By Brittni Thomason | AzFamily and CBS 5
After the arrest of County Assessor Paul Petersen in an adoption fraud operation this week, some wonder why it took so long to take him into custody.
Court documents say a judge picked up on Paul Petersen’s scheme 13 years ago. That happened in 2006 when a Phoenix couple was attempting to adopt a Marshallese child. Records say the judge called the legality of Petersen’s adoption process into question, but the practice continued.
“Maybe the judicial system dropped the ball,” said Kaine Fisher, an outside family attorney at Rose Law Group. “I mean these private adoptions were going through and approved over and over and over again in our court systems here in Arizona.”
