ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Journal
September 21, 2018
By Colleen Heild
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One of the most notorious of the Roman Catholic priests accused of child sexual abuse in New Mexico, the Rev. Arthur Perrault, is in federal custody today under indictment for repeatedly molesting a boy at Kirtland Air Force Base and at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in the early 1990s.
This afternoon, after 26 years on the lam, the disgraced priest is set to face a U.S. magistrate in Albuquerque on a newly unsealed federal indictment charging him with criminal aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact between 1991 and 1992. Perrault had served as a military chaplain at the time.
His initial appearance set for 3 p.m. today.
At a news conference this morning, U.S. Attorney John C. Anderson and FBI Special Agent in Charge James C. Langenberg said Perrault’s arrest is the culmination of a yearlong, FBI-led investigation that involved authorities in Morocco, who took Perrault into custody last year after he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Albuquerque on seven federal charges.
“This man was widely perceived as mentor to young people and a respected figure in the community,” Anderson said. “Although the indictment alleges that Perrault committed these acts many years ago, this indictment should make clear that the U.S. Attorney’s Office will pursue justice for victims despite the passage of time or the many years that this defendant sought to put between him and these alleged offenses.”
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