ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Associated Press
April 4, 2019
By Morgan Lee
A New Mexico man counted scores of instances Thursday of sexual abuse by a former Roman Catholic priest in the early 1990s, testifying that the then-pastor inappropriately touched him at an amusement park, church rectory, military base and veterans’ cemetery when he was as young as 10 years old.
The testimony came during a federal jury trial in Santa Fe for Arthur Perrault, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact.
He was accused in court of abusing the witness at each of the locations in New Mexico. However, the federal charges only stem from abuse that authorities say occurred at Santa Fe National Cemetery and Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque — two military sites that fall under federal jurisdiction.
Now 81, Perrault entered and left the courtroom with the aid of a walker, and used a hearing device to listen to his accuser’s testimony. He returned six months ago to the United States from Tangier, Morocco — where authorities say he had been teaching for more than a decade at an English-language school for children before he was arrested.
Merrica Heaton, a consular official for the U.S. State Department, told jurors she had visited Perrault in January 2018 inside a Moroccan jail. She was checking on Perrault’s well-being after his detention by local authorities in response to an Interpol warrant.
She testified that Perrault volunteered to tell her without being asked that he was surprised and unhappy to learn the U.S. government still was pursuing him for transgressions decades ago. A defense attorney for Perrault pressed Heaton on whether “transgressions” referred to any specific allegations of sexual abuse against Perrault or specific victims.
“He admitted to — I don’t know what specific acts — but misconduct involving young boys,” responded Heaton, who said that the conversation left a lasting impression because of her own Roman Catholic upbringing. “You can’t un-hear that.”
In response to a civil case filed against him, Perrault said in a 2016 letter to a New Mexico judge that he denied abuse allegations.
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