LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — When the leading Democratic presidential candidates marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day by linking arms and marching through South Carolina’s capital, Michael Bloomberg was nowhere near the early primary state. The former New York mayor was instead in Arkansas, tossing out candy at a King […]
PHOENIX (AP) — Officials in Arizona have hired two law firms and a former attorney general to investigate an elected county assessor who is trying to keep his job as he defends himself against human smuggling charges. Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel said Tuesday that the lawyers will investigate Maricopa […]
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An Arizona elected official charged with running an adoption-fraud scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands ran a legal practice and “made happy families,” his attorney said Friday. Paul Petersen, county assessor in the Phoenix area, had long arranged adoptions between women from the Pacific […]
PHOENIX (AP) — A leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says he is “disgusted” by an Arizona elected official and church member accused of running an adoption scheme. Ronald Rasband, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, told The Arizona Republic the church leadership has found […]
PHOENIX (AP) — An elected official in metro Phoenix has pleaded not guilty to fraud and theft charges stemming from an alleged human smuggling scheme involving pregnant women from the Marshall Islands who were brought to the U.S. to give birth for adoptions. Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen, who in […]
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah judge has reduced the bail for an Arizona county elected official charged in an alleged human smuggling scheme involving pregnant women. The Deseret News reports that a district judge Friday reduced Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen’s bail to $150,000 from $3 million. Charges against Petersen […]
PHOENIX (AP) — The president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands is applauding U.S. authorities for arresting an Arizona elected official accused of running an illegal adoption scheme involving pregnant Marshallese women. President Hilda Heine issued a statement Thursday saying people like Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen have been […]
PHOENIX (AP) — A lawyer for an Arizona elected official charged in three states with facilitating an illegal international adoption scheme said Tuesday prosecutors have miscast his client as a human smuggler. Attorney Matt Long said Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen cares deeply for the mothers from the Marshall Islands […]
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona elected official facing human smuggling charges over an adoption scheme is in federal custody. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix said Friday that County Assessor Paul Petersen was no longer in their jail. It was not immediately known where he was transferred. Petersen is […]
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas’ governor says he doesn’t expect federal officials to approve the state’s plan to lower the eligibility cap for its Medicaid expansion program anytime soon after a similar proposal was rejected last month. Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters Wednesday that the state hasn’t received a […]
