage in sexual conduct with minors and with engaging in sexual conduct in foreign places with minors. He was arrested last month at his home in Eagle, Colo., and remains in custody.

A bond hearing that began Thursday was reset for Oct. 19. Prosecutors argue in court papers that Perlitz should remain behind bars, saying he poses a "clear and continuing danger" to children.

They characterize him as a sexual predator who used a charitable institution to sexually molest vulnerable children for a decade. They said Perlitz told an investigator that the alleged victims of molestation "need to move on and get over it."

According to the indictment, school volunteers and staff members were afraid to come forward with the allegations because Perlitz controlled the school's operations and "utilized the fear of unemployment and the difficult economic situation in Haiti." The indictment alleges Perlitz used his relationship with a religious leader and board members of a fund maintained by the school's fundraising arm to continue to conceal or try to hide his sexual conduct.

The investigation is continuing, prosecutors say.

According to court filings, Perlitz admitted "some boundaries were crossed" when he allowed children to stay overnight in his room but he denied any sexual contact with minors. The school initially served mostly street children as young as 6 and later grew to include a residential program for high schoolers.

During the bond hearing Thursday, Perlitz attorney William Dow III said his client should be released from prison pending trial. Dow said Perlitz has surrendered his passport and would be monitored electronically if released.

"There's no evidence, no claim that anyone in the United States has been endangered by my client," Dow said. "He is a man not only with a clean record but an admirable record who enjoys the support of many, many people."

Dow offered to pledge properties of Perlitz's relatives worth $1.9 million to $2.3 million to ensure he doesn't flee and proposed that Perlitz stay with a couple at their home in Fairfield.

Magistrate Joan Margolis said she might consider a larger bond of $4 million to $5 million and she raised issues related to the housing arrangement.

Prosecutors argued that electronic monitoring only tells authorities where a person is, not what they are doing.

"There are simply no conditions of release that can assure the safety of children in the community and his appearance in court," prosecutors wrote in court papers.

They cited the length of the alleged crimes, Perlitz' extensive international travel and the access he had to millions of dollars in donations.

Perlitz previously lived in Fairfield County, Conn. Each count in the indictment carries up to 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

 

 

Ex-prep school dean charged with 4th sex assault

• Wed Oct 7, 1:01 pm ET

LITCHFIELD, Conn. – The former dean of an exclusive Connecticut boarding school has been charged with sexually assaulting a fourth student.

Forty-four-year-old Robert Reinhardt, who was fired from The Gunnery school in Washington, Conn., in June, was arraigned Tuesday in Litchfield Superior Court on charges of second-degree sexual assault and giving alcohol to a minor.

State police say the charges involve a man in his early 20s who alleges Reinhardt sexually assaulted him when he was a junior and senior at the school in 2003 and 2004.

Reinhardt, of Telford, Pa., is charged with sexually assaulting three other students.

Reinhardt's lawyer says his client will fight the charges.

The former dean posted another $200,000 bail and is due back in court Oct