Jury deliberating fate of former pastor, alleged rapist Edouard

IOWA
Des Moines Register

Aug 23, 2012 | by Jeff Eckhoff

It’s now up to 12 Dallas County jurors to decide whether former Pella pastor Patrick Edouard is a cold-blooded, manipulative rapist or the victim of rewritten memories recounted by four God-fearing women who later regretted their affairs with him.

Closing arguments ended this afternoon in Edouard’s trial on three counts of sexual abuse, four counts of sexual exploiting women who allegedly sought him out for counseling and one charge that involves engaging in a pattern of those sexually exploitative relationships.

Iowa prosecutors say Edouard, the former pastor of Pella’s Covenant Reformed Church, pursued religious and vulnerable women in his congregation for at least a four-year period that ended in December 2010, when a husband came home early and found the pastor’s van in the driveway.

Authorities say Edouard used a combination of flattery and shows of concern with the women’s personal problems to force himself on them and lure them into consensual affairs.

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