Supervisors uphold Petersen’s suspension
Embattled county assessor may sue to be reinstated
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted to sustain Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen’s suspension — possibly setting up a lawsuit between the county and the embattled elected official.
The board suspended Petersen in late October following Petersen’s arrest on dozens of felony charges related to his private sector job as an adoption attorney.
Petersen appealed the suspension. After weeks of deliberation, the board decided to keep the suspension in place and voted to recommend that the county attorney pursue Petersen’s removal for willful misconduct while in office.
Petersen’s attorneys have indicated they may take the supervisors to court over the decision.
The Board of Supervisors is the central governing body for the county, but it typically cannot remove other elected officials, such as Petersen, from office.
However, state law does give the board authority to suspend the assessor for up to 120 days for “neglect of duty.” The supervisors said they believe Petersen’s absence from office while incarcerated for nearly three weeks in October qualifies as neglect of duty.
The supervisors also commissioned a review of Petersen’s computer files that showed Petersen used his county computer to perform duties related to his private law business.
During Friday’s meeting, Chairman Bill Gates revealed additional information found on Petersen’s county laptop, including “shocking” text messages that appeared to show Petersen threatening birth mothers who wanted to back out of adoptions.
Petersen faces felony charges in Arizona, Arkansas and Utah. In Arizona, he is accused of illegally arranging for 28 pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to fly to Arizona, to live in a
house he owns and to deliver their babies — paid for by the state’s Medicaid system — before placing them for adoption.
Petersen has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was released from custody after posting bail in late October.
Report: Petersen’s laptop wiped
Consultants hired by the county to review Petersen’s work performance released a supplemental report Friday that shows Petersen’s county laptop was wiped before it was seized by investigators.
The Microsoft Surface laptop, which was purchased by the county for Petersen for $2,199 in 2017, was wiped twice, according to investigators: once the day after he was released from custody and again on Nov. 12, after he had appealed his suspension.
The county attorney asked Petersen to turn over the laptop for the county’s investigation on Nov. 13. Petersen’s attorneys said he would, but he did not.
Investigators found that days after the county requested Petersen to turn over the laptop, someone used the laptop to search for “uninstall Microsoft Word,” “remove cookies” and “uninstall Microsoft Edge.”
The two “factory resets” of the computer destroyed most of the data that was once stored on the laptop, according to investigators. But the computer was linked to a cloud storage system, which allowed investigators to recover a “small amount of data.”
Investigators found that wiping the laptop may have been a criminal act. In the report, they wrote that the removal of data from the laptop may constitute destruction of public records and tampering of evidence.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office seized the laptop after obtaining a search warrant on Dec. 3.
‘All you girls work for me’
In the recovered data, investigators said they found more evidence that Petersen used his county computer to perform duties related to his private law office, including:
❚ A text message stating, “All you girls work for me, not the other way around.”
❚ A text message advising a woman that if she backed out of an adoption, he would remove his name from her apartment lease, causing her to be evicted.
❚ A text message stating that Petersen could sever the parental rights of a father who wouldn’t sign adoption papers.
❚ A letter to the Indiana Department of Health Services about Medicaid qualifications for a pregnant mother.
❚ Documents showing multiple bank transfers to Lynwood Jennet, Petersen’s co-defendant in his Arizona criminal case.
❚ Tax forms from Petersen’s law office issued to some of the individuals named in the criminal indictment against Petersen.
“Mr. Petersen also has a duty to protect county property, and he failed to fulfill that duty when he allowed that county computer to be used for that private adoption practice,” Gates said during Friday’s meeting.
What happens next?
The Board of Supervisors could end up in court for its decision to suspend Petersen.
Prior to the board’s Friday vote, Petersen’s political attorney Kory Langhofer said he intended to sue the board unless it reversed Petersen’s suspension.
Langhofer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
But the 120-day suspension — which is half-way over — may be just the beginning for Petersen. The board also voted unanimously to recommend County Attorney Allister Adel pursue removing Petersen from office permanently.
State law allows for the county attorney to call a grand jury to consider “willful or corrupt misconduct in office.” If the grand jury decides to accuse Petersen of misconduct, the issue would go to a trial where a jury would decide whether he should be removed from office.
In a statement, Adel said, “I am currently taking the motion by the board under review and determining next steps.”
If Adel does not decide to pursue removal, Petersen’s suspension will stop at the end of February and he will be allowed to return to work.