OHIO
The Enquirer
Written by
Brenna R. Kelly
A longtime Catholic priest was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison Wednesday after he was convicted last year of taking a Cincinnati boy to West Virginia and sexually assaulting him in 1991.
Rev. Robert F. Poandl, 73, who is dying of cancer, could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett said he took Poandl’s health into consideration when deciding the sentence and recommended that Poandl serve his time in a medical facility.
Federal jurors in Cincinnati found him guilty in September of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent of engaging him in sex.
“He preyed on the weak and the poor, he preyed on children to satisfy his sexual desires,” Poandl’s victim David Harper, now 32, told the judge during the hearing. “It is time for justice to finally be served.”
The Enquirer does not normally identify victims of sexual abuse, but because Harper has stepped forward publicly, we have chosen to do so in this instance.
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