PENNSYLVANIA
Go Erie
May 13, 2018
The Rev. David L. Poulson, a Catholic Diocese of Erie priest, was arrested Tuesday on charges he sexually abused two boys in three counties between 2002 and 2010.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Poulson not only assaulted one of the victims in two church rectories, but also defiled the sacrament of reconciliation by making that boy “confess” the sexual abuse to Poulson, his abuser.
Worse, Shapiro asserted diocesan leaders knew of Poulson’s predatory behaviors eight years ago, but did not alert law enforcement or parishioners or remove him from ministry.
Shapiro said a May 2010 diocesan memo showed that after church officials received a complaint about Poulson’s behavior with minors, Poulson admitted to then-Erie Bishop Donald W. Trautman that his text messages with boys were “suggestive to sexual advances” and that he had been sexually aroused while tutoring a boy. Trautman, Shapiro said, admonished Poulson to stop and returned him to ministry.
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