Former Arizona official pleads guilty in Utah adoption scheme

Paul Petersen, left, makes his initial appearance at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City with his attorney, Scott Williams, on Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. Petersen pleaded guilty Friday to communications fraud and three counts of human smuggling. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Authorities say 40 women came to Utah from the Marshall Islands to place babies for adoption

SALT LAKE CITY — A former Arizona official accused in a multistate illegal adoption scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands admitted Friday to Utah charges of fraud and human smuggling.

Paul Petersen, 44, entered guilty pleas in Salt Lake City’s 3rd District Court to three counts of human smuggling, a third-degree felony, and communications fraud, a second-degree felony.

In facts supporting the pleas, his attorney, Scott Williams, said Petersen bought plane tickets for three women who traveled from the Marshall Islands to Utah in 2017 and 2018. Peterson owned and managed the house each lived in and accepted $35,000 from those seeking to adopt their babies, Williams said.

Petersen also did not tell two adoptive parents about an agreement between the U.S. and the Pacific Island nation prohibiting such travel, and did so in order to obtain an adoption contract, Williams told Judge Linda Jones.

Petersen answered brief questions from the judge before responding, “Guilty, your honor,” when she asked for his pleas.

The Friday hearing, held over video, came a day after Petersen admitted to charges of fraudulent schemes and forgery in Arizona. According to his attorney there, Petersen and another person collaborated on getting state-funded health care for adoptive mothers, even though he knew the women didn’t live in Arizona. He agreed to pay $650,000 to that state’s Medicaid system.

Petersen, a Republican, resigned from his job in Arizona as Maricopa County’s assessor in January. An adoption lawyer licensed to practice in Utah, Arizona and Arkansas, he had served a Latter-day Saint mission in the Marshall Islands.

Authorities in Utah have said Petersen brought at least 40 women from the Marshall Islands to the Beehive State to place their babies up for adoption over three years, offering each $10,000. The women received little or no prenatal care before giving birth, prosecutors alleged.

Citizens of the nation have been barred from traveling to the U.S. for adoptions since 2003.

Petersen’s plea bargain in Utah stipulates that prosecutors will recommend one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison, with lesser terms of up to five years for the other three charges to run concurrently. Williams is seeking for the Utah prison sentence to run at the same time as others in Arizona, where his client faces a maximum of nearly 17 years in prison, and in Arkansas, where he is expected to enter guilty pleas next week.

As part of the Utah plea deal, Petersen will also pay $50,000 to the Utah Attorney General’s Office to cover costs it spent to investigate and prosecute the case. He has agreed not to practice law in Utah or work on adoption proceedings here during the length of his sentence.

Williams had previously maintained his client’s innocence and said Petersen was vilified before his side of the story came out.

Utah investigators began looking into the case after receiving calls to a human trafficking tip line involving Marshallese women at LDS Hospital in October 2017.

Agents found several Wasatch Front hospitals noticed an influx of Marshallese women giving birth and placing their babies for adoption. Each reported living at the same West Valley house owned by Petersen, according to court documents.

Petersen was arrested in Arizona on Oct. 8. He originally faced 11 charges in Utah: Four counts of human smuggling, three counts each of sale of a child and communications fraud, and one count of pattern of unlawful activity.

As part of the plea deal and in exchange for his four guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining charges.

Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 13.

This story will be updated following a scheduled afternoon news conference from the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

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