OHIO
Columbus Dispatch

CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio priest took a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia and raped him more than two decades ago, a federal prosecutor told jurors yesterday. The defendant’s attorney denied that the boy even made the trip.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Oakley and the attorney for Robert Poandl offered their closing arguments in the trial of Poandl, from the suburban Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners.

The Roman Catholic priest has pleaded not guilty to a charge of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex.

Defense attorney Stephen Wenke told jurors that the allegations are false and that the priest did not take the boy on the trip to Spencer, W.Va., in August 1991.