Former Pella Pastor Exploited Women for Sex, Jury Rules

By Jeff Eckhoff
Des Moines Register
August 25, 2012

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120825/NEWS01/308250017/0/HELP/?odyssey=nav|head&nclick_check=1

Former Pella pastor Patrick Edouard illegally exploited his female parishioners for sex, but he never forced sex upon them, a Dallas County jury ruled Friday afternoon.

Edouard, pastor at Pella’s Covenant Reformed Church until his multiple extramarital affairs came to light in December 2010, was convicted Friday of four charges that he violated a law banning sex between people who provide “mental health services” and those who come to seek guidance from them. He was also found guilty of having a pattern or practice of exploitation.

Edouard was acquitted, however, of three more-serious rape charges — apparently because jurors agreed with defense arguments that the women were never physically forced to start the affairs.

Edouard now faces between five and nine years in prison when he’s formally sentenced on Oct. 19. He remains free on $45,000 bond. Neither Edouard nor his victims agreed to comment Friday.

The mixed verdict produced mixed thoughts on both sides: Both sets of lawyers pronounced it a victory, while supporters on both sides left the courthouse visibly emotional.

One Edouard supporter, under the threat of an assault charge, was forced by Dallas County sheriff’s deputies to apologize for grabbing the lens of the WHO-TV camera operator in a rush to drive away.

“Obviously, we disagree with conviction counts but are relieved with the rape counts,” defense attorney Angela Campbell said.

Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown pronounced prosecutors “very, very happy with the verdict that we received” because they show abuse of a counseling relationship on the former pastor’s part.

Iowa authorities said Edouard, now 42, pursued religious and vulnerable women in his congregation during a four-year period that ended in December 2010, when a husband came home early and found the pastor’s van in the driveway in the middle of the day. Testimony during the two-week trial alleged that Edouard used a combination of flattery and concern over the women’s personal problems to force himself on them and lure them into consensual affairs.

“He exploited these women,” Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan told jurors in closing arguments Thursday morning. “He abused their trust, and he abused the trust of an entire congregation that placed him on a pedestal.”

But Campbell insisted that the women’s accounts of their relationships with Edouard weren’t credible and could have resulted from rewritten memories due to multiple conversations among the victims. “Being a victim is easier than being an adulterer,” Campbell said in court. “You can’t place blame on someone who was a victim.”

There is no physical evidence of rape, Campbell told jurors Thursday, and none of the women reported anything to anyone after the incidents. Nor did any of the women make allegations of force until after they learned of the other affairs.

The women testified that they objected to Edouard’s advances, although one acknowledged that she wanted to have sex with him, and one said she sat silently as he performed sexual activity.

Edouard during the trial acknowledged sex with each of his accusers, but insisted that all encounters were voluntary and none involved any type of counseling relationships. Prosecutors said the deeply religious women sought help from Edouard with difficulties that included ailing relatives, stress related to an expected adoption, reports of a husband’s infidelity and a high-maintenance, special-needs child.

“He’s not just one of their friends … he’s the pastor,” Brown told jurors. “They go to him, and he sexually exploits them, and they don’t know what to do.”

The women, through a victim’s advocate, declined to comment Friday. All four reportedly plan to attend an Omaha conference on clergy abuse this weekend.