BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

February 3, 2018

By Michael Katz and David Staats

A retired priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Boise was arrested Friday by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Unit for alleged sexual exploitation of a child.

W. Thomas Faucher, 72, was taken to the Ada County Jail after authorities obtained a warrant to search his Boise residence. A tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sparked the investigation, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office said in an after-hours news release.

Faucher’s exact charges were unclear Friday night. The law he’s charged under includes a range of crimes, from possessing or sharing “sexually exploitative material” to actually being involved in creating such materials. Scott Graf, spokesman for the AG’s office, declined to provide clarification.

Gene Fadness, communications director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, told the Statesman that Faucher had not been…