ERIE (PA)
The Associated Press
May 8, 2018
By Claudia Lauer
A Roman Catholic priest was arrested and charged Tuesday with sexually abusing at least two boys during his four decades in the Erie, Pennsylvania, diocese, and making one of them say confession after the alleged assaults.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the arrest of the 64-year-old Rev. David Poulson, of Oil City, as part of a statewide grand jury investigation. According to court records, Poulson is facing at least eight charges, including indecent assault and child endangerment for incidents dating to 2002.
Court records did not list an attorney for Poulson, and a phone call to a number listed for him was not answered Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Poulson, who resigned from the diocese in February, abused one of his victims in multiple church rectories more than 20 times while he served as an altar boy. Poulson would then require the boy to make confession to him and confess the sexual assault to receive absolution.
“This was the ultimate betrayal and manipulation by Poulson — he used the tools of the priesthood to further his abuse,” Shapiro wrote in an emailed release about the charges.
The allegations also state Poulson took that victim and another boy to a secluded hunting camp without electricity or running water, where he would watch horror movies with them on his laptop then assault them.
Prosecutors said the Erie Diocese had received complaints about what they say were Poulson’s “sexual predator tendencies” as far back as 2010, but did not report him to law enforcement until the grand jury issued a subpoena in September 2016.
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