PHOENIX (AP) – An elected official in metro Phoenix has resigned months after being charged with running a human smuggling operation that paid pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to give up their babies in the U.S.
The resignation of Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen on Tuesday came after leaders in the one of the nation’s most populous counties suspended him and have pressured him to resign since his arrest nearly three months ago. The county’s governing board voted in late December to start the process of removing Petersen, who also works as an adoption attorney.
He is accused of illegally paying women from the Pacific island nation to come to the United States to give up their babies in at least 70 adoption cases in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas over three years.
Citizens of the Marshall Islands have been prohibited from traveling to the U.S. for adoption purposes since 2003.
Petersen is charged with human smuggling in Utah and Arkansas and defrauding Arizona’s Medicaid system by $800,000 by submitting false applications for the women to receive state-funded health coverage.