GOP senator who said trans people put girls at “risk” just helped a relative who raped a 13-year-old
State Sen. J. Stuart Adams, Republican leader of the Utah Senate, once said that transgender athletes put cisgender girls at risk. Now, he’s facing criticism for his help to keep his 18-year-old relative out of jail after he raped a 13-year-old girl.
Adams helped change a state law to give his accused relative a lighter sentence. Adams swears he neither requested nor helped draft the 2024 law that aided his relative, but he did ask for the relative’s rape charges to be reconsidered in light of the new law.
Utah state law says that people under the age of 14 can never consent to sex, and the old state statute required that 18-year-olds receive a first-degree child rape felony charge for having sex with anyone 13 years old or younger. The felony charge required the rapist to also register as a sex offender. However, the new law allows accused rapists 18 years old and younger to receive a reduced third-degree felony charge of unlawful sexual activity (and avoid jail time and registration as a sex offender) if they’re enrolled in high school.
Before the new law passed, Adams’ relative was charged with two counts of child rape and two counts of child sodomy (all first-degree felonies), and faced up to 25 years to life in prison as well as a lifetime on the sex offender registry. The relative’s plea deal with state prosecutors had reportedly reached an impasse, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
The new law was drafted by the relative’s defense attorney, Cara Tangaro, and sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore (R) after Adams reportedly confided in him about his relative’s legal charges. The new law, S.B. 213, adjusted various criminal sentences to address “unintended consequences or overly harsh or unfair outcomes” in various criminal charges, Tangaro said.
In this case, the accused rapist had participated in “unlawful adolescent sexual activity,” but he hadn’t also been accused of using force, coercion, or other violent or manipulative means that would support more serious charges of rape, sodomy, or sexual assault. Attorneys also pointed out that, under the old law, if the accused rapist had been 17 and his victim had been 14 years old instead of 13 years old, the accused rapist would’ve been charged with a Class B misdemeanor rather than felony charges.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed S.B. 213 into law on March 19, 2024. Two months later, Tangaro informed Judge Michael DiReda, the judge who was then presiding over the case, that the accused rapist’s plea deal would be changed in light of the new law. As a result, the accused rapist avoided jail time and a lifetime on the sexual offender registry.
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