Phoenix • 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.