Paul Petersen Appears in Utah Court On Baby Selling Charges

PHOENIX, AZ — Paul Petersen, suspended Maricopa County Assessor and adoption attorney accused of human smuggling, appeared in a Utah court Friday morning for the first time since his arrest last month. Petersen is also indicted on dozens of related charges in both Arizona and Arkansas.

This morning, Utah 3rd district Court Judge Linda Jones read to the court the 11 felony charges Petersen is up against in Utah: four counts of human smuggling, three counts of sale of a child, three counts of communications fraud and one count of pattern of unlawful activity.

Petersen’s legal troubles in Utah, according to Utah’s Attorney General Sean Reyes, center on human smuggling, specifically Petersen’s allegedly recruiting and bringing more than 40 pregnant Marshallese women to the state. Then, Petersen allegedly paid them $10,000 to give up their babies for adoptions in Utah. Utah court documents show about $2.7 million deposited into Petersen’s bank account that adoptive families wired money into from Dec. 2016 to September 2018. Most of the deposits in the account had notes stating they were adoption payments.

After Petersen was arrested in October, according to an azcentral.com account, Reyes had called the alleged scheme “simply evil” at a news conference. “The commercialization of children is illegal, and the commoditization of children is simply evil,” he said.

KSL.com reported that Utah court documents previously showed that the pregnant Marshallese women transported to Utah were without money, cellphones or transportation, according to Special Agent Tina Minchey, who worked with the Utah Attorney General's Office to receive victims' and families' phone calls about the adoption ring. Minchey wrote that the women were without those basics so Petersen and his affiliates could allegedly have control of the women. Minchey also wrote that when Petersen was arrested, he was mid-process in transporting six more of the expectant Marshallese women to the state.

After today’s court appearance, Scott Williams, Petersen’s Utah attorney, criticized those whom he thinks have misjudged his client already. Williams called out prosecutors and also particularly Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Apostle Ronald Rasband, who said earlier this week that "The details of this case are sickening." The church is headquartered in Utah.

Williams said Rasband’s comments didn’t uphold due process and that they were inappropriate for the church. “I don’t think the church is taking that position,” Williams said in an account by azcentral.com. “I hope that’s just Mr. Rasband’s comments.”

Williams also spoke of how Petersen’s 15-year adoption efforts to make “happy families” was now stigmatized, and upheld his client’s innocence. “Mr. Petersen had an adoption agency. It operated according to the law and it involved willing participants that were treated fairly, and that’s what the facts are going to show,” he stated.

However, the Utah Attorney General’s Office is still confident in its two-year investigation in the case against Petersen, a spokesman said.