The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed Friday to uphold the suspension and push for the removal of the county assessor, who is charged in a wide-ranging adoption scheme.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is now at the forefront in starting the process to remove Paul Petersen from office.
"I am currently taking the motion by the board under review and determining next steps," Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel stated.
Mr. Petersen was arrested in October and charged in a scheme involving the adoption of babies from the Marshall Islands.
During a special meeting Friday morning, board members said Mr. Petersen’s county laptop held many documents related to his adoption business, including text messages threatening women who had planned to surrender their babies for adoption.
“To say this is disturbing to all of us on the board is certainly an understatement,” said Bill Gates, board chairman.
In a supplemental report released Friday afternoon, officials searched over 55,000 documents, finding over 2,300 of them allegedly related to Mr. Petersen’s law practice and adoption business. They include medical records, adoption services agreements, affidavits, law office bank records, adoption file documents, petitions for adoptions and other documents related to adoption services.
Officials also identified screen shots of text messages related to Mr. Petersen’s law practice and adoption business.
In one, he reportedly said he would remove his name from an apartment to cause a woman to be evicted and that he could sever the parental rights of a father who will not sign adoption papers. One message stated “All you girls work for me, not the other way around.”
Also, Mr. Petersen reportedly sent a letter to the Indiana Division of Family Services in April regarding the determination of a pregnant mother's qualification for Indiana Pregnancy Medicaid.
Officials also determined that someone intentionally conducted two factory resets on Mr. Petersen’s county-issued laptop after it had been requested for inspection. Officials said the resets limited the amount of data they could find.
Officials also found search history with the terms “uninstall Microsoft edge,” “uninstall Microsoft Work,” “remove cookies,” and “download Microsoft word.”
Mr. Petersen’s laptop had also been used to search for two news articles related to Mr. Petersen’s case, documents state.
His alleged accomplice — Lynwood Jennet — recently pleaded guilty to her charges and agreed to testify against Mr. Petersen in future court appearances.
Mr. Petersen is accused of bilking the Arizona Medicaid system out of over $800,000 as part of the alleged adoption fraud scheme.
He faces multiple charges in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas in connection with the alleged adoption fraud scheme.
Mr. Petersen has denied any wrongdoing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
