HAYWARD - An audible sigh of relief was let loose in the Sawyer County Courthouse on Thursday as a former Wisconsin priest received a maximum prison sentence for sexually assaulting young boys in the 1980s.

Four men celebrated the moment in the Hayward courtroom after sharing stories of abuse perpetrated by a man they once trusted. One of the victims, a teacher from Merrill, went public with his identity for the first time Thursday.

Thomas Ericksen, 72, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on two charges of sexually assaulting boys while stationed at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Winter. He also will be registered as a sex offender for life.

Details from four other allegations also were considered in the sentencing: two from Sawyer County that were dismissed as part of a plea deal, and two from Lincoln County that never were filed in court but were investigated by the Merrill Police Department. The two reports in Merrill dated to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Ericksen was stationed at Holy Cross Hospital as a chaplain.

Ericksen faced up to 15 years in prison on each charge, based on the statutes that were in place at the time the assaults occurred. The statute of limitations in Wisconsin, which today expires when the victim reaches a certain age, did not apply in this case, because Ericksen left the state. Statutes of limitation can be paused until a defendant returns to the state.

He was given 20 years on one charge and 10 years on the other. He was credited with 314 days of time served in jail since his arrest, both in Minnesota before he was extradited and in Wisconsin.

The four victims in the courtroom grabbed each other's shoulders as Ashland County Circuit Court Judge Kelly McKnight handed down the prison terms after a two-hour hearing. McKnight, a substitute judge, spoke for over half an hour to explain that because of the nature of the crimes, the fact that they were repeated time after time and that Ericksen didn't seem genuinely remorseful, he had to impose the maximum sentence.

The former priest apologized to the victims in court, telling the judge he's messed up quite a few times in his 72 years, but he's finally come to realize the impact the assaults had on victims.

"I've regretted it every day," he said.

The four men had waited throughout the hearing, wringing their hands as statements were read into the record. They, too, had their time to address Ericksen and McKnight, each telling the story of how the assaults affected their lives and asking for the maximum sentence.

A long road to guilty

Sawyer County authorities had known of sexual assault allegations against Ericksen for 35 years before his arrest in November 2018.

He was first questioned in 1983 after a family reported to the Sawyer County sheriff that their child had been touched inappropriately by the priest at St. Peter's. Ericksen admitted he assaulted the child but was allowed to leave the sheriff's offices to report to George Albert Hammes, who was then bishop of the Superior Diocese of the Catholic Church. The diocese has not released records of what happened after Ericksen was reported to the bishop.

Ericksen moved out of state, eventually settling in Minneapolis, where he evaded arrest for years — even after other victims reported his crimes to the Sawyer County Sheriff's Office in 2010 and 2011 and after investigators recommended charges to the county's district attorney, Bruce Poquette.

Sheriff's investigators interviewed the former priest in 2016 in Minneapolis, when he admitted to now-retired Detective Gregg Thorhaug and then-Sheriff Mark Kelsey of Sawyer County that he fondled five boys during his time in Winter as lead pastor. He also told investigators he sexually assaulted boys while stationed in Rice Lake and while in Rhinelander.

Ericksen also told investigators about a civil settlement the Superior Diocese of the Catholic Church reached on behalf of two victims from St. Peter's in Winter, according to a criminal complaint, but the settlement did not involve the victims from Rice Lake or Rhinelander. When investigators asked if the allegations in the civil suit were true, Ericksen replied, "Well, if, if they talk about me fondling, yes."

Despite the apparent confession, the investigators' report languished in the Sawyer County District Attorney's office for two years as victims tried to pressure Poquette to file charges. One victim, a Merrill man who declined to be named publicly until the day of Ericksen's sentencing, then reached out to the Wausau Daily Herald, which began investigating the matter.

Poquette declined multiple interview requests from the Daily Herald, which is part of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, and did not respond to a written request for the investigative documents. But two weeks after the newspaper filed the public records request last fall, police arrested Ericksen in Minnesota and a Sawyer County assistant district attorney filed charges.

Former Assistant District Attorney Aaron Marcoux, who has been the lead prosecutor on the case until leaving the position this year, said he is unable to comment on why Poquette chose not to charge Ericksen. But, he said, once the case was handed over to him, he filed charges within a week.

Seven potential victims are known to have spoken to law enforcement, according to court documents and interviews with the Sawyer County Sheriff's Office and the Merrill Police Department. USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin has conducted on-the-record interviews with several victims of Ericksen and has been contacted by others who shared their stories and corroborating details but were unwilling to share their names. Those people have not spoken to police.

In all, at least 11 men claim they were abused by Ericksen during his time in the clergy.

Ericksen was dogged by news accounts of the Superior Diocese settlement. He was fired from a volunteer job with the Special Olympics in Missouri in 2010, according to a report from Minnesota Public Radio. That was about the same time an investigation began in Wisconsin, the MPR article said, and Ericksen moved abruptly to Indonesia but not before admitting to a reporter that he fondled boys in Wisconsin.

In 2014, the article said, another volunteer brought the former priest's history to the attention of a Minneapolis nonprofit, Community Emergency Assistance Programs, where Ericksen was working at the time. Ericksen continued to work in close proximity to children for three weeks until the nonprofit abruptly cut ties with him after contacting the Superior Diocese, the public radio report said.

Finally a conclusion for victims

Steve Weix took a deep breath and put his head in his hands when the sentence was handed down. He wiped a hand across his face and shook the hands of the other survivors around him. For him, Ericksen's sentence marks the end of a difficult nine-year period, during which he fought to have his voice heard.

As he addressed the judge Thursday afternoon, emotion audible in his voice, Weix said he refused to spend another moment as a victim. He said that he — and the other survivors in the courtroom — will finally have closure after today, after more than three decades of living with this secret.

"We will finally walk out of this courthouse as free men," he said. "But Ericksen won't."

Weix was the first victim to approach the Daily Herald and tell his story. In past stories, he asked not to be identified, but told a reporter that after Thursday, he didn't want to be known as a case number or just a victim.

Paul Eck was also glad to finally put Ericksen behind him. He smiled as he left the courtroom.

"We finally have justice," Eck said to another man. His long, gray hair shook with the effort of the handshake he was giving the other man.

Eck, who first went to authorities in 2010, said that Ericksen's actions have had a profound effect on his life. Three failed marriages. Promiscuity. A feeling that he needed to prove to the world he wasn't gay, after the priest molested him at age 17, while he was drunk and asleep in the rectory of St. Peter's. He thought of the priest as a father figure up then, he said.

During his impact statement, Eck listed out how the priest affected his life, but said that he didn't drive up from St. Louis, where he currently lives, to get revenge. He just wanted Ericksen off the street.

"If he is free, he has the ability to do this to another boy," he said to the judge. "It's up to you to make sure he's not free again."

Two other victims spoke at the hearing, sharing the torment that Ericksen released upon them when he sexually assaulted them.

One man was assaulted by Ericksen at age 9, while in Merrill's Holy Cross Hospital, which is now Ascension Good Samaritan. He was bedridden after breaking his femur and couldn't move for weeks. Ericksen took advantage of that, he told the court.

"I was so young that I remember I had an Incredible Hulk robe and a favorite stuffed animal," he said. "This person I trusted preyed on the innocence of a boy attached to his hospital bed."

The man said that he will never be able to get over what happened in that hospital.

"I will never forgive (Ericksen) or the Superior Diocese," he said. "Because families have suffered."

The other man who spoke was assaulted by Ericksen when his youth group stayed overnight at St. Peter's en route to another location. The man said that the morning after his assault, Ericksen awkwardly apologized and even offered the youth group leader money because he felt bad.

"You made me feel like I was a whore," the man said. "You tried to purchase me. My heart ran over and over with that word. ... Your sin has led to a crushed life. Your sin has done an uncountable amount of damage. May God have mercy on your soul."

Laura Schulte is a reporter based at the Wausau Daily Herald. If you have any information about this case or other cases involving clergy abuse in Wisconsin that have not been reported, you may reach her at leschulte@gannett.com, by phone at 715-496-4088 or on Twitter @schultelaura.