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I should mention before we get started here, this is a show that deals with child sex abuse, so it might not be for everyone.

Back in 2023, the step-granddaughter of Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, who was 18 years old, was charged with two counts of child rape and two counts of child sodomy for having sex with an eighth grader, a 13-year-old.

That's four counts. All of them were first-degree felonies. And it meant Senator Adams' granddaughter, who was still in high school at the time of the crime,

faced a possible sentence of 25 years to life and a lifetime of being on a sex offender registry.

A few weeks ago, the Salt Lake Tribune reporter Robert Gerke published a story that revealed Senator Adams had approached a colleague, Republican Senator Kirk

Colomore during the 2024 legislative session. Colomor was the sponsor of this sprawling

bill with the prosaic title, Criminal Justice Modifications. It fine-tuned this long list of

criminal sentences. And Gerke learned that Adams told Colomor about his granddaughter's predicament just as a plea

arrangement was being worked out.

He told Colomor the law seemed overly harsh and he asked him to, as he put it, look into it.

This week, Gurkie talked to us about how he uncovered the story.

It kind of arose just in a conversation it was having a few months ago. We were talking about

a controversy that had arisen down in Moab, where there was a judge down there who had

sentenced somebody to probation for having child sexual abuse material on his

phone. And there was outrage among the legislature for that. Speaker Schultz, Carrie Ann, Lisenby,

were throwing around the word impeachment. They wanted to investigate this. And this individual

just mentioned in passing that, you know, look what they did for Senate President Stuart Adams.

They changed a law to help Stewart's relative get out of a child sex case.

You know, after I picked my job off the floor, I started digging into it.

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