7,5 Year Sentence for Priest in W.va. Child Abuse

By Lisa Cornwell
Twinsburg Bulletin
February 12, 2014

http://www.twinsburgbulletin.com/ap%20state/2014/02/12/7-year-sentence-for-priest-in-w-va-child-abuse

CINCINNATI (AP) -- An Ohio priest convicted of taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex more than two decades ago has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.

Robert Poandl (POHN'-duhl) was convicted in September of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex. He could have received up to 10 years.

Prosecutors say the priest from suburban Cincinnati took the boy to Spencer, W.Va., in 1991 and raped him while visiting a church there.

Poandl continued to deny those allegations even as a federal judge sentenced him Wednesday.

The now 32-year-old accuser didn't tell West Virginia law enforcement officials until 2009 that he'd been abused.

The Associated Press generally doesn't identify people who say they were sexually abused.