Second church volunteer arrested in child abuse probe

Associated Press/January 10, 2005

Methuen, Mass. -- A second person faced charges in connection with a child abuse investigation at a Mormon church in Methuen, police said.

Police said Peter A. Paquette, 59, of Andover, was arrested at his home on Friday. He pleaded innocent in Lawrence District Court to a charge of failing to register as a sex offender.

Paquette is a volunteer librarian at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Methuen.

Last Tuesday, Kevin Curlew, 43, of Dracut, also a church volunteer, was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting the 9-year-old son of a church member.

Police said Curlew and Paquette are friends, and both were placed in charge of monitoring children while adults attended church meetings.

Police said they received a tip last week that Paquette had not registered with the state Sex Offender Registry Board, a felony with a penalty of up to five years in prison.

In two separate cases in the 1970s and 1980s, Paquette was convicted in Somerville and Chelsea district courts of indecent assault and battery on a child, according to Methuen police Lt. Michael Wnek.

Curlew was held on $25,000 cash bail on charges of indecent assault and battery on a person under 14, enticement of a child, assault and battery, reckless endangerment of a child, and kidnapping.

He was arrested after police investigated a report that Curlew had assaulted the boy at the church, Wnek said. Wnek said the boy is now the only known victim, but are looking into whether there are more.