Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, USA · 2019

Pennsylvania: priest David Poulson sentenced — second conviction from the 2018 grand jury report

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic priest, Diocese of Erie

Organization

Diocese of Erie

Spiritual nexus

Poulson used rectory and cabin access granted by his clerical role, and compelled the victim to confess to him after each assault, converting the sacrament of confession into a further instrument of control.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2019-01-11 · guilty plea and sentencing

    Jefferson County Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania, USA. David Lee Poulson pleaded guilty in October 2018 to corruption of minors and child endangerment for sexually assaulting an altar boy in church rectories more than 20 times and abusing two victims at a hunting cabin, then compelling confession afterward. Jefferson County Judge John Foradora sentenced him on January 11, 2019 to two and a half to 14 years in prison; he was later laicized by the Vatican. Second and last conviction produced by the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • rectory access; compelled confession from the victim after each assault

Primary record

Sources

official attorney general press release sentencing announcement Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, 'Catholic priest sentenced to two and a half to fourteen years in prison for sexual abuse and attempted abuse of two boys in Diocese of Erie' (Jan. 2019).

Official AG press release confirming Poulson's plea, sentence and the grand-jury origin of the case.

national newspaper court reporting sentencing report 'Priest who abused boys, made 1 confess, sentenced to prison,' Philadelphia Inquirer (Jan. 11, 2019).

Contemporaneous reporting detailing the confession-compulsion pattern and sentence.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

← Explore all cases