GA - Third Poandl Victim Comes Forward

• 3rd victim of pedophile priest files police report
• Separate abuse allegation led to his ouster in Feb.
• Cleric is accused for the third time in three years
• As recently as 2010, priest was put back into Georgia parish
• Victims will hand out fliers &deliver letter to Atlanta’s archbishop
• “Accused predator should be put in treatment center,” group says
• SNAP: “Catholic officials should help get child molesting cleric prosecuted”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will prod Georgia Catholic officials to
-- Widely publicize the latest child sex abuse allegations against a recently-ousted priest,
-- Put the cleric in a secure treatment center, so that kids will be safer,
-- Personally visit each place where he worked and reach out to any other victims, and
-- Beg anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered his crimes to contact law enforcement.

They will also provide copies of a new police report filed by the priest’s most recent victim.

DATE
Wednesday, August 22nd,

PLACE/TIME
Noon - outside the Christ the King Cathedral, 2699 Peachtree Road Northeast (corner
of Peachtree Way NE) in Atlanta

AND--
1:45 p.m. - outside the Atlanta Archdiocese headquarters, 2401 Lake Park Dr. S.E., Smyrna, GA

WHO
Two or three members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org)

WHY
Earlier this year, for the second time in three years, Fr Robert F. Poandl was suspended from Georgia Catholic parishes because of alleged child sex crimes. Now, an Atlanta area man is reporting that he too was sexually violated by the cleric and has filed a police report.

A victims’ group wants Georgia church officials to “stop being passive and start being compassionate” by seeking out others who’ve been hurt by the cleric.

Poandl’s most recent assignments were in Claxton, Pembroke, and Sandhill in the Savannah diocese (September 2010 to February 2012). But Poandl also worked in two towns in the Atlanta archdiocese (Blairsville from 1982-88 and Dahlonega from 1980-81).

In February 2012, he was sent back from Georgia to the Cincinnati area where he worked once - by his direct supervisor, Father Chet Artysiewicz, who heads a Fairfield, OH-based Catholic religious order called the Glenmary Home Missioners. In 2010, Poandl was accused of molesting a Cincinnati boy in West Virginia in 1991. A criminal case involving those allegations was dropped after a judge questioned some of the evidence. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2010/07_08/2010_08_30_Clevenger_RoaneJudge.htm

SNAP wants Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory and Savannah Bishop Gregory Hartmayer to insist that Poandl be put in a secure treatment center away from kids and aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered his alleged crimes. The group also wants top Catholic officials to prod anyone with information or suspicions about Poandl to contact police so that he could be prosecuted.

In March, 2010, SNAP wrote to Archbishop Gregory (and several other bishops) urging them to use their diocesan websites, newspapers, and parish bulletins to urge other victims and witnesses to contact law enforcement. Had Gregory and Glenmary officials done this, SNAP suspects, other Poandl victims might have stepped forward sooner and the alleged child molesting cleric would likely have been kept away from children sooner.(Only the Tyler TX bishop honored SNAP’s request.)

Besides Ohio and Georgia, Poandl worked in Kentucky (Franklin), Louisiana (New Orleans), Pennsylvania (Mifflintown and Doylesburg), Mississippi (Aberdeen), Oklahoma (Hugo) and Texas (Pittsburgh and Mount Vernon). He is originally from Metuchen, N.J. and studied in Ohio, Indiana and Mexico.

A photo of Poandl is available at BishopAccountability.org

CONTACT
Judy Block Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511, [email protected] ,Barb Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP Outreach Director, 314-503-0003, [email protected]