OHIO
Cincinnati.com
Written by
Amber Hunt
Federal prosecutors plan to allege that a longtime Catholic priest had a history of molesting children before he was accused of taking a Cincinnati boy to West Virginia and assaulting him in 1991, according to a motion filed Friday in U.S. District Court.
In the motion, prosecutors allege that the Rev. Robert F. Poandl molested two young boys over a three-year period beginning in May 1981. Both boys were about 10 years old at the time, according to the filing, and the priest had met the childrens’ parents through Worldwide Marriage Encounters, a program affiliated with the Catholic Church designed to bring husbands and wives closer together.
Jury selection is set to begin Monday in Poandl’s trial, in which he’s accused of transporting another then-10-year-old boy from Cincinnati to Spencer, West Virginia, on Aug. 3, 1991, and assaulting the boy.
The alleged victim is identified only as “D.H.” in the indictment. It’s the policy of The Enquirer not to identify alleged victims of sexual assaults. Poandl couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. He was released on an electronic monitor in November pending trial. He belongs to a Fairfield-based Catholic religious order called the Glenmary Home Missioners and is not associated with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
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