PASTOR TRIAL: Alleged Victims Testimony Continues

Day three of testimony continued in the trial of 42-year-old Patrick Edouard.

Edouard is charged with 8 counts of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation.

The fourth and final woman to take the stand, echoed what the three others had said before her, Patrick Edouard was the ideal pastor and friend.

“He preached his sermons, they were very interesting, he just seemed like a solid pastor, well-respected,” says one of the women.

The woman who we’re not identifying said she was a married stay at home mom at the time.

She said once she started opening up to Edouard about being sexually abused as a child the two started getting closer.

“It just felt like he was so kind, that he really got me that night, I just gave him so much, and he had such probing and deep questions and I just felt the way he was connecting with me with his eyes, it just felt like it was something really nice,” one woman said.

She went on to say Edouard and her exchanged phone calls back in forth for nearly two years, in which he started to pry into her past sexual experiences and relationship with her husband. She said the two met up several times in person, one of which she said Edouard ripped her pants off and performed oral sex.

However, Edouards defense says what happened between the two wasn’t assault, it was consensual.

The woman and Edouard continued a sexual relationship for a year and half, before Edouards affairs were exposed and he resigned from the church.

Although Edouard asked her to keep their affair a secret, she said she couldn’t take it any longer.

 “it was an emotional turmoil going on, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I was having a hard time functioning,” says the woman.

 The state ended the day by calling a church elder to the stand, who said following the exposure of the affairs, the church stepped into action to help the woman involved.

 “They were open to talk to us, there were many people who were hurting.  Some of their friends were hurting, so there were a lot of tears, a lot of prayer and a lot of heartache,” says church elder Greg Horstman of Pella.

Today wrapped up with the church elder finishing up his testimony on how the congregation handled the alleged assaults.

Horstman said the church offered to provide transportation and even pay for the woman to receive counseling.

The trial will resume first thing Monday morning with the state continuing to call their witnesses to the stand.