Another Sex Scandal overshadows the Catholic Charities/Haitian Multi-Service Center

By Jesse Blo

The allegation that one of the higher ranking employee’s of the Haitian Multi-Service Center has sexually harassed and abused several of his female clients and used his office at the Catholic Center for personal sexual activities, was confirmed last week by at least three employees of the Haitian-Multi Service Center. The Haitian community is deeply disturbed by these allegations and have called for a thorough investigation.

This shocking story unraveled last month when a woman of Hyde Park claimed to be the victim of ongoing sexually aggressive behavior of a higher-ranking employee, well known as a sex addict and a deranged man. Numerous former and current employees of the Haitian Multi-Service Center have sustained the same claim and appear very upset when trying to explain the incidents of one of their colleagues who often portrays himself as a pimp and continues to sexually harass clients of the center.

A female employee explained to mattapanonline.org how innocent refugees and other clients of the center have become victims of abuse of power when they come in search of assistance at this Catholic Charities Service located at 12 Bicknell Street in Dorchester.

This situation began in 1990 when a young refugee alleged that she was assaulted by this same employee, but the fact that this employee was the best friend of the then executive director and godfather of his daughter, this deranged man benefited special treatment and never faced the consequences of his action.

When Pierre Imbert became executive director after months of social turmoil and unrest by refugees and other high profile community activists, many Haitians in Dorchester and Mattapan, especially the refugees, openly expressed their hopes to see the new management crackdown on corruption and clean-up the center. However, the best employees left, and the most corrupted remained and have been promoted by the new administration. Years later, Pierre Imbert has turned a blind eye to corruption and offensive sexual behavior.  He has managed to keep his job regardless of the condition of the institution, by accommodating the loudest activists and powerful board members with special favors.  The trust that began to emerge within the Haitian community pertaining to this community center has vanished.

The Haitian Multi-Service Center is being held hostage by big donors and a rubber stamp board who doesn’t really care about this noble institution that was initially created for a good cause: Assisting new Haitian immigrants to integrate in the mainstream America. 

The Haitian Multi-Service Center was a community effort where professionals and students used to volunteer their time for a well-deserved community service, now the Haitian Center has become a giant corrupt bureaucracy where employees are being honored for their gross incompetence and for their loyalty to politicians and their executive director. Job skills, the most important need for this community, is being ignored and to date, the Haitian Multi-Service Center does not have any serious program to prepare new Haitians for the job industry.

The salary platform of the Haitian Multi-Service Center varies from $35k to 50k.  Adding petty cash and other fringes benefits, the executive director of the Haitian Multi-Service Center earns 65-75K a year.  Meanwhile, the standard education of a Haitian Multi-Service Center employee is a high school diploma, only a few employees have some college education and only two or three employees have a college degree.

The Haitian Multi-Service Center is not open to new ideas and never advertises open positions, nor opens contract bids to the Haitian community. Hiring is done on a friendship basis among the best friends of the executive director and Dr. Roger Jean-Charles, the president-for-life of the board who is also a large donor to the Catholic Charities.

Pierre Imbert has failed to bring trust back to this Catholic-sponsored institution. 

According to a program manager at the same center, this sex addict is known by his peers as a rattlesnake for his skilled way of using his position to manipulate clients of the center and spreading false allegations against other community and business leaders to satisfy his greedy interests.

The story began to develop after the deranged man deliberately launched a malicious attack against a business leader who represents the conservative wing of the Haitian community.

A female employee of the Haitian-Multi Center alleged that Mr. Imbert is aware that his top aide is using his office at the Haitian Multi-Service Center for personal sexual activities and this immoral and unacceptable action was brought to his attention several times. Pierre Imbert was contacted by mattapanonline.org in relation to these allegations; however, he has not returned the call.

Another employee of the Center overheard two prostitutes bragging about their sexual encounter with the ‘super’ employee and made comment about the size of his penis just after they left his office.

Marie, a 50-year-old woman of Hyde Park and mother of three recalled the day she went to the Haitian Multi-Service Center in 1990 to ask for help to apply for food stamps and she was placed under pressure to perform oral sex on this manager. She stated that she was threatened that she would lose her benefits if she refused.

Bernadette, a 38-year-old woman from Somerville, went to the Haitian Multi-Service Center to get a job referral when this so-called case manager grabbed her behind while she was about to leave his office.

The estranged wife of a social worker at the Haitian Multi-Service Center alleged that this case manager sexually harassed her while she was at his office for only a few minutes.

According to Michel Roi, who led the investigation for mattapanonline.org, the deranged man arrived in Boston as a child; he dropped out of high school when he was 17. At 19-years he disguised himself as a gay prostitute and began a career as a male stripper at a nightclub in Boston.  His brother advised him to apply for training at OIC, unfortunately he failed the GED test several times and he was unable to attend this vocational training center.

One of his admirers helped him to secure a position as parking attendant in one of the luxurious Boston hotels. He was forced to leave after his promotion to the position of assistant clerk because of lack of competency.

Finally, he was boosted to a position at the Haitian Multi-Service Center. Rattlesnake got along with Jean-Marc Jean Baptist, the former executive director of the Haitian Multi-Service Center and became his best friend; he was then favored to a better position.

The list of victims who were allegedly raped, sexually assaulted or harassed by this manager has reached 25 by Friday, June 13 2003. Mr. Jacques Dady Jean, the chairman of the Haitian-American Political Action Committee said that he is troubled by the allegations and urged Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese to investigate the allegations and take the necessary steps to stop this manager from attacking any more victims.

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