UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune
By MARIAH NOBLE | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jun 23 2017
A former LDS Church bishop is behind bars for allegedly sexually abused two boys several years ago when they were teenagers in his congregation.
Erik Wayne Hughes, 51, of Mapleton, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Utah County jail on suspicion of forcible sexual abuse, dealing in materials harmful to a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor and tampering with a witness.
According to a probable cause statement from the Mapleton Police Department, an 18-year-old told police in April that when he was 15, he had been sexually abused by Hughes, who at the time was his bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
An emailed statement from church spokesman Eric Hawkins on Friday confirmed that Hughes “has been removed from any position within the church.”
The teen told police that Hughes was “always interested in his personal growth and if he was going through puberty,” the document says. On one occasion, Hughes gave the teen a white pill he believed was melatonin, but the pill made him “feel weird” and his perception of his surroundings seemed “disproportionate,” documents say.
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