In a letter submitted to court last year, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams defended his step-granddaughter by recasting her sexual assault of a 13-year-old as misguided compassion, claiming the relationship between the two began as an attempt to make sure the victim “felt included.”
In 2023, Adams’s step-granddaughter, who was 18 at the time, was charged with two counts of rape of a child and two counts of sodomy on a child after she had sex with a 13-year-old minor. Anyone under the age of 14 cannot legally consent to sex in Utah.
Adams has faced harsh criticism after he helped to engineer a legislative change in 2024 that would allow prosecutors to treat certain 18-year-old child rape defendants as minors in specific circumstances. They must still be enrolled in high school, and the sexual activity cannot be coerced. That modification matched the circumstances his grandchild was facing.
Though the change was not retroactive, the prosecutor, judge and defense attorney said the new law was a major factor in a plea deal offered to the defendant. She eventually plead guilty to second-degree felony aggravated assault and three misdemeanor counts of sexual battery. Under the terms of the deal, she spent no additional time in jail and was not required to register as a sex offender.
Adams has rebuffed calls for him to resign for not disclosing the situation involving his granddaughter while the proposed change to the law moved through the legislature. He has defended himself from claims he used his elected position to influence the case, pointing out the change to the law was punishable by a third-degree felony, while the plea deal offered his step-granddaughter carried a higher penalty.
As the plea deal was being considered by the court, Adams and his wife, Susan, submitted a letter of support that appeared to reframe the sexual assault as an act of misguided compassion.
Court documents say that the defendant met the 13-year-old victim through mutual friends. Over the next several months, the two “hung out, would flirt and make out.” Yet the Senate President and his wife attempted to cast this increasingly inappropriate behavior in a different light.
“She is so very concerned about helping those who struggle," they wrote, citing her interactions with a family member who has Down Syndrome.
“Because she is so concerned about others, we can understand perhaps that she would reach out to a younger sibling of some of her friends to make sure he felt included,” they wrote. “It is extremely unfortunate that that encounter resulted in an intimate relationship.”
They added they were “devastated” for everyone involved.
Adams has been accused of improperly using his position as Senate leader to influence the outcome of the case against his granddaughter. The letter filed with the court does not make any mention of his position as a public official.
The remainder of the letter goes into great detail about the impact the case had on their step-granddaughter—the embarrassment of being arrested at school, being unable to walk with her classmates at graduation, and missing numerous family events because she was confined to house arrest.
“We are sure it has been devastating to her not being able to spend time with her cousins and friends,” they wrote.
One of the final paragraphs says they have known their step-granddaughter for ten years, and during that time “she has been around children from ages two to twenty.”
“She appears to be normal in every way. We have not heard of or observed any abnormal behavior,” the letter says.
Adams did not respond to questions or a request for comment from Utah Political Watch.
The letter of support from Adams, along with two other letters from her father and stepmother, were initially classified as private and not available to the public. After Utah Political Watch filed a request for access to the documents, it was determined they initially were misclassified and made public.
