Paul Petersen was sentenced Friday to five years in an Arizona prison on fraud and forgery charges related to his illegal adoption scheme.

The former Maricopa County assessor will serve that sentence on top of a 74-month federal prison term that began in January, meaning he will be incarcerated for at least 11 years before he is eligible for release.

 A judge in Maricopa County Superior Court gave Petersen a 10.5-year term but ordered all but five years to run concurrently with the other sentence.   

Santa Cruz Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink, who presided over the case, said Petersen engaged in separate crimes to deceive the court about adoptions, to steal taxpayer money and to subvert the legal process as part of his adoption scheme.

Petersen admitted to fraudulently enrolling birth mothers in Arizona’s Medicaid system and cheating the state out of $800,000 as part of his adoption business. He also admitted forging documents to boost the fees he charged adoptive parents.

In addition to the fraud charges in Arizona, Petersen pleaded guilty last year to a federal human smuggling charge in Arkansas and human trafficking charges in Utah.

Fink rejected arguments by Petersen’s lawyers that the separate charges should be considered as part of the same crime. He said smuggling women from the Marshall Islands to give birth in the United State was distinct from defrauding Arizona taxpayers and lying to the court.

Fink said Petersen did all of it to put money in his own pocket.

Petersen could have gotten 16.5 years in Arizona in addition to the federal charge, which he began serving on Jan. 21 in a prison near El Paso.

Petersen, appearing in person an orange jumpsuit with a scruffy beard and his hands handcuffed in front of him, wiped away tears as he addressed the court. He said he takes responsibility for his crimes and apologized for hurting families.

He said he has learned his lesson. 

“I promise to this court now, I’m never going to grace the halls of a court again,” he said. 

His attorney told the judge before the sentence was handed down that stacking on additional time to Petersen’s federal sentence would not serve the interests of justice.

Phoenix lawyer Kurt Altman asked Fink to make any state sentence run concurrently.

In a March 10 motion, Altman argued that Fink should not consider Petersen’s adoption scheme and instead focus solely on the fraud and forgery charges.

Altman said Fink should dismiss arguments by state prosecutors tying the fraud to the adoptions, which he described as “irrelevant.” The “actual legality” of the adoptions is unrelated to the fraud, he said.

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Petersen was arrested in October 2019. Federal and state authorities said he created a pipeline to bring women to the U.S. from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, arranged for them to give birth in local hospitals and set up adoptions of their babies to American families for up to $40,000 each.

Authorities said Petersen and his associates convinced as many as 70 women to give up their babies.

Virtually all of the adoptions Petersen arranged through his Mesa law office were with birth mothers from the Marshall Islands.

Citizens of the Marshall Islands, which is located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the Philippines, can travel to the U.S. freely under the Compact of Free Association between the two countries. 

In 2003, the compact was amended to forbid women from traveling for adoption purposes.

Petersen resigned as county assessor in 2020 to focus on his criminal defense. He was first elected in 2014 and again in 2016. His taxpayer-funded salary was about $77,000 per year. 

But Petersen’s biggest money-making operation was his private adoption business.

Contracts, texts, emails and internal documents obtained by The Arizona Republic showed Petersen treated the birth mothers and their children like monetary transactions.

He moved multiple women in and out of homes he owned in Mesa, outside Salt Lake City and Springdale, Arkansas; took cuts for living expenses out of money he promised birth mothers; and made them live in cramped, squalid conditions.

Altman said in his motion that Petersen is “embarrassed and greatly ashamed of his conduct.”

He reminded the court that Petersen repaid the state $679,000 in restitution as part of his plea deal.

Even if Fink agrees not to give Petersen additional time in Arizona, he still faces the prospect of 15 years in a Utah prison. 

Petersen’s sentencing date there will be determined after Friday’s hearing.

Robert Anglen investigates consumer issues for The Republic. If you’re the victim of fraud, waste or abuse, reach him at [email protected] or 602-444-8694. Follow him on Twitter @robertanglen.

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