Concerns raised on state adoption rules

Some view indicted lawyer’s case as example of system’s long-standing flaws

Paul Petersen
Paul Petersen

FAYETTEVILLE -- Gaps in state law made Arkansas a site for suspicious adoptions long before an Arizona adoption lawyer was indicted here, advocates for birth parents and adoptive parents say.

Those advocates include state judges whose calls for changes began at least four years before the 19-count criminal indictment was released.

Paul D. Petersen, 44, of Mesa, Ariz., is to be arraigned Tuesday in federal court in Fayetteville. Kurt Altman, a lawyer from Scottsdale, Ariz., said Friday that his client's case will be tried in the courts based on evidence and not through news outlets. Altman declined further comment.

Petersen also faces adoption-related state charges in Arizona and Utah.

"Make no mistake. This case is the purest form of human trafficking," Duane "Dak" Kees, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, said during a news conference Oct. 9 as the indictment was announced.

Petersen's law firm enticed pregnant Marshall Islanders who were close to giving birth to give up their children for adoption, paid the airfare to bring them to the United States for that purpose and then gave them airfare home, according to the indictment. Such acts were in violation of a clause in a treaty with the islands' government that forbids travel to the United States for adoption purposes, the indictment says.

Michaela Montie, executive director of Shared Beginnings in Fayetteville, said about half of the 19 birth mothers caught up in the Petersen case in Arkansas are area residents. Montie, an adoptive parent of three, founded the adoption advocacy group a year ago to help address what she saw as gaps in the law and in other protections for birth parents in Arkansas.

A birth mother can live in the state for as little as four months and be considered a legal resident. Only a legal resident can have her baby approved for adoption by an Arkansas court, Montie said. This compares with at least six months for legal residency in most other states, she said.

Licensed adoption agencies have detailed bookkeeping requirements that private adoption lawyers don't have to follow in Arkansas. The lawyers are supposed to work out budgets for the mothers' care, with the expenses paid by the adoptive parents. In practice, Montie said, that can be as simple as estimating costs and giving the total to the birth mother in cash.

The adoptive parents in the cases included in the federal indictment paid the expectant mothers' housing and food expenses, which Petersen's firm deliberately inflated, according to the indictment. For instance, adoptive parents paid lodging expenses for the mothers when they were staying in the family home of Maki Takehisa, 39, Petersen's indicted co-conspirator, the indictment says.

Takehisa, of 2006 Cardinal Drive in Springdale, is charged with one count each of money laundering and mail fraud. Takehisa also was charged earlier this year with aiding and abetting alien smuggling, a violation of the Compact of Free Association, the treaty between the U.S. and the Marshall Islands.

There are no requirements for counseling birth mothers on grief or loss, nor are there mandates for family-planning support or social services, Montie said. Trying to address that is a priority for her nonprofit group, she said.

Shared Beginnings became the lead advocate for the 19 birth mothers during an Oct. 11 hearing in Washington County Circuit Court. Andrea McCurdy, legal counsel for Shared Beginnings, was appointed as the attorney ad litem for those women. The cases were taken away from Petersen's law firm.

At last count, 14 of the 19 are receiving some form of assistance through Shared Beginnings, Montie said Friday. Some are approaching their delivery dates, and some recently gave birth, she said.

All are doing well considering the circumstances, since they were largely dependent on Petersen's firm for housing, health care and basic necessities, she said.

Volunteers throughout Northwest Arkansas answered calls for assistance, Montie said. Community Clinic, a nonprofit organization, quickly enrolled the birth mothers in state Medicaid and started providing prenatal and other medical care, she said.

The Hark organization, an affiliate of the Endeavor Foundation in Springdale, was invaluable in finding housing for the birth mothers, Montie said. Many were living in houses provided by Petersen or his law firm's associates, she said.

Other volunteers provided help such as counseling or infant car seats. Among the donations are accumulated airline flight miles so some of the mothers will be able to return to the Marshall Islands, where at least one has children who are in a family member's care.

The adoptive parents who were expecting to get children from these mothers have been supportive despite the uncertainty of whether the adoptions will go through, Montie said.

Those adoptive parents appear to have been unaware of any illegality in the process, she said.

Petersen's scheme started in 2014 and possibly earlier, according to the indictment.

The majority of adoptions approved in Washington County are for Marshallese children, court officials say. The high rate of Marshallese adoptions in Northwest Arkansas has drawn concern from circuit judges in the region for years, Judge Doug Martin has said in the past.

"I didn't have a single Marshallese adoption" in 2009-10, Martin has said. "I spent two years working in Little Rock, and when I returned in 2013, all of a sudden about 90% of those adoptions were Marshallese."

The large number of Marshallese women giving up their children for adoption caused widespread concern among the area's legal, medical and advocacy communities in Northwest Arkansas as early as 2015. They worried that some of the women were signing documents in a language they didn't understand and may not have known that they have no rights to children once the babies are adopted.

In March, Marshall Islands officials charged a Springdale man, Justin Aine, with human trafficking, according to the Marshall Islands Journal. Kees has said Aine's case and Petersen's are linked, but he declined to comment on how or whether the Marshallese government will file charges against Petersen.

Aine, 46, was charged with one count each of trafficking in persons, unlawful solicitation and monetary inducement, according to a report in the Journal.

A Section on 10/28/2019

Upcoming Events