Cedarburg Priest Placed on Leave Amid Probe of Sex Assault Allegation

By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
September 3, 2015

http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/cedarburg-priest-placed-on-leave-amid-probe-of-sex-assault-allegation-b99570684z1-324437261.html

The pastor at St. Francis Borgia Catholic Parish in Cedarburg has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of an allegation that he sexually abused a minor in 1977, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said Friday.

Archbishop Jerome Listecki said in a letter to parishioners the Rev. Tom Eichenberger has denied the allegation, that it has not been substantiated and that it's the first such complaint the archdiocese had received about the priest.

The allegation stems from a claim filed in its nearly 5-year-old bankruptcy, which accuses Eichenberger of molesting a seventh-grade boy while at Holy Assumption Parish in West Allis, his first assignment after his ordination in 1976. Listecki said the claim did not initially name Eichenberger and that the archdiocese learned only recently that he was the accused.

The archdiocese reported the allegation to the Milwaukee County district attorney's office in August, but it declined to prosecute, saying the alleged incident was beyond the statute of limitations. A private investigator hired by the archdiocese will now investigate and report to the Diocesan Review Board, he said.