By Nate Reens
Grand Rapids Press
March 20, 2011
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/03/iowa_pastor_who_is_now_living.html
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| Patrick Edouard |
A Byron Township man, once a popular pastor in Pella, Iowa, has been charged with multiple sex crimes alleging he took advantage of his position to assault women who attended his church.
The Rev. Patrick Edouard, 41, was booked in Marion County, Iowa, on the felony counts, jail officials confirmed.
Authorities at the Pella Police Department, which investigated the sexual assault claims, refused to take phone calls on the probe Friday. The county attorney's office also declined to confirm the charges or circumstances surrounding Edouard's arrest. Courthouse clerks on Friday directed all comments to the county attorney's office.
Court records, obtained by the Des Moines Register, show Edouard is accused of three counts of third-degree sexual abuse — which allege he forced three separate women into sex acts in early 2006, August 2007 and April 2008.
Edouard also faces two charges that he used his position as a pastor to exploit two of the women who had sought his counseling. State law forbids relationships between clergy and their members.
Edouard took the helm at Covenant Reformed Church in 2004, according to a newsletter from the Mid-America Reformed Seminary.
The suspect graduated from the Dyer, Ind., seminary in 1998 and served at a Toronto church before going to Pella. Edouard is married and has four children, the newsletter states.
It's not clear what Edouard's connection is to West Michigan.
The Register says Edouard resigned from the Pella church in December.
A television report says Edouard "groomed" the women into compliance and threatened them to say quiet about the alleged intercourse.
E-mail Nate Reens: nreens@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/natereens
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