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| Rev. Robert Poandl: Jury Begins Deliberations in Priest's Sexual Abuse Trial
By Greg Noble
WCPO
September 20, 2013
http://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/butler-county/fairfield-township/rev-robert-poandl-jury-hears-closing-arguments-may-start-deliberations-thursday-afternoon
[with video]
NOTE: Graphic details were discussed during testimony that may be difficult to read or considered inappropriate.
CINCINNATI – The jury in Rev. Robert Poandl’s sexual abuse trial resumes deliberations in federal court Friday morning with the task of weighing the accuser’s startling testimony against the defense’s claim that the former drug user made it all up.
The eight women and four men heard a 32-year-old man testify that Poandl sodomized him in a West Virginia church rectory when he was 10 years old in 1991. The man said he suffered nightmares after the attack, experimented with LSD and cocaine, got hooked on Oxycodone and plotted to kill the priest and commit suicide.
During closing arguments, the U.S. attorney said Poandl groomed his victim's family by giving them money and earning their trust with the intent to molest the boy.
The defense argued that the trip to West Virginia never happened, attacking the accuser's drug use and credibility.
Poandl, of Fairfield-based Glenmary Home Missioners, faces one count of transportation of a minor across state lines for illicit purposes.
Outside the courtroom, Poandl’s brothers, David and Edward, said they think their brother is innocent and they are standing by him during these "dark times."
Judy Jones, Midwest director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, attended the trial all week and said she thought the verdict "could go either way."
"I know that the jurors have to go by the laws they are instructed, and so they have to go in there not having their own bias. So when it comes down to it, it could go either way, you never know," she said.
The defense called four witnesses Thursday to try to cast doubt on the accuser’s testimony.
Gail Stone and her husband John Stone, members of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Spencer, W.Va., said they didn't remember seeing a boy with Poandl there in 1991.
Gail, the church organist, testified that she remembered playing for Poandl when he said Sunday Mass. That would have been on Aug. 4, 1991, the morning after the alleged attack. The accuser testified that he served Mass for Poandl.
Defense: “Do you remember Bob Poandl?”
Gail Stone: “Yes. I didn't remember his name, but when I saw a picture of him I remembered him.”
Defense: “Did he bring a boy with him?”
Gail Stone: “No.”
Defense: “Would that have been significant if a priest brought a child with him?”
Gail Stone: “Yes.”
Defense: "Do you remember talking to Bob Poandl about the music before Mass?"
Gail Stone: "Yes."
On cross examination, Gail Stone acknowledged the organist sat at a 90-degree angle to the altar and the servers sat several steps down from the altar.
Prosecutor: "So if someone was sitting in the back you may not see them?"
Gail Stone: "Yes."
John Stone said he been on parish council and was head of finance and the church renovation project in 1998 and 1999.
Stone testified that some of the church features were not as the accuser had described them.
He said he wasn’t sure if he remembered Poandl and he testified he didn’t remember the boy.
Prosecutor: “Did you go to church every Sunday?”
John Stone: “Well, I wouldn't say that but almost every Sunday.”
Prosecutor: “Did you go to church on Aug. 4, 1991?”
John Stone: “Yes. My wife was playing that weekend.”
Prosecutor: “Do you remember Bob Poandl coming to the church?”
John Stone: “I think so, but I'm not sure. It was 22 years ago.”
Judith Hawkins, accounting manager at Glenmary Home Missioners, said Glenmary records show that Poandl was driving a Glenmary vehicle when he and the boy drove to Spencer on Aug. 3, 1991. Poandl paid $100 at the end of the month for gas and wear and tear, she testified.
Hawkins said the records showed that Glenmary had only trucks and vans at the time.
The accuser and his mother testified that Poandl picked up the boy in a sedan at his Price Hill home.
On cross examination, the prosecutor pointed out that the Glenmary vehicle records were from 1993 – two years after the trip.
Another witness, James Greathouse, was a former employee at Queen Bee Diner in Spencer.
The accuser told jurors that he remembered having steak and eggs at the Queen Bee Diner the morning after the alleged attack.
Greathouse testified they never served eggs and didn't open until 11 a.m. on weekends.
On cross examination, the prosecutor showed Greathouse a menu:
Prosecution: “When did the Queen Bee open?
Greathouse: “10 a.m. during the week, 11 a.m. on weekends.”
Prosecution: “Queen Bee serve a steak sandwich?”
Greathouse: “Yes.”
Prosecution: “Can I get a side with that, like fries?”
Greathouse: “Yes.”
Prosecution: “Has the menu ever changed?”
Greathouse: “No. People don't like change.”
Prosecution: “Can you go up a block to another cafe?”
Greathouse: “Yes.”
Prosecution: “So if someone came to the Queen Bee and it was closed and or they wanted breakfast, they could go up a block to another cafe?”
Greathouse: “Yes.”
On Wednesday, the accuser said Poandl “screwed up my life by
raping me.”
"I wanted to go and kill him, punish him for what he's done," the accuser said.
The accuser testified he never told anyone about the attack for 18 years.
"I didn't tell a single human being until 2009," he said.
He said he felt helpless. He worried that Poandl could hurt other kids, but he feared what he would go through if he brought charges against a priest.
He testified that he tracked down Poandl online and discovered he was at a mission in Georgia.
Prosecution: “You were going to hunt down the defendant and take his life?
Accuser: “Yes.”
Prosecution: “Did you contemplate suicide?”
Accuser: “Yes.”
Prosecution: “Did you write a note?
Accuser: “Yes.”
He testified that he had a 12 gauge shotgun, directions and his car packed.
But he finally told his fiancee and his mother about the attack, the accuser said. His parents came to his home and he gave them the shotgun and the suicide note, he said.
Later that year, the accuser pressed charges against Poandl in West Virginia.
Prosecution: “Did you ever file a lawsuit against Glenmary?”
Accuser: “No.”
Prosecution: "Against the Catholic Church?
Accuser: “No.”
Prosecution: “Against Father Poandl?”
Accuser: “No.”
“All I want is for him to be in a prison and to protect other kids, that's what I want," the accuser said.
The accuser said Poandl attacked him after he fell asleep in a rectory bedroom.
"I awoke and he was sodomizing me. I cried out, ‘What are you doing to me?’" the accuser said.
"He replied, 'We're having sex.'"
When they retired for the night, the accuser and Poandl took separate beds in the same bedroom, he said.
He testified that he woke up a first time and Poandl was fondling him.
“He had his hand in my pants fondling my genitals," the accuser said.
He said he asked Poandl what he was doing and Poandl said was checking to see if he was wearing underwear.
The accuser testified that Poandl went back to his bed, but he awoke again to find Poandl sodomizing him.
Prosecution: “Was your underwear off?”
Accuser: “Yes.”
Prosecution: "Were you on your stomach or your back?”
Accuser: “Stomach.”
The prosecution asked what the accuser did then.
"I just sat there and got raped," he said.
Prosecution: "Did he finish?"
Accuser: “Yes.”
Afterward, the accuser said, Poandl stood up, held out his hands and repeated, "I did a bad thing."
“You sinned and I sinned. We need to pray,” Poandl said, according to his accuser.
And they both prayed, the accuser said.
Poandl also told him “this was between you and me and god and that's all that needs to know,” the accuser said.
When the accuser’s mother testified Tuesday, she said she pleaded with her son to go on the overnight trip with Poandl after Poandl had given their struggling family $800 a week earlier.
The woman testified that her son at first refused to go, but she persisted.
"Father Bob has been so good to us,” she recalled telling her son.
The accuser recounted that Wednesday. He said he remembered that it was the “summer before fifth grade.”
He said Poandl showed up at the family’s home on a Saturday afternoon.
His mom asked the boy if he would go on a trip with Poandl because the priest needed someone to keep him awake during the long drive.
The accuser said his teenage brother refused to go and his oldest brother was doing something with school.
“Mom says to me, "He's been very good to us. He's helped us out," the accuser testified.
The accuser testified that the drive was long and boring and he fell asleep.
“Father Bob woke me up and said I was supposed to be navigating,” he testified.
He said everything had seemed normal, but Poandl seemed upset that he had fallen asleep.
The accuser said it was dark when they arrived at the church. He said no one else was staying in the rectory.
The accuser said they stayed in a small upstairs bedroom with two twin beds covered with quilts. There were religious paintings on the walls.
He said Poandl told him to take a shower and afterward he put on a T-shirt and underwear. He said that’s what he usually wore to bed.
On the day after the attack, the accuser said he served as an altar boy while Poandl said Mass.
After the trip, he saw Poandl just two more times and Poandl was standoffish, the accuser said. And he told no one about the attack.
“I was completely humiliated," the accuser said.
He said he started having nightmares in seventh or eighth grade. Once in high school, he started drinking and smoking marijuana, he said.
He said he used drugs because he wouldn’t get nightmares.
He said he played football as a freshman and sophomore but he got kicked off the team for drinking. He was reinstated, but he said he preferred to smoke marijuana and "got lazy."
"I was very good and I threw it all away," he said.
He testified that he went out to dinner with his fiancee on a Saturday night in 2009, and she told him she wanted their kids to be Catholic.
"No way I'm going to raise my kids Catholic," he testified.
He said he was planning to kill Poandl and didn’t want her
mixed up in that, so he broke up with her the next day.
But she texted him all day, he said, and he decided, "I at least owed her the truth."
He told her about the attack that night, he said.
They eventually got back together and plan to get married in June 2014, she testified Tuesday.
On cross-examination, the defense grilled the accuser about his drug use.
The accuser, who works in a pharmacy, said he no longer uses Oxycodone and never worked under influence of drugs.
Defense: “Did you lie to your employer (about your drug use)?”
Accuser: “No, I did not tell I was taking.”
Defense: “Did the thought cross your mind to take pills from the pharmacy?”
Accuser: “I did not steal from the pharmacy.”
Defense: “You told detectives you hadn't committed any felonies?”
Accuser: “No, I didn't think of my past drug use as crimes.”
Former Cincinnati police Lt. Lawrence Handorf appeared as a prosecution witness Wednesday. He said Glenmary Home Missioners hired him in 2009 to look into allegations against Poandl.
He said he interviewed Poandl with his attorney present. He said Poandl acknowledged that he took boys on trips and said he would give them a "Catholic experience."
Handorf said Poandl denied sodomizing the accuser and couldn’t remember if had taken him to West Virginia.
Poandl said he sometimes helped the boy’s family with groceries and possibly money, Handorf said, but when he asked Poandl if he gave them $800, Poandl asked where he would get that kind of money.
Federal prosecutors charged Poandl after a West Virginia state court dismissed sex and assault charges against him in the case in 2010.
Glenmary Home Missioners is standing by Poandl, according to its president, Rev. Chester Artysiewicz. He said he has known Poandl for almost 50 years.
"We are all in favor of the truth. We are praying that the truth is attained," Artysiewicz said in a statement.
Glenmart serves rural communities and is not affiliated with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, according to Glenmary communications director Jean Bach.
In February 2012, Poandl was accused of sexual misconduct and was relieved of his ministerial duties, Bach said. The alleged incident took place nearly 30 years earlier when the victim was a minor, Bach said.
After that accusation, Poandl lived under a safety plan at Glenmary's Fairfield residence and was not allowed to function as a priest or wear the white collar, Bach said.
Poandl was indicted in the West Virginia case 10 months later in November 2012. He was put under house arrest and required to wear an ankle bracelet, which the court monitors, Bach said.
Poandl is prohibited from leaving the Glenmary residence except for legal or medical appointments, Bach said.
He is always accompanied by at least one Glenmarian when he leaves the residence, she said.
Contact: gregory.noble@wcpo.com
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