Friday, February 19, 2010

Fake friar, convicted in Santa Cruz County in 1999, wanted in Minnesota for failure to register as sex offender

Anthony Thomas Falco, the man who duped local Catholics by posing as a friar from New York City and was convicted of molesting an Aptos teen during a church trip to Bosnia more than 10 years ago, is wanted by Minnesota authorities for failing to register as a sex offender.

Falco, 72, recently had been living in an apartment in St. Martin, Minn., and using the same fake friar stunt on parishioners at a Catholic church in St. Cloud that he used at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Capitola in 1999, said Detective Robert Dickhaus of Stearns County (Minn.) Sheriff's Office.

Stearns County detectives learned of Falco's sordid past when his false identity was questioned by a fellow member of St. Cloud's St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church when Falco went to the hospital for open heart surgery in November.

Falco, who told St. Robert Bellarmine parishioners that he was Brother Thomas Marie of the Franciscan Brotherhood of Charity, asked his friend to call a priest to the hospital to deliver last rites in case he died during the surgery, Dickhaus said.

Falco registered for the hospital with his real name, which bewildered the friend when he couldn't find Brother Thomas Marie, Dickhaus said.

A Google search turned up Falco's molestation conviction in Santa Cruz County for molesting the teen he met in 1999 through St. Joseph's, and the friend called Stearns County authorities on Nov. 28.

"We start digging around and realize he's a registered sex offender in California and he hadn't registered with us," Dickhaus said. "We had no information that he had committed any additional crimes. We just wanted to know where he's at."

Falco was arrested at his St. Martin apartment on Dec. 3 and released a short time later because Stearns County authorities didn't believe he was a threat to the community, Dickhaus said. He was required to register as a sex offender and show up in court on Jan. 4., but skipped out on both, Dickhaus said.

"He chose to just leave," Dickhaus said. "We haven't had any contact with him since Dec. 3. He vacated his residence in St. Martin."

Dickhaus said the only crime Falco was suspected of in Stearns County was failing to register as a sex offender and misrepresenting himself to the church.

"He positioned himself into a small community and gained the trust of the community as a man of God," Dickhaus said. "He was doing what he does."

Stearns County authorities say they received a tip that Falco could be living in Daly City, but have not found that to be true.

Dickhaus said they would only extradite Falco if he's found in a state bordering Minnesota.

Ryan Jump, a math and science teacher at the Catholic school associated with St. Robert Bellarmine, was surprised to find out Falco wasn't the monk he said he was.

Jump said Falco regularly attended mass and was well liked by both students and parishioners. He said he never witnessed any suspicious behavior from Falco.

"He was holy, reverent," Jump, 23, said. "He seemed humble and quiet."

Clay Brasuell Jr., who joined Falco on the church-sponsored youth pilgrimage to Bosnia in 1999 when he was 15, believes the manipulating monk should be considered a threat despite his age. "For being an old man, he's very dangerous," Brasuell said. "He poses himself as a grandfather and best friend and then uses that against you."

Brasuell, now 26 and living in the Santa Cruz Mountains with his wife and three young children, said he checks Google every few months to keep tabs on Falco's whereabouts.

He said he was upset that authorities hadn't alerted him to the arrest warrant.

Brasuell, no longer a member of St. Joseph's, said he thought of Falco as a grandfather until being held captive during the trip in which he was drugged and molested.
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