Case 2018CF000342 Document 1 STATE OF WISCONSIN Filed 11-16-2018 CIRCUIT COURT STATE OF WISCONSIN Plaintiff, Page 1 of 2 SAWYER COUNTY DA Case No.: 2018SW001275 Assigned DA/ADA: Aaron Marcoux Agency Case No.: 10061006 Court Case No.: ATN: FILED 11-16-2018 Clerk of Circuit Court Sawyer County, Wis. 2018CF000342 vs. THOMAS EDWARD ERICKSEN DOB: 06/17/1947 Sex/Race: M/W Alias: Also Known As Thomas E. Erickson Also Known As Tom Eriksen CRIMINAL COMPLAINT Defendant. For Official Use The undersigned Complainant being first duly sworn, states that: Count 1: 2ND DEG. SEXUAL ASSAULT-AGAINST CHILD The above-named defendant on Friday, September 17, 1982, in the Village of Winter, Sawyer County, Wisconsin, did have sexual contact or sexual intercourse with a person who is over the age of 12 years and under the age of 16 years, contrary to sec. 940.225(2)(e), 939.50(3)(c) Wis. Stats., a Class C Felony, and upon conviction may be fined not more than Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000), or imprisoned not more than ten (10) years, or both. PROBABLE CAUSE: Your Complainant is a deputized law enforcement officer with the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Department. In the summer of 1982, Thomas E. Ericksen (D.O.B. 6/17/1947) became the priest at St. Peter’s Church in Winter, Wisconsin after being reassigned from St. Robert’s Church in Merrill, Wisconsin. While assigned to St. Robert’s as an Associate Pastor, Thomas Ericksen befriended a young altar boy, Victim #1 (D.O.B.: 7/12/1968). Victim #1 explained during an in-person interview with Detective (then Deputy) Thorhaug of the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Department that Victim #1’s father passed away when Victim #1 was four (4) years old. Victim #1 developed a friendship with Thomas Ericksen as Thomas Ericksen became a surrogate father to him. In developing a friendship with Victim #1, Thomas Ericksen would often take Victim #1 to sporting events, the movies and out for pizza. Victim #1 recalled that most of the time Victim #1 and Thomas Ericksen would be alone but sometimes other youths would accompany them. One day Victim #1 went to St. Robert’s to perform his duties as an altar boy and Victim #1 discovered that Thomas Ericksen was gone and no one would tell him why. Victim #1 later learned that Thomas Ericksen was relocated to St. Peter’s Church in Winter, Wisconsin. On Friday, September 17, 1982 Victim #1, Victim #1’s sister and Victim #1’s sister’s friend, all travelled from Merrill, Wisconsin to Winter, Wisconsin so that Victim #1 could visit with his father figure Thomas Ericksen. Victim #1 stated that prior to this visit no one he knew had heard anything about molestation allegations against Thomas Ericksen so there was no apprehension in going to visit him. Victim #1 11/16/2018 Case 2018CF000342 Document 1 STATE OF WISCONSIN - VS - Thomas E Ericksen Filed 11-16-2018 Page 2 of 2 recalled that the three of them arrived at dusk. When Victim #1 arrived at St. Peter’s, Thomas Ericksen decided that Victim #1’s sister and her friend would stay together in the spare room at the rectory and Victim #1 would sleep with Thomas Ericksen, in Thomas Ericksen’s bed in the master bedroom at the rectory. After sleeping arrangements were made, Witness #1 and #2 went to a local tavern. Later in the evening, Victim #1 and Thomas Ericksen went to bed. While preparing for bed, Victim #1 removed his clothing. As Victim #1 entered the bed, Thomas Ericksen turned on something that made the bed vibrate. Thomas Ericksen asked Victim #1 if he liked the vibrations and stated that the motion/vibration of the waterbed might “give you a little boner” as Thomas Ericksen touched Victim #1’s penis on the outside of Victim #1’s underwear. Sometime after Victim #1 had fallen asleep, Victim #1 awoke to Thomas Ericksen’s hand in Victim #1’s underwear, groping his penis. Victim #1 rolled over so that Thomas Ericksen could no longer touch his penis and Thomas Ericksen removed his hand from Victim #1’s underwear. On, June 4, 2016, Detective Gregg Thorhaug and Sheriff Mark Kelsey conducted an in-person interview with Thomas E. Ericksen at his home in Minnesota. During this interview Thomas Ericksen acknowledged fondling five boys while at the St. Peter’s Church in Winter, Wisconsin. When discussing the allegations against him from the victims from the St. Peter Church in Winter, Wisconsin, Thomas Ericksen was asked directly if the allegations against him were accurate. Thomas Ericksen responded by saying “Well, if, if they talk about me fondling, yes.” When asked about the allegations against him while at St. Peter’s in Winter, Wisconsin an article published by FOX NEWS.com on July 19, 2010 from the Associated Press quoted Thomas Ericksen as saying “I just fondled and stuff like that”. A review of Thomas Ericksen’s residential history, confirmed during the in-person interview conducted by Sheriff Kelsey and Detective Thorhaug, show that Thomas Ericksen left the State of Wisconsin almost immediately after molestation incidents in Winter, Wisconsin in 1982 through 1983 and that Thomas Ericksen lived in Minnesota, Missouri, and Indonesia but never returned to Wisconsin to live. All of the above acts of sexual contact occurred in Sawyer County, State of Wisconsin. The information to form this complaint is based upon the information received from Deputy Sheriff Greggory S. Thorhaug and a review of the report from the Sawyer County Sheriff's Department, which the Complainant believes to be reliable as it is based upon the personal observation of the officer filing the report and statements of witnesses to the event, and Complainant has no reason to doubt the truthfulness of the same. Subscribed and sworn to before me on 11/16/18 Electronically Signed By: Electronically Signed By: Donna Thompson-Bechard Aaron Marcoux Complainant Assistant District Attorney State Bar #: 1081975 11/16/2018 2