HUDSON (WI)
Pioneer Press
BY STEVE SCOTT and KEVIN HARTER
Pioneer Press
Roman Catholic Church officials knew a decade ago of sexual-misconduct allegations against a then-seminarian now presumed to have fatally shot two men in a Hudson, Wis., funeral home, according to court records released this week.
A two-page investigative report by Hudson police outlining the key events in the Rev. Ryan Erickson's life did not offer details about the abuse allegations, and he was not charged.
But court records in testimony Monday before a St. Croix County judge indicated that Vilas County investigators in northern Wisconsin contacted officials at the Diocese of Superior in 1994 about Erickson, who was attending the seminary at St. Mary's University in Winona, Minn.
After an investigation of a sexual-misconduct allegation, which involved an incident at a summer resort frequented by Erickson as a young man, the county informed the diocese no charge would be filed. Bishop Raphael Fliss acknowledged that decision in a letter in July 1994.