Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Latter-day Saint movements Mapleton, Utah, USA · 2017

United States: Mapleton bishop imprisoned for abusing two teenage boys of his congregation

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

bishop of a Mapleton ward, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Organization

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Spiritual nexus

Ward youth under their bishop, abused during and through his tenure in that office.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2017-10-10 · guilty plea and sentence

    Fourth District Court, Utah, USA. Erik Wayne Hughes, bishop of a Mapleton ward, pleaded guilty in August 2017 to sexually abusing two teenage boys of his congregation — one abused between thirty and fifty times at seventeen — together with witness tampering, and was sentenced in October 2017 to concurrent terms of one to fifteen years plus zero to five for the tampering.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • bishop's authority over ward youth
  • witness tampering to suppress disclosure

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting sentencing report The Salt Lake Tribune: sentencing report.

State paper of record's court reporting.

national broadcaster court reporting sentencing report Fox 13 Salt Lake City: sentencing report.

Independent corroboration.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

← Explore all cases