Idaho Statesman
06 February 2018
By Ruth Brown
rbrown@idahostatesman.com
February 06, 2018 04:19 PM
Updated 07 February 2018
Catholic officials in Boise said Tuesday that they had never received complaints of sexual misconduct by the Rev. W. Thomas Faucher prior to his arrest Friday on child pornography and drug charges.
In a midafternoon news release from the Diocese of Boise, Bishop Peter F. Christensen said the allegations against Faucher, if true, “are a betrayal of the trust we place in all ministers.”
Prosecutors say hundreds of images of child pornography and drugs such as marijuana, ecstasy and LSD were found in the retired priest’s home. Some of the images allegedly involved infants and toddlers. And Faucher, 72, allegedly wrote in an online chatroom that he “desires to rape and kill children,” Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Cathy Guzman said during a probable cause hearing Monday.
Faucher, (pronounced foh-SHAY), is charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, two counts of distributing sexually exploitative material involving children and two counts of drug possession. All of the charges, except one of the drug counts, are felonies. If convicted, he faces a lifetime in prison.
“When I first heard of these allegations, I was absolutely stunned,” Christensen said in the Tuesday news release. “… Anyone who takes advantage of and exploits children for their own gratification is absolutely wrong. There are no excuses for such behavior by any one of our clergy.”
Church officials previously said that they would cooperate with the investigation into Faucher and that he would not be allowed to minister within the Diocese of Boise while the case proceeds.
Diocese communications director Gene Fadness said there was strong reaction from parishioners about the news of Faucher’s arrest.
“(They were) stunned, deeply saddened, shocked, (and) sad for not only children who are exploited like this, but sad for the many faithful priests, deacons, religious sisters, lay people who every day, without fanfare, do the work of the church — the way this kind of reflects on them,” Fadness said.
Prosecutors said they have no signs that Faucher ever acted on his alleged urges. Boise Police Department spokeswoman Haley Williams said Tuesday that her department had not received any complaints about Faucher since his arrest. Idaho court records show no significant convictions for Faucher; his attorney said in court Monday that he has no criminal record at all.
Faucher has been retired for three years. He grew up in Boise and attended Saint Mary’s Catholic Church as a child, before returning here in 2002 to serve as its pastor.
He had been an active part of the church for years, including in its schools. Officials at St. Joseph’s Catholic School, Bishop Kelly High School and Saint Mary’s Catholic School largely deferred questions Tuesday to Fadness. Bishop Kelly communications director Katie Kerby said she did not know of any complaints about Faucher from parents or students at that school.
Fadness could not speak to every Catholic school in Boise, but said Saint Mary’s Catholic School has addressed the issue with parents of its students. The diocese’s superintendent of Catholic schools has also been communicating with school principals, he said.
Parishioners were especially saddened for Saint Mary’s, Fadness said, because the situation colors the church’s extensive community services. Saint Mary’s does a lot of outreach to the Hispanic community. It has a food bank, a school, and does other work to support the Treasure Valley.
Fadness, himself, is a parishioner of Saint Mary’s. While he was unsure if every priest spoke to their congregations about Faucher’s arrest, he said, his priest did talk to parishioners.
“Our pastor spoke briefly about it,” Fadness said. “He told the people to let the justice system play out, to not speculate, (and) he talked a lot about light shining in darkness and trying to give people hope. There’s a lot of people there who have known Fr. Faucher for years, so there was a lot of sadness and a lot of shock and some anger.”
At the time of his arrest, Faucher was living alone in a Boise home on Holly Hill Drive that he paid to rent from Saint Mary’s, Fadness confirmed. Because of the lease agreement, the church can’t immediately evict Faucher if he is released from jail.
Fadness also said the diocese is not paying for Faucher’s private attorney, Mark Manweiler. Fadness said the diocese would never pay for the legal defense of a priest.
Faucher remained in the Ada County Jail on Tuesday, held on $250,000 bond. A judge forbid him Monday from having any contact with children, and he is forbidden from using the internet while his case progresses.
Christensen called for prayer regarding the case and any “exploited” children, and advised any victims of child sexual abuse to report their experiences to police. He also referenced a sexual misconduct review board operated by the diocese, which investigates church reports internally. A call from the Statesman on Tuesday to the board’s director, Mark Raper, was not immediately returned.
Ruth Brown: 208-377-6207, @RuthBrownNews
W. Thomas Faucher’s Ada County arrest photo, left, and official church photo.
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CRIME
Prosecutor: Retired Boise priest had porn of sexual abuse of infants, toddlers
Father W. Thomas Faucher, 72, faces 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, as well as additional charges for possession of marijuana and ecstasy.
UPDATE: The Diocese of Boise issued the following statement Tuesday afternoon:
The news of Rev. W. Thomas Faucher’s arrest and the evidence collected by law enforcement agencies is deeply disturbing to say the least. The shock and emotions that many Catholics and others are experiencing over the allegations are understandable.
“When I first heard of these allegations, I was absolutely stunned,” said Bishop Peter F. Christensen, Bishop of the Diocese of Boise. Bishop Christensen continued by stating the diocese has never received similar complaints regarding Father Faucher, and if the Diocese had, it would have immediately contacted law enforcement officials, as it would for any such report.
“If these allegations are true and proven in court, they are a betrayal of the trust we place in all ministers such as Father Faucher. Anyone who takes advantage of and exploits children for their own gratification is absolutely wrong. There are no excuses for such behavior by any one of our clergy,” Christensen said. He concluded by stating that we must pray that the truth of this matter is revealed; pray that any children who are exploited may be healed by the grace of God, as we also pray for an end to such a disgusting evil.
Bishop Christensen, on behalf of the entire diocese, encourages victims of child sexual abuse to come forward and report to law enforcement officials. They may also report to the Diocesan Safe Environment and Victim Assistance Coordinator, Veronica Childers, at 208-350-7556.
BOISE — Police who raided the home of a retired priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Boise discovered “very graphic” child pornography, some depicting children as young as infants being sexually abused, prosecutors said.
Father W. Thomas Faucher, 72, faces 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, as well as additional charges for possession of marijuana and ecstasy. Two of the sexual exploitation charges are related to the distribution of child pornography, although Faucher is not accused of creating any of the disturbing images he allegedly shared.
Prosecutor Kassandra Slaven said during Faucher’s Monday arraignment that investigators zeroed in on the priest after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that his email address had been used to send two child pornography images to another person. In the email exchange, Slaven said, Faucher expressed a sexual interest in children and indicated he was interested in “grandpa incest” pornography.
The IP address from which the email was sent was traced back to Faucher’s home, a house he rents from the Catholic diocese. When officers arrived with the search warrant, Slaven said, they found an online chat open on his computer in which the defendant wrote about his desire to molest children “as well as physically harm a child.”
A full forensic analysis of Faucher’s computer is still pending. But Slaven said some of the material seized by police depicted torture and sexual abuse of “very young children,” including infants and toddlers.
She asked Judge Michael Lojek to set bond at $500,000, arguing that Faucher was a danger to society and may try to flee the country if released.
Rev. W. Thomas Faucher
But the priest’s attorney, Mark Manweiler, said that such a high bond was unnecessary.
“It would be an understatement to say he would be a highly-respected and valuable member of our community,” he said.
More than a dozen of the retired priest’s supporters attended the hearing, many of them sitting through the five-and-a-half hour arraignment calendar as they waited for Faucher’s case to come up.
Manweiler noted that Faucher is cooperating with law enforcement, agreeing to a five-hour interview with officers after they searched his home. The lawyer also stressed that the priest is not accused of actually molesting any children.
“There’s never been a single complaint of him acting inappropriately with children,” he said.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise said the church had never received any complaints or other indications of inappropriate behavior from Faucher, despite his countless interactions with adults and children in his role at St. Mary’s. Faucher, who has preached at the church several times after retiring, will no longer be allowed to minister, due to the serious nature of the charges, the diocese said.
Diocese spokesman Gene Fadness said the church is not paying for Faucher’s defense lawyer, and added that the diocese is cooperating with the Idaho Attorney General’s investigation. The church will conduct its own review after the AG’s investigation is complete, he said.
According to the church’s website, Faucher was raised in Boise and graduated from St. Mary’s Grade School in 1959. He was ordained in Boise in 1971 and held numerous assignments in and out of Idaho. A diocese spokesman said he returned to St. Mary’s in the early 2000’s.
Lojek – who blocked KTVB and other news outlets from bringing camera equipment into the courtroom or recording the proceedings – ultimately set Faucher’s bond at $250,000, telling the defendant he had taken reputation in the community and lack of criminal history into consideration along with the “very, very serious” nature of the allegations.
The judge ordered that if Faucher is able to post bond, he must surrender his passport, agree to GPS monitoring and have no access to the Internet or any minors while the case is pending. Lojek also ordered Faucher to not use any illegal drugs, but told the priest he would not bar him from drinking alcohol, so he could continue to take communion.
A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Feb. 15.
Surely there must have been some indication that, at the very least, this priest’s thoughts were so perverse?