UNITED STATES
The Huffington Post
September 21, 2018
By Carol Kuruvilla
Arthur J. Perrault, who spent 26 years as a fugitive, now faces child sex abuse charges in New Mexico.
A Roman Catholic priest who vanished in 1992 amid allegations of child abuse was extradited to the U.S. from Morocco this week to face federal charges.
Arthur J. Perrault, 80, was arrested Thursday in New York on seven counts of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact with a minor, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico.
The alleged abuse of an unnamed victim happened between 1991 and 1992 at the Santa Fe National Cemetery and Kirtland Air Force Base ― where Perrault was a chaplain, The Associated Press reports.
If convicted of the aggravated sexual abuse charges, Perrault could face lifetime imprisonment.
The former priest served in New Mexico under the Archdiocese of Santa Fe from 1973 to 1992. He disappeared just days before a lawyer filed two lawsuits claiming that Perrault had sexually assaulted seven children at a local parish.
Before he worked in the Santa Fe archdiocese, Perrault spent time at a treatment center for pedophile priests in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. He was sent to the center in 1965, after allegedly abusing young men while working in the Archdiocese of Hartford in Connecticut.
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