Assessor Wrongly Convicted of Human Trafficking Forced Into Taking Guilty Plea

When powerful authorities want to get you, they have a good chance of getting you. The average person doesn’t have the finances to defend against the unlimited, taxpayer-funded pockets of the government. If prosecutors think they may not have a good chance of convicting you at trial, they can threaten to stack felony charges, so if you are found guilty at trial you could end up with what amounts to a life sentence. This terrifies people, not knowing for sure how the trial could turn out especially if they can’t afford a powerful legal team, so they accept a guilty plea that will result in a relatively short sentence. But everyone then thinks they must have been guilty. Prosecutors particularly like to target conservative politicians.

This is what happened to former Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen. He had an impeccable history, active in his faith community and a family man specializing in adoptions since 2005. People who worked with him in county government told me he is an upstanding citizen. But in 2019, federal prosecutors and prosecutors in three states came after him for his adoptions, with some claiming he had engaged in human trafficking since the adoptions involved bringing pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to the U.S. I covered this in a previous article, explaining how it wasn’t human trafficking. What likely started all this is the Marshall Islands government filed complaints with U.S. prosecutors since they didn’t like competition arranging these types of adoptions.

Facing prosecutions in four different jurisdictions where the mothers gave birth, Petersen was threatened with stacked felonies in Arizona if he went to trial. Prosecutors threatened to reindict him on what were essentially multiple paperwork violations, making it look like he was a prior offender. If he was found guilty at trial on just three counts, he would be sentenced to 15 years in prison, which the judge has no discretion to change. Prosecutors had seized his property and money under civil forfeiture laws, so he had no money to defend himself. They made it impossible for him to defend himself in four different criminal trials. He has several young children who he didn’t want to grow up without him and didn't want to lose his ability to support them, so he took the guilty pleas.

In Arizona, he admitted to three counts of fraud and one count of forgery for illegally accessing Arizona's Medicaid system to pay for the medical care of Marshallese birth mothers. Prosecutors said he engaged in $1 million dollars of Medicaid fraud. In reality, the mothers became residents after they moved to Arizona. They are legally allowed to use Medicaid to give birth. Illegal immigrants get their births paid for, so why shouldn’t poor women who legally come over the border? Petersen paid $10,000 for one mother’s medical bills and living expenses up until the actual birth. But prosecutors claimed that Petersen engaged in Medicare fraud since Medicare paid for complications after the baby was born (the baby ended up dying). But in Petersen’s contracts with the adoptive parents, they are supposed to assume costs after the birth.

Another count was due to a paperwork error. Instead of saying one of the pregnant women had been in the country for one month, Petersen put down four to five months. The adoptive parents said the $11,000 from Medicaid that went to her due to this was Petersen unjustly enriching himself. Prosecutors wanted a personal victim to showcase. But the adoptive parents weren’t victims.

In Utah, he pled guilty to three counts of human smuggling and one count of communications fraud for not telling adoptive parents that he was breaking the law when he charged them for his services. But he didn’t think he was breaking the law.

Similarly, in Arkansas, he pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens for private financial gain. In reality, they weren’t illegal, Marshallese are allowed to come into the U.S. and don’t need visas. One of the FBI agents on the case, who had been involved with human smuggling cases for years, said it wasn’t human smuggling.

But Petersen could not bring up any defense against these counts, or he would not be allowed to take the plea. He had to say he knew what he was doing was wrong.

No state bars have initiated a complaint against him. This is telling because state bars are notorious for going after attorneys for things unrelated to law, especially criminal prosecutions, and they aren’t concerned about holding off their investigation until after the prosecution has ended. Not to mention state bars are controlled by the left and have a history of targeting conservative attorneys.

Petersen will be sentenced to prison later this year. He is likely looking at a minimum of four to five years in prison, with multiple sentences running concurrently. This is unfortunate because many other people in his situation would have been dealt with civilly through the law, perhaps a fine and correcting paperwork. An adoption attorney from Hawaii in the business for 30 years using the same adoption practices with Marshallese pregnant mothers was not charged with anything. If his actions were so terrible, why was he allowed to conduct these types of adoptions from the Marshallese Islands going back to 2005? Usually, we think of powerful politicians being above the law — no matter what Hillary Clinton does, no one will prosecute her. But sometimes prosecutors set their sights on someone in elected office who they know they can easily take out, and then hold them up as an example of, “See, we go after elected officials too.”

I’m having some trouble feeling sorry for this guy.

I understand the argument that the government can get you if it wants to because of its resources.

But this guy was aiding and abetting illegal immigration. Those people shouldn’t have rights, and people like him should get the book thrown at him.

The comparison with the benefits offered Mexican border jumpers is specious. They should be tossed back across the border to their home country, perhaps after some medical triage.

They’ve practically made US adoptions impossible, and all these countries that hate the US have made their adoptions impossible too...better for the kids to be neglected in their lousy orphanages and then dumped onto the streets than be adopted by an American.

It’s all politics, and the attack on this guy, who was helping both Americans and foreigners, was clearly sponsored by the pro-abortion folks, because they want to stop adoption and indirectly illegalize it through strategies such as this.

If the prosecutor wants to convict you, there is little an innocent person can do. This is why I do not trust government, and am opposed to the death penalty. Once you’re dead, there is little chance the prosecutor will be challenged.

And the prosecutor has already moved up in his career, by claiming to have closed so many cases.

Yes, folks that can afford good lawyers generally get a better outcome than those using public defenders. But even this sympathetic spin story can’t make the guy sound clean.

No state bars have initiated a complaint against him.

Not sure this is true.

"The State Bar of Arizona initiated a complaint against ex-Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen, who is facing charges over his adoption business."
https://www.onenewspage.com/n/US/1zlq13j5mj/State-Bar-of-Arizona-investigating-Paul-Petersen-over.htm

From January.

“In reality, they weren’t illegal, Marshallese are allowed to come into the U.S. and don’t need visas. One of the FBI agents on the case, who had been involved with human smuggling cases for years, said it wasn’t human smuggling.”

I did read that.

But it sounds a bit hinky... facilitating the handout of citizenship by birth and running a multi-country adoption trade.

In a way, its reminiscent of what I’ve heard of Justice Roberts’ circuitous adoption route of Irish orphans in some South American country, although the details vary. Legal... but, still...

If the prosecutor wants to convict you, there is little an innocent person can do. This is why I do not trust government, and am opposed to the death penalty.

Absolutely correct, and why I oppose capital punishment.

I have some personal experience with a prosecution gone crazy, someone I know was setup to take the fall for what seems to have been some money laundering. This person had a public defender, and basically the public defender was worthless. This person ended up pleading no contest to some charges, even though they were 100% innocent. 2 years house arrest, plus some other issues that lingered for about 20 years before it was finally dismissed. Nearly ruined their lives. I have not looked at the criminal justice system the same since... its a game.

“Absolutely correct, and why I oppose capital punishment.”

Ditto here. I think the problems with the justice system extends way beyond the police. I think the prosecutors are the ones who need to be scrutinized. They are the ones pushing people into these terror pleas. I have seen a couple of stories where people are arrested on the basis of a notoriously unreliable road side drug test. They are pushed to accept a plea of a couple of months, or go to trial and face life. Of course people will take the plea even if the didn’t do it. In one case a couple of months after the guy got out the crime lab comes back and says it was donut icing, not meth. I’m surprised the prosecutor didn’t come back and charge him with lying to a police officer.

There is also a big problem with civil asset forfeiture. The Dems have not come out against any of this. It makes me wonder if they are not keeping that powder dry for future use. Against us.

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