Former priest Thomas Ericksen pleads not guilty to charges of molesting four boys

WAUSAU (WI)
Wausau Daily Herald

March 4, 2019

By Laura Schulte

A former Wisconsin priest accused of molesting several boys in the 1980s has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

According to online court records, Thomas Ericksen entered pleas of not guilty in the four open cases against him in Sawyer County. He is facing two charges of second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious victim, one count of first-degree sexual assault of a child and one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child.

Ryan Reid, Ericksen’s defense attorney, did not return a phone call from USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin on Friday, requesting comment on the pleas.

Ericksen, 71, is being held in the Sawyer County Jail in Hayward on a combined $510,000 bond in all four cases. The charges stem from his time at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in the town of Winter, Wisconsin, where he served as a priest from 1982 until 1983. Victims went to investigators in 2010 and 2011, alleging that they were abused by the former priest. Charges were filed against him in November 2018, two weeks after USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin filed open records requests with the Sawyer County district attorney seeking investigative documents.

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