WAUSAU (WI)
Wausau Daily Herald
January 25, 2019
By Laura Schulte
The Catholic Diocese of Superior says it is cooperating with officials investigating the case of a priest accused of assaulting minors the 1980s.
Dan Blank, the diocese’s director of administrative services, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that the diocese was an intermediary in the reporting of a case filed Jan. 11 accusing former priest Thomas Ericksen of sexual assault of an unconscious victim.
Blank said the victim came to the diocese, which immediately recommended contacting law enforcement in Sawyer County.
Ericksen, who is now 71, was arrested on Nov. 16 in Minneapolis. He faces four separate charges stemming from his time at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Winter: two charges of second-degree 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.
Ericksen was a priest in Rice Lake, Rhinelander and Merrill before he transferred to Winter.
Sawyer County investigators, who had looked into complaints about Ericksen in 1983, renewed their probe in 2010 after learning of more alleged assaults. Police obtained a confession from him in 2016, when he admitted to investigators that he had “fondled” three boys in Winter, as well as two boys in other Wisconsin cities, according to the criminal complaint.
The diocese has received a subpoena for documents, according to online court documents.
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