A Texas jury convicted Roman Catholic priest Anthony Odiong on Friday of adult criminal clergy sexual abuse following a four-day trial in Waco, Texas.
The charges were first- and second-degree sexual assault.
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The twelve-member jury deliberated for about two hours before delivering the guilty verdict for offenses involving two victims.
Odiong faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, with sentencing scheduled to begin on Monday.
The criminal prosecution emerged after multiple women detailed years of manipulation. Authorities alleged Odiong used his position as a spiritual counselor to compel sexual acts.
He also fathered a child in 2023 with a congregant under his religious guidance in Luling, Louisiana.
Hadassah Doe, the first woman to publicly accuse the clergyman, released a statement expressing gratitude.
“I’m grateful to the jury for listening to the evidence and seeing the truth,” she said.
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Doe noted that church leadership in southeast Louisiana failed to intervene despite her prior reports.
“I can only hope he is kept from continuing to use faith as his net, his snare and a tool to manipulate current and future victims,” she added.
She described the revelations from the trial involving other victims as “heartbreaking.”
Doe had filed a financial claim under oath in the 2020 bankruptcy protection case of the New Orleans archdiocese, which recently agreed to a $305 million settlement with hundreds of survivors.
“The abuse has completely ruined my life and self-confidence,” Doe wrote. She said ongoing trauma continues to impact her daily life, including repeated nightmares of Odiong abusing her.
Before the trial, legal representatives and Odiong publicly rejected the allegations. An attorney for Odiong called them “categorically … false” and “outlandish … and unworthy of belief.”
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Odiong himself dismissed the primary accuser as “a mentally unstable woman.”
