MONTICELLO (AP) — A retired Utah Highway Patrol sergeant who is a LDS Church bishop has been charged with fondling a teen-age boy.

Doug Hall, 48, took a confession to the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office earlier this month, “the first anyone heard of this,” San Juan County Attorney Craig Halls said Wednesday.

Hall was charged Monday with forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, for fondling a 14-year-old boy in the spring of 1999, according to the charges. He was off-duty.

“The victim did not make a complaint. Our knowledge of this incident came from Mr. Hall himself,” Halls said.

Hall said his admission came a day after he retired as a supervising UHP sergeant in Monticello.

“I will face the music for what I’ve done,” Hall told the Deseret News. “I pondered about it for some time and knew that ultimately because of my faith and my religion that it was something that, regardless of how unpleasant it was, would have to happen.”

Hall, a bishop in charge of a Monticello ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 1 1/2 years, will be dismissed from that position on Sunday, Monticello Stake President Terry Eardley said.

“He’s well-respected and unfortunately has made a mistake,” Eardley said. “He realized that there are some consequences that are associated with that, and he’s willing to pay (for) those consequences.”

Hall, a 22-year highway patrol veteran, is expected to make his first court appearance Monday before 7th District Judge Lyle Anderson.

The felony sex charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A7.

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