The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have arrested the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette, an Assumptionist priest who fled Worcester in the early 1970s as he was about to be charged with raping boys placed in his care by the state.

But after spending one night in jail, Fredette was released on his own recognizance pending an extradition hearing.

Fredette, who was found Thursday at his retreat in rural Jailletville, New Brunswick, was ordered yesterday by a Canadian court to surrender his Canadian and U.S. passports. He also was instructed to report in person to the RCMP once a week until the extradition hearing is held, and to remain in the province.

Fredette, 60, was apprehended on a warrant seeking his extradition from Canada to Worcester that had been issued in response to indictments by a Worcester County grand jury.

"I won't say that he was hiding, but we had to find him and we did find him," said Cpl. Philip Boudreau of the RCMP.

1992 INDICTMENTS

The indictments were issued in 1992, after alleged victims testified to abuse they said had occurred in Worcester when they were adolescents. They charge that Fredette sexually assaulted children he supervised at the now defunct Come Alive group home in Worcester, which served delinquent boys.

Michael Bray, clerk of the Court of Queen's Bench at Moncton, New Brunswick, said a formal hearing on a request for Fredette's extradition will be held at the end of this month or in the first week of February. Justice P.S. Creaghan ordered Fredette released on "personal undertakings," a bail status equivalent to personal recognizance in the Massachusetts courts. The Court of Queen's Bench is the provincial superior court.

Bray said that Fredette would be ordered held if a judge at his upcoming hearing found sufficient cause to honor the charges and the U.S. request for his return.

RIGHT TO APPEAL

"The minister of justice actually orders the extradition, not the judge," Bray said.

Jacques Lemire, a representative of the Canadian attorney general in charge of international extradition proceedings, said that Fredette "was arrested in conformance with the extradition act." Lemire said that if probable cause were found and the judge ordered Fredette committed to detention, he still would have the right to appeal.

If the extradition is ordered, then U.S. marshals would come to Canada and return Fredette to the United States, Lemire said.

The indictments, which allege sexual assaults involving three boys between 1971 and 1973, came in the wake of a Telegram & Gazette investigation into accusations by former clients of the state Department of Social Services. They charge Fredette with indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, committing unnatural acts, and contributing to the delinquency of minors. Some of the assaults are alleged to have occurred at the Come Alive Inc. halfway house, where Fredette was the live-in counselor.

Fredette ran Come Alive from 1970 to 1974, when he fled to New York State, then Quebec, before settling in New Brunswick. In May 1974, Worcester detectives filed sexual assault charges against Fredette on behalf of two boys, one 16 and the other 13.

Fredette remained a priest after leaving the United States and served at St. Timothy's Church in Adamsville, New Brunswick, in the Diocese of Moncton. In 1984, he was removed as pastor of St. Timothy's after the parish council complained of financial irregularities. Parishioners had become upset because Fredette was housing 20 teen-age boys in the parish rectory without notice to the parish, or its approval.

He then established Les Ermites de la Misericorde - the Hermits of the Broken Heart - at a 240-acre retreat in Jailletville, where he has lived since. The telephone at the hermitage went unanswered yesterday afternoon and evening.

CASE REOPENED

Fredette's case was reactivated by Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte in August 1992, after the Telegram & Gazette published the story of Dana M. Vyska, who alleges that Fredette raped him in 1972 while on a trip to New Hampshire. Other men then came forward and testified before the grand jury.

Fredette was indicted in September 1992, and again in October 1992. That December, Gov. William F. Weld signed extradition papers asking Canadian authorities to arrest Fredette.

Conte said he had been informed of this week's arrest, but had no information on the status of the proceedings. He said he will prosecute Fredette in the event that he is extradited.

The news was welcomed by Vyska, now 36 and a resident of Pittsfield, who said his feelings were "kind of hard to explain."

'I'M HAPPY'

"I'm happy," he said. "But I don't know if I'm more happy because of the fact they finally got him, or the fact that something is finally being done. I feel like I'm doing something that will make a difference."

Vyska alleges he was taken by Fredette from Worcester, where he lived at the Come Alive home, and raped at a camp in New Hampshire. Vyska, who was 15 at the time, said Fredette stopped at a package store on the way, bought beer, and had him drink until he passed out.

Because the assault allegedly occurred in New Hampshire, it was not included in the Worcester indictments. Vyska has filed a civil lawsuit against Fredette and the Augustinians of the Assumption, based in Brighton, to which Fredette belonged until 1983. Fredette hasn't replied to that suit.

Vyska said he no longer felt shame at having been a childhood victim of sexual assault, or at his decision to publicly accuse Fredette.

"I'm proud to have done this and I enjoy the feeling that other people are treating me like I'm worth something suddenly - that I'm not just another ant in the driveway, so to speak," he said.

Kathleen A. Shaw and Gary V. Murray of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.

The Rev. Joseph A. Fredette, sought for extradition by Massachusetts on charges of child rape, was recently seen at the New Brunswick retreat where he settled after fleeing the United States more than 20 years ago.

Last month, a deputy sheriff rode out to Jailletville, a discontinued township near Adamsville, New Brunswick, and personally served Fredette with a summons to answer a civil suit being brought in New Hampshire by Dana M. Vyska of Pittsfield.

Vyska, now 36, alleges he was placed in Fredette's care at Come Alive Inc. of Worcester, and that in 1972 Fredette drove him from Worcester to a camp in Raymond, N.H., plied him with alcoholic beverages and raped him. Vyska was 15 at the time.

Spokesmen for the U.S. State Department, the Canadian Justice Department, and the Canadian consulate in Boston confirmed last January that the extradition request was being reviewed in Canada.

The spokesmen also confirmed that the child rape charges were covered by the bilateral extradition treaty between Canada and the United States and that Fredette could be returned to Worcester after his arrest and extradition hearings in Canada.

But since January, Fredette has remained at large and Canadian authorities have refused to disclose details of the case, citing Fredette's rights to privacy under Canadian law.

Lawyer Mark A. Abramson of Manchester, N.H., said the deputy sheriff, Jean Paul Melanson, returned notarized papers by mail on Monday showing the summons was personally delivered to Fredette at Jailletville Nov. 26 and that he signed for the summons and produced his Social Security card as identification. Melanson's fee for the action was $75.

The suit names Fredette and the Augustinians of the Assumption, based in Brighton. Fredette was a member of the men's religious order, but left it in 1983. He remained a priest and served at St. Timothy's Church, Adamsville, from 1982 to 1984 in the Diocese of Moncton, New Brunswick. Parishioners complained during that time that Fredette had moved up to 20 boys into the rectory.

He then established Les Hermites de la Misericorde (The Hermits of the Broken Heart) at Jailletville.

FLED U.S. IN 1974

Fredette, now 60, fled to Canada in 1974 as Worcester police were preparing to charge him with sexual abuse of boys in his care while he was director of Come Alive Inc. of Worcester, a home for delinquent boys.

He first went to Pope John XXIII Retreat in Cassadaga, N.Y., then to the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart outside of Sherbrooke, Quebec, before going to New Brunswick.

Vyska's civil suit is not connected to the indictments against Fredette in Massachusetts involving sexual abuse of three other boys, because the rape was in New Hampshire. Vyska in 1992 was the first of Fredette's alleged victims to come forward to publicly discuss the matter.

The suit alleges the Augustinians of the Assumption knew or should have known that Fredette was unsuitable as a priest. It alleges Fredette was a member of the order at the time, that "the actions of Fredette were reasonably foreseeable" and that the Assumptionists should have known of his "propensities" before he was ordained.

Contacted in Brighton, the Very Rev. Roland Guilmain, A.A., provincial superior of the Assumptionists, said he was aware of the suit, but referred inquiries for comment to the order's lawyer, Frank Puccio of the firm of Reardon & Reardon of Worcester. Puccio did not return a telephone call to his office yesterday.

Abramson said the suit will be filed with Rockingham, N.H., Superior Court at Exeter by early January. Under New Hampshire law, the suit is not filed until summonses are delivered to the parties listed in the suit. Fredette has been served, but legal papers must also be sent to the New Hampshire secretary of state's office because the Augustinians of the Assumption is an out-of-state corporation, Abramson said.

WANTS TO KNOW WHY

"What I don't understand is why my lawyer could send a $75 check up to the deputy sheriff in New Brunswick, and he could drive out and put the court papers right in his hand. But they can't seem to extradite Fredette back here to face charges," Vyska said. He said he is willing to testify in the Massachusetts case, if asked.

Vyska's civil suit seeks compensation but not a specific amount.

"I don't care if I get five bucks out of this. I want to see justice done. I want to see Fredette back here," Vyska said.

Abramson said Fredette has until Jan. 4 to answer the suit. He said if Fredette ignores the action the court could issue a default judgment against him.

Canadian authorities received a request from the U.S. Justice Department nearly a year ago to arrest Fredette and return him to Worcester to stand trial on child rape charges.

The charges are in two indictments by a Worcester County grand jury in September and October of 1992; the indictments charge that Fredette had sexually assaulted boys in his care more than 20 years ago.

In July of this year Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte said Canadian authorities wanted more information from one of Fredette's alleged victims. Conte, at the time, said state police had not located the victim, whom he declined to name.

But yesterday Beverly Melanson, mother of Gary Melanson, who has publicly accused Fredette of molesting him, said she gave officials of the district attorney's office her son's phone number three times last summer.

She said they never contacted her son.

"What has to happen to get this guy back here?" she said. "This guy is up there and nobody is doing anything. What the heck is going on?"

Irene Aresenau, spokeswoman for the Canadian Justice Department, yesterday declined to discuss the Fredette case.

Conte said yesterday his office has complied with everything asked of it by the Canadian Justice Department. "We've complied completely. It's up to them," Conte said.

Gary V. Murray of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.

WORCESTER - Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte said yesterday Canadian authorities are seeking more information in the case of the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette, a priest accused of raping boys here more than 20 years ago.

Massachusetts is seeking extradition of Fredette from Canada, where he fled in 1974 when Worcester police first sought charges against the priest.

Conte said yesterday that Canadian authorities want a new affadavit giving more details from one of the victims, who said he was sexually assaulted by Fredette. Conte declined to name the victim, but said a state police trooper has had difficulty locating the victim to get a new affadavit.

Fredette, a former Assumptionist priest, is wanted in Worcester on indictments alleging that he raped boys who had been placed in his care by the state in the early 1970s.

Fredette was the live-in director of Come Alive Inc., a group home for delinquent boys in Worcester, in the early 1970s. He fled to Canada in 1974 as Worcester police were investigating allegations he had sodomized two boys who had been sent to Come Alive by the state Department of Youth Services.

Dana Vyska of Pittsfield, the first to come forward almost a year to say he was raped by Fredette when he was living at Come Alive, criticized Canadian officials last night for what he called "dragging their feet." "If it was me or someone else who did the things that Fredette is charged with, they would have had us in jail a long time ago," Vyska said.

Vyska was not a part of these indictments because his alleged rape happened in New Hampshire, but he has said he wants to see Fredette brought to justice in this country. Vyska is cooperating with New Hampshire police to get Fredette charged in that state.

Vyska said he has called and written to Canadian justice department officials asking them to speed up the extradition proceedings.

Local police and the Worcester County District Attorney's office reopened the investigation of Fredette after the Telegram & Gazette reported last summer that Fredette was living on a 240-acre retreat in rural Jailletville, New Brunswick.

Fredette was indicted by a Worcester County Grand Jury Sept. 16 and again Oct. 16 on charges he sexually assaulted boys placed in his care more than 20 years ago.

Canadian authorities have received a request from the U.S. Justice Department to arrest the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette and return him to Worcester to stand trial on child rape charges.

Fredette, a former Assumptionist priest, is wanted in Worcester on indictments alleging that he raped boys who had been placed in his care by the state in the early 1970s.

Dean St. Denis, spokesman for the Justice Department's international affairs division in Washington, D.C., said yesterday the request for Fredette's extradition to the United States is now being reviewed by the Canadian government.

St. Denis said he could not estimate how long it would be before the Canadian government issued its decision. But all the necessary documentation, including Gov. William F. Weld's approval of the request, has been forwarded to Canada.

Kurt Jensen, Canadian consul in Boston, said the charges against Fredette would first have to be heard in Canada before Fredette could be returned to the United States. He said Canadian authorities were prohibited by Canadian privacy laws from discussing individual cases, or even confirming that a case exists, prior to an arrest.

"Our justice department wouldn't be able to say if they have received papers on Fredette," Jensen said. "Any person has protection for his privacy according to law and the material is only in the public domain when an individual is arrested. That is a matter of public record."

Jensen said Canada and the United States have a bilateral agreement that provides for extradition from both countries for certain crimes.

"That charge (against Fredette) is one that would be covered by the agreement," he said. "Ones that are excluded are things that are subject to the death penalty - we have no death penalty in Canada - things that are a crime here (in the U.S.) but not in Canada."

Jensen said if Canadian criminal justice authorities approve the request, Fredette would be arrested and then given a hearing in Canadian courts.

Fredette was the live-in director of Come Alive Inc., a group home for delinquent boys in Worcester, in the early 1970s. He fled to Canada in 1974 as Worcester police were investigating allegations he had sodomized two boys who had been sent to Come Alive by the state Department of Youth Services.

In 1974, Worcester police brought six charges against Fredette in connection with the alleged sexual assaults. But Fredette already had fled to Canada.

Local law enforcement authorities were unable to pinpoint Fredette's whereabouts and warrants for his arrest were never served.

But police and the Worcester County District Attorney's office reopened the investigation into those assaults after the Telegram & Gazette reported last summer that Fredette was living on a 240-acre retreat in rural Jailletville, New Brunswick.

Fredette was indicted by a Worcester County Grand Jury Sept. 16 and again Oct. 16 on charges he sexually assaulted boys placed in his care more than 20 years ago.

Gov. William F. Weld signed extradition papers yesterday asking Canadian authorities to arrest the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette and return him to Worcester to stand trial on child-rape charges.

Fredette, a Roman Catholic priest who formerly belonged to the Assumptionist order, was indicted by a Worcester County Grand Jury Sept. 16 and again Oct. 16 on charges that he sexually assaulted boys placed in his care more than 20 years ago.

Fredette was the live-in director of Come Alive Inc., a group home for delinquent boys in Worcester, in the early 1970s. He fled to Canada in 1974 while Worcester police were investigating allegations he had sodomized two boys who had been sent to Come Alive by the state Department of Youth Services.

Worcester police brought six charges against Fredette in connection with the alleged sexual assaults. But local law-enforcement authorities were unable to locate Fredette and warrants for his arrest were never served.

Police and the Worcester County district attorney's office reopened the investigation into those assaults after a Telegram & Gazette investigation this summer disclosed Fredette was living on a 240-acre retreat in Jailletville, a rural area of New Brunswick.

District Attorney John J. Conte sought Fredette's extradition following the final round of grand jury indictments in October.

Sheila A. Hubbard, Weld's deputy legal counsel, said yesterday afternoon that the papers had just been signed and sent back to Conte's office.

The governor's approval was the last local hurdle in extraditing Fredette from Canada.

ASSURANCES NEEDED

"The reason they have to come to the governor's office is that in cases of international extradition, the Department of Justice has to have assurances that the extradition officer, who is the governor in this state, is in agreement with the request," Hubbard said. "He has to sign it and it has to have the state seal with it."

The governor's action comes in the wake of a widened investigation into Fredette's activities in other states.

The Telegram & Gazette reported yesterday that New Hampshire State Police are investigating allegations that Fredette raped a teen-age boy at a camp in a rural New Hampshire community.

Those allegations stem from an incident 20 years ago involving Dana Vyska, 35, who lives in Pittsfield. Vyska said he was one of the boys sent to live in Fredette's half-way house by state child welfare authorities.

SUBSEQUENTLY RAPED

He said that in 1972, he was taken by Fredette from Worcester to the camp and was subsequently raped there. He was 15 at the time.

New Hampshire State Trooper Richard Mitchell said Vyska contacted him last month and was interviewed by telephone a few days later.

The Rockingham County Attorney at Exeter, N.H., is now investigating that allegation

BUCTOUCHE, New Brunswick - A former Assumptionist priest wanted in the United States since 1974 on child rape charges could face similar charges in Canada, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The priest, the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette, has been living in Canada since 1974, when warrants were issued for his arrest in Worcester.

Worcester police had charged Fredette with sodomizing two boys placed in his care by the Massachusetts state Department of Youth Services. The assaults allegedly occurred at a Worcester group home for delinquent boys, Come Alive Inc., which Fredette founded in 1970 and directed until February 1974.

Fredette was not arrested on the Worcester charges in 1974 because he had left Massachusetts and police couldn't find him.

RCMP officials said there was no record of Worcester police ever forwarding complaints and warrants to Canada for action.

Cpl. Philip Boudreau, in charge of the RCMP bureau here, said yesterday the RCMP would seek Fredette's arrest here if any of the alleged assaults occurred in Canada. At least one alleged victim said he was molested by Fredette in Canada.

There is no statute of limitations on "indictable offenses" in Canada, Boudreau said. If any of the victims from 20 years ago were molested within Canada, they need only file a complaint with the RCMP in the jurisdiction where the assaults occurred, he said.

If such complaints were filed, the RCMP would seek Fredette's arrest and indictment in Canada and would not have to wait for U.S. law enforcement officials to act.

Boudreau said Canadian law enforcement officials recently took action in a similar case involving 20-year-old sexual assault charges against a Newfoundland man.

Fredette had been living in a communal retreat in rural Jailletville, New Brunswick, since about 1985. But last week, after Telegram & Gazette investigative reports and subsequent publicity from other U.S. and Canadian news outlets, Fredette apparently left his retreat.

His telephones were disconnected with no referral numbers.

VISITED RESIDENCE

Boudreau, whose office is responsible for law enforcement in several communities, including Jailletville, said he went to the retreat after learning through press reports of the charges against Fredette.

He said he talked to one young man at the retreat who "appeared to be like a zombie" and said he didn't know where Fredette had gone.

He said RCMP officials are interested in pursuing the Fredette case, although there are at present no Canadian charges against the priest, nor any word from United States authorities about the case.

A Telegram & Gazette investigation has found a number of men who were sent to the home when they were children and who have come forward now to say that they also were sexually assaulted by the priest.

The men said they were assaulted not only in the group home, but in a lake-front cabin in rural Raymond, N.H., that was owned by Fredette's family, and in Canada.

One of Fredette's alleged victims, Gary M. Melanson, 34, said he was 13 when he was first assaulted by Fredette.

PRISON INTERVIEW

Melanson, now imprisoned in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Concord, Mass., on parole violations and a robbery conviction, said he was sent to Come Alive by the DYS when he was 13 because he had run away from home.

In an interview from prison, Melanson said Fredette obtained a van for the Come Alive group home, which he used to take the dozen or so boys in his care on field trips.

One field trip, Melanson said, was to a retreat in Quebec City run by the Catholic Church.

On other occasions, Melanson and other alleged victims said, Fredette took boys individually to spend the weekend with him at various retreats.

"Once he took me up to Canada up around the Gaspe Bay," Melanson said. "It was just me and him and we stayed at a hotel up there somewhere and I was molested in the hotel. Then from the Gaspe Bay we went up to a retreat in Quebec City.

"He had taken the whole house of us up there like that months before that and we stayed at this Catholic place where they train you to be priests or something. It was a big missionary-type place and we stayed up there, all of us kids, for a couple of days. And we even got into trouble up there. Me and four other kids did, setting off firecrackers and stuff."

1977 INCIDENT

Melanson said he last saw Fredette in 1977 in Melbourne, Quebec, when he and a woman were fleeing prosecution for arson charges.