Priest challenges conviction in child-sex case

Cincinnati.com
January 21, 2015

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/courts/2015/01/21/priest-sex-abuse/22094981/

The Rev. Robert Poandl.

CINCINNATI — An Ohio priest convicted of taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex in 1991 is challenging his conviction and sentence in a federal court in Southwest Ohio.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati is hearing arguments Wednesday on Robert Poandl's (POHN'-duhl) appeal. He was convicted in 2013 of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex.

Prosecutors said the suburban Cincinnati priest took the boy to Spencer, W.Va., on Aug. 3, 1991, and raped him there.

Poandl belongs to the Glenmary Home Missioners, a Fairfield-based Catholic religious order and is not associated with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

He was relieved of ministerial duties in February 2012.

Poandl argues there is no evidence he took the boy anywhere that day and that jurors were allowed to convict him on speculation that he transported him another day. Poandl also claims prosecutors improperly asked jurors to consider emotional factors rather than evidence.