Arizona adoption lawyer pleads guilty in Marshallese adoptions case

FAYETTEVILLE -- Adoption attorney Paul Petersen's conviction Wednesday for human trafficking of Marshall Islander birth mothers isn't expected to be the last such case, U.S. Attorney Clay Fowlkes said.

"For a long time, Marshall Islanders have been taken advantage of and exploited," Fowlkes said Wednesday afternoon. Arkansas has the largest population of Marshall Islanders living in the U.S. outside of Hawaii, according to U.S. Census figures.

Petersen, 44, of Mesa, Ariz., pleaded guilty to illegally paying pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to come to the United States to give up their babies for adoption. He was indicted in October for running a human trafficking operation in three states: Arkansas, Arizona and Utah. He pleaded guilty last week to charges in the other two states.

The relatively large number of Marshallese adoptions in Northwest Arkansas has drawn the attention of judges, attorneys, lawmakers and Marshallese community leaders since at least 2015, according to their statements in news accounts. They worried some of the women were signing documents in a language they didn't understand and may not know they have no rights to the child once the baby is adopted.

As many as nine of 10 adoptions granted in Northwest Arkansas involved a Marshallese birth mother by 2018, according to Washington County Circuit Judge Doug Martin.

Petersen kept as many as 12 pregnant women at a time in a single-family home in Springdale as part of his adoption practice, according to court documents. As many as 10 at a time lived at another home in De Queen, according to statements made at Wednesday's hearing.

News reports in Arizona at the time of Petersen's arrest quoted law enforcement officials saying they found nine women in the same house in that state.

For now, the impact of the long-awaited verdict against Petersen cannot be assessed by a Marshallese community in crisis over covid-19 sickness and deaths, said Rep. Megan Godfrey, D- Springdale. Godfrey's district has the highest concentration of Marshallese of any state House district in the area. Local Marshallese leaders are completely focused on that issue now, she said.

Marshallese, who represent fewer than 3% of Northwest Arkansas' population, have suffered at least 19 deaths from covid-19, state figures show.

Leaders of Marshallese groups didn't return requests for comment on Petersen.

Shutting down Petersen's illegal operation left at least 13 couples who expected to be adoptive parents in a legal tangle in Arkansas. Those couples sued in Washington County Circuit Court, a legal action kept under seal as is routine in family court matters. None of the would-be adoptive parents who hired Petersen's law firm are implicated in the scheme. They had no knowledge the birth mothers were being brought to the United State illegally, the U.S. attorney's office has said.

Fowlkes complemented the Diplomatic Security Service, a branch of the U.S. State Department that navigated the investigation's international law and language barriers. Now that partnership knows how to succeed in these complex investigations, he said.

"It is our sincere hope that this case is not the last one," Fowlkes said. "Stay tuned."

The case's impact extends far beyond courtrooms, said Justin Heimer, an adoption attorney in Fayetteville who testified as an expert witness in the Washington County Circuit Court case involving Petersen and the would-be adoptive parents.

"What has happened is that now the general public knows what just a few people knew about before," Heimer said Wednesday.

The federal investigation started in Northwest Arkansas in 2014 after local bar associations brought Petersen's adoption practices to the attention of federal investigators, according to court documents.

"The community at large really reacted to what was happening when this became public," Heimer said. "They learned they needed to help the Marshallese."

Shared Beginnings, a local, nonprofit adoption counseling service, set up a program specifically tailored for the Marshallese after the indictments, for example, Heimer said.

"We realized the Marshallese are our neighbors," he said.

"The work isn't done," Heimer said. "There are still bad actors with the same predatory practices -- and that's all I'm going to say."

Citizens of the Marshall Islands, a Pacific island nation, cannot legally travel to the U.S. for the sole purpose of giving up babies for adoption. The restriction is under a specific provision of a treaty between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands are a former territory of the United States about 2,000 miles west of Hawaii.

U.S. Census figures are a serious undercount, according to local Marshallese leaders. The island republic has a consulate in Springdale because of the size of the population here, estimated by Marshallese community leaders to be about 15,000.

Fowlkes is U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, which stretches from the Missouri border to the Louisiana border. The Marshallese community in Northwest Arkansas is the state's largest, but Marshallese communities are also present in De Queen in south Arkansas, Mena in west Arkansas and elsewhere, he said.

Petersen pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. He and his attorney appeared by video link from Arizona in front of U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks in Fayetteville. The federal government, unlike states, will be able to use information gathered on the other 18 counts in the sentencing of Petersen, Fowlkes said.

Fowlkes and Petersen's attorney Kurt Altman, reached a plea agreement Friday, according to statements made at the hearing. Wednesday's conference was held by video because of the covid-19 pandemic.

The plea agreement includes a provision any prison sentence Petersen receives will run concurrently with any sentences he receives in Arizona and Utah. Brooks left Petersen free on bond, but restricted his travel to Maricopa County, Ariz., unless specific trips are approved by his federal probation officer there.

Petersen was the elected Maricopa County assessor before his arrest. He resigned after the county board suspended him after determining it lacked legal authority to fire him.

The federal indictment against Petersen consisted of one count of conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens for commercial advantage and private financial gain, which is the count he pleaded guilty to Wednesday.

The other counts dismissed under the plea agreement are: four counts of aiding and abetting alien smuggling for commercial advantage and private financial gain; seven counts of wire fraud; five counts of mail fraud; one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Petersen opened a branch of his law firm's office in Fayetteville in 2014, according to court records. Investigators estimated that branch handled about 30 adoptions a year. The firm's standard fee for an adoption in Arkansas was $10,000 up front and $25,000 upon completion of the adoption, court records say.

Petersen pleaded guilty in Utah state courts Friday to three counts of human smuggling and one count of communications fraud, all felonies. He pleaded guilty to state charges of Medicaid fraud in Arizona on Thursday for signing up Marshallese birth mothers for prenatal care and for delivery when such benefits are reserved for permanent Arizona residents in that state. The charges in Arizona said some of the birth mothers stayed in that state for four months.

The women taken to Utah to give birth received little or no prenatal care, prosecutors said in court documents. Their passports also were taken while they were in the U.S. in a step to assert control over them, authorities said.

Doug Thompson can be reached by email at dthompson@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWADoug