SANTA FE (NM)
New Mexican
Apr 11, 2019
By Rebecca Moss
The verdict issued Wednesday against former Roman Catholic priest Arthur Perrault marked the first time a jury in New Mexico has found a member of the clergy guilty of sex crimes against children.
Legal experts and victims advocates say Perrault’s conviction could mark a new era in how prosecutors try such cases.
While hundreds of civil cases alleging child sexual abuse have been brought against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe over the past several decades — and the archdiocese has admitted at least 78 priests and brothers have been “credibly accused” of abuse — those lawsuits largely have been settled out of court for undisclosed sums, and rarely have priests faced criminal investigations.
“It shows prosecutors that this can be done,” Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall said of Wednesday’s landmark verdict. Hall, who has handled dozens of civil cases alleging child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the state, said, “This case shows you can prosecute a pedophile for childhood sexual abuse decades ago — successfully.”
A 12-member federal jury in Santa Fe found Perrault, 81, guilty of seven counts of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact with a 10-year-old altar boy between 1991 and 1992 at Kirtland Air Force Base and the Santa Fe National Cemetery.
Charges were brought by federal prosecutors because of the location of the crimes.
A sentencing hearing for Perrault, who is in federal custody, has yet to be scheduled, but he could face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
While the criminal case focused on one boy, Perrault was accused of sexual abuse by at least 38 people during his nearly three decades working as a priest in New Mexico. He fled the country in 1992, just days before a lawsuit was filed accusing him of abusing children, and he lived freely for years. He was finally found in 2016 in Morocco, where he was teaching English as a second language at a boys school.
His location became public in a lawsuit brought by Kenneth Wolter, a man in his mid-30s who was awarded $16 million in damages by a New Mexico judge.
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