Texas Jury Convicts Anthony Odiong of Sexual Assault

A Texas jury convicted Anthony Odiong on Friday of first- and second-degree sexual assault charges in Waco, Texas. The jury reached its verdict after about two hours of deliberation following a four-day trial. The conviction stems from testimony by two women identified in court as Mary Doe and Jane Doe.

Prosecutors Ryan Calvert and Liz Buice also established that Odiong fathered a child in 2023 with a congregant he met while providing religious counseling in Luling, Louisiana. Sentencing is scheduled to begin on Monday. Odiong faces up to life imprisonment.

Hadassah Doe, the first woman to publicly accuse Odiong, issued a statement on Saturday. “I’m grateful to the jury for listening to the evidence and seeing the truth,” she said. ” Hadassah Doe met Odiong in the spring of 2007 while he studied for a theological master’s degree at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.

She said he positioned himself as her spiritual counselor and initiated a years-long physical relationship. She mostly cut off contact in late 2018. In 2019, Hadassah Doe contacted the New Orleans archdiocese’s telephone number for abuse claimants and spoke with a detective from the sheriff’s office that patrols Luling, Louisiana.

Neither the authorities nor the church took action at that time. The New Orleans archdiocese suspended Odiong in December 2023 over clerical misconduct with multiple women. Hadassah Doe and Jane Doe’s accounts were reported by the Guardian and WWL Louisiana that month.

Jane Doe met Odiong in Waco in 2010. Catholic church officials in charge of Waco-area clergymen informed her that they banned Odiong no later than 2019 from ministering in and around Waco over misconduct allegations. Church officials privately notified their New Orleans counterparts of the ban in 2019.

Mary Doe brought a copy of the Guardian’s reporting to Waco police. She reported that her sexual relationship with Odiong started in 2008 and continued until after a family party in 2011, when her son walked in on them having sex and told a neighbor. The neighbor reported Odiong to local church officials in 2011.

Mary Doe testified that she did not know Hadassah Doe or others who had spoken to authorities about Odiong. The eight women and four men on the jury convicted Odiong on charges related to Mary Doe and Jane Doe. The New Orleans archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020.

In December, the archdiocese and its insurers agreed to pay $305 million to hundreds of abuse survivors. Payouts were not expected to begin until the fall.

In her claim, she wrote: “The abuse has completely ruined my life and self-confidence.