FOX 13 Investigates: Video raises ethical questions about Utah County Attorney's adoption of Native American child
The FOX 13 Investigates team has obtained a video of Utah County Attorney David Leavitt discussing his"strategy” to adopt a Native American baby, allegedly taking advantage of his political influence to overcome a federal law designed to protect Native American children from being adopted by non-Native families.
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘How in the world am I going to do this?’” Leavitt described. “Finally, this strategy comes into my head, and if you’ve got five minutes, I’ll tell you the story.” “At that point, was all ears,” Leavitt continued. “And I said, ‘That’s the second reason why I’m here. The first reason why I’m here is this. We want to adopt one of your people.’”“Tribal Social Services looked at us and said, ‘We’re not giving you this baby,’” Leavitt said. “I just said, ‘You know what? You are shameless.’ I just let her have it with both barrels... There’s such a prejudice in the Native community about a non-Native adopting a Native.
“It’s federal legislation to protect the Native children and Native families to keep them together,” Benally said. “Prior to the act, 25-35 percent of Native children were removed from their home and placed in non-Native homes.” Then he accused Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith of playing politics shortly before the primary election.“This is not a politically motivated investigation,” the sheriff insisted at a press conference. “We won’t be intimidated by Mr. Leavitt, by his attempts to derail our investigation... We do not discuss the names of victims, and we do not discuss the names of suspects.”
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