HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) — A former priest accused of sexually abusing at least three boys in Wisconsin decades ago has been bound over for trial.

Seventy-one-year-old Thomas Ericksen was arrested Nov. 16 at his Minneapolis home. He faces child sexual assault charges for alleged abuse between June 1982 and April 1983, while he was at St. Peter's Church in Winter, Wisconsin.

The Wausau Daily Herald reports Ericksen appeared in court Wednesday and his attorney argued that credibility of purported victims had to be called into question due to the amount of time since the alleged crimes. The judge disagreed and bound the case over for trial.

Prosecutors haven't said why so much time elapsed before charges were filed.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says Ericksen was removed from the priesthood in 1988.