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

By Laura Schulte
Wausau Daily Herald
March 4, 2019

https://bit.ly/2J1zVjI

Former Catholic priest Thomas Ericksen looks back on the gallery during a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, December 12, 2018, at the Sawyer County courthouse in Hayward, Wis. Ericksen is accused of sexually assaulting three children between June 1982 and April 1983. Photo by Tork Mason

Sawyer County Sheriff's Detective Brian Deyo testifies during a preliminary hearing in the case of former Catholic priest Thomas Ericksen on Wednesday, December 12, 2018, at the Sawyer County courthouse in Hayward, Wis. Photo by Tork Mason

Thomas Ericksen, a former Wisconsin priest, enters the courtroom before a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, December 12, 2018, at the Sawyer County courthouse in Hayward, Wis. Ericksen is accused of sexually assaulting three children between June 1982 and April 1983. Photo by Tork Mason

Sawyer County Circuit Court Judge John Yackel addresses the court during a preliminary hearing in the case of former Catholic priest Thomas Ericksen on Wednesday, December 12, 2018, at the Sawyer County courthouse in Hayward, Wis. Photo by Tork Mason

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.

The Sawyer County Sheriff's Department investigated Ericksen as far back as 1983, when he admitted to investigators that he "had a problem," according to a department report from that year. Instead of seeking criminal charges, the sheriff's office allowed then-Superior Bishop George Albert Hammes to handle the priest, according to the report.

Ericksen also admitted to investigators in 2016 that he had inappropriate contact with boys in Rice Lake and Rhinelander, in addition to Winter, according to court documents. No charges have been filed against him in Rice Lake or Rhinelander.

Based on Ericksen's admissions, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin sources and other documents, the former priest is reported to have had sexual encounters with at least 11 boys in Wisconsin during his time in the clergy.

Ericksen was put on sick leave by the church until 1989, when he was removed from the priesthood. 

In the court documents, Sawyer County sheriff's investigator Bryan Deyo wrote that "a reasonable inference exists that the church knew of the allegations and relocated (Ericksen) on several occasions." Superior Diocese officials have not responded to requests for comment on that allegation. 

Ericksen is also under investigation in an additional case in Sawyer County, in which charges have yet to be filed. Two separate allegations are also be investigated in Lincoln County,  stemming from his time as a chaplain at the former Holy Cross Hospital in Merrill, from 1979 to 1982. No charges have yet been filed in either investigation. 

Ericksen is scheduled to make his next appearance for a status conference in all four cases at 10 a.m. on April 2.