WAUSAU (WI)
Wausau Daily Herald
February 7, 2019
By Laura Schulte
Nearly nine years after victims first told police that Thomas Ericksen molested them when they were children, the former Wisconsin priest is behind bars as four sexual-assault cases against him make their way through the legal system.
The allegations were initially met with inaction and delays by law enforcement, but there have been many new developments in recent weeks as more victims have come forward.
Here’s what we know so far about Ericksen:
Police knew about Ericksen’s actions in the town of Winter since 1983
Ericksen was ordained in the early 1970s and served as a priest in Eagle River, Merrill, Winter and other parishes. The Sawyer County Sheriff’s Department first investigated the priest in 1983, but ended up releasing him to then-Bishop of Superior George Albert Hammes after Ericksen confessed to investigators that he “had a problem.”
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