Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City finds 1991 sexual abuse allegations credible, issues apology

SALT LAKE CITY — On Thursday, the Diocese of Salt Lake City announced its findings in a case of sexual abuse allegations from the 1990s. According to its leadership, a victim came forward last year. After months of investigating, they found the allegations credible.

The victim, Bill Hambleton, met with KSL TV at the Cathedral of the Madeline to speak about what came of the investigation — a written apology.

“The cover-up is more devastating than the abuse,” he said.

In his view, the apology was appreciated, but fell far short of the justice he’s been pushing for. Hambleton grew up in Ogden, attending Holy Family Catholic Church. He was 16 years old when Fr. Heriberto Mejia came to town from Columbia in 1991. 

“Over time, boundaries started to cross,” Hambleton recalled. “He would invite me into his room after dinner, and it would just be the two of us.”

Hambleton said he was interested in becoming a priest himself, and Mejia knew that, and used it to manipulate the teenager. He said Mejia encouraged overnight visits even after he was re-assigned to Payson in 1992.

“During those three trips, he molested me,” Hambleton said.

After leaving home and going to seminary, Hambleton said he learned from a friend that Mejia was removed from Utah for allegedly abusing children. However, he got a call from Mejia himself — Mejia told him he was simply reassigned to Detroit. During the phone call, Mejia asked to visit Hambleton during his seminary classes.

“I was directly told that Monsignor Bussen was the one who removed him from the diocese,” Hambleton recalled. 

Hambleton said he called Bussen at the time. While he didn’t feel safe enough to report the abuse, he did ask if it was OK for Mejia to visit.

“He said, ‘Yes, enjoy your time with him,’”Hambleton said. “(Mejia) came, my freshman year to the college seminary and molested me there. And that was that was the last time I saw him.”

Documentation

A 2019 police report in Payson filed by the Salt Lake Diocese confirmed the priest confessed to abusing two juveniles in ’91. However, the diocese told Hambleton on Thursday that the report was a mistake.

“I didn’t want to carry this trauma anymore,” Hambleton said. 

So, he wrote a detailed letter to Bishop Oscar Solis at the Salt Lake Diocese, demanding the diocese investigate not only Mejia, but the administration that covered up his actions including two monsignor’s still actively serving in Utah — Bussen and Msgr. Terrence Fitzgerald. 

According to a statement Hambleton issued on Friday, multiple allegations of sexual abuse were brought to Bussen’s attention in 1991, yet he “failed to remove Mejia from ministry for fourteen months, and failed to report the allegations to law enforcement at all.”

Hambleton further said Solis had confronted Fitzgerald about an allegation of sexual misconduct in 2025, and Fizgerald resigned from his eight-year position as special assistant to the bishop.

“Bishop Solis has also been provided with a statement affirming that Msgr. Fizgerald told others that he routinely destroyed official documents when they were critical of the Diocese of Salt Lake City or its priests,” Hambleton wrote.

Faith ‘lost’

“While I, I will never leave my faith, I have lost a lot of faith in the institutional church,” he said. 

He urged Solis in a statement to “take meaningful steps toward justice,” which in his view would be to revoke the priestly faculties of the clergy who allegedly mishandled the situation with Mejia because “their moral and administrative failures contributed to a culture of sexual abuse and misconduct.”

KSL TV contacted the diocese for comment and did not hear back. However, it did issue a statement on the findings of the investigation, including the apology:

On behalf of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, I, Bishop Oscar A. Solis, want to apologize to William Hambleton for the sexual abuse you received from Fr. Heriberto Mejia in the 1990’s, and for the many years of suffering and pain you have endured. No one should experience such trauma, especially from any member of the clergy. I personally pray and hope for your complete healing, peace, and that of your family.

The statement also said the diocese “remains committed to ensuring the safety of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and providing pastoral outreach to victims and survivors of sexual abuse by clergy.”

 

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