UT7 - David Hamblin Utah County Mormon Ritual Abuse
Introduction
This was sent to me by the flying cuttlefish [2] which is very timely, thankyou, as it will save me masses of time composing a post on Hamblin. This summary and comments gives a good view of what is happening.
Before that David Leavitt, the current Utah County Attorney and named by two witnesses in ritual abuse was voted out. That makes it hopefully alot more difficult to him to avoid any possible justice coming his way. However he is still Attorney until about January I think.
The other recent development was his naming in possible child trafficking - adopting a native american child with maybe a quid pro quo of the tribe selling buffalo skins to Ukraine!!! “Kyiv is as much a home city for us as Provo or Salt Lake is,” he said!!!
The main current Utah ritual abuse investigation revolves around an case that was dropped but left open against Hamblin from 2012-14, involving abuse some time before that. It is in that case that Leavitt is named by two witnesses.
Leavitt for some reason appears keen on bringing up Arthur Knight, who is possibly rape suspect Rossi into the conversation whenever he can. Knight appears to have nothing directly to do with Utah/Mormon ritual abuse cases and Leavitt appears to be using him as a distraction and possibly trying to disparage any information Knight may give to authorities about Leavitt himself. The distraction worked for a while as when I was new to the case I wrote this mainly to cover a possible British angle to the case. 2022 Jun 21 cathyfoxblog UT2- Rapist Suspect linked to Mormon Ritual Abuse Scandal Still Delaying Extradition from Glasgow to US [UT42]
Wombaticus also covers a bit of that here, as well as the election and a useful timeline and much else. The following is cut and pasted and a poster quoting a previous one doesn't come out particularly well here on the formatting so for clarity check the original link - 2022 Jun 25 Rigorous Intuition David Lee Hamblin / Utah SRA Case mostly written by Wombaticus Rex starting on Sat Jun 25, [1] or archive [1a]
A lot to unpack here.
I'm surprised there hasn't been any discussion of this case here yet, but I've also been holding off on starting a thread for weeks now. Like a lot of curious cats around this beautiful country, I was first hipped to this strange saga when one David Okerlund Leavitt, County Attorney for Utah County, Utah and running for a contested re-election, held a perhaps inadvisable press conference to assure all & sundry that he was not, in fact, a child-molesting cannibal. That was Wednesday, June 1st.
He referred to a 151 page document that outlined accusations of an abuse / CSAM ring involving over a dozen families, claimed it was an "outlandish" "pack of lies," and insinuated it was only being brought up because of a fugitive from a 2008 rape charge in Utah who faked his own death. This is, I regret, only the very beginning.
However, after many unpleasant evenings and days of working the angles and following leads, there is without question something concrete here, and that is the case of David Lee Hamblin, licensed clinical psychologist, fake peyote church medicine man, and serial abuser creepshow.
The personage of Nicholas Alahverdian aka Nicholas Rossi aka "Arthur Knight" is a thread unto himself but quite tangential to this story, despite his daily efforts to make himself the center of it. His biography has some very curious details, one of which involves Boys Town in Nebraska, but I am unable to verify a word of it.
The personage of David Leavitt is implicated in three of the victim testimonies, all of them Grand Guignol lurid. By his own admission, he knew Hamblin while the alleged abuse was taking place, stating in the press conference that "This therapist was my elders quorum president in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was my neighbor. I had a family connection."
Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith has been clear all along that the case his department is currently investigating is focused on Hamblin, not allegations of a larger cult / abuse ring. The case is driven not by the statements from Hamblin's daughters, filed in 2012, but by the statement from Brett Bluth. I believe but cannot confirm that statement is from 2013, and was later corroborated by a 2015 call from another victim of Hamblin, who described a very similar M.O., and was participating in Hamblin's peyote-based "therapy" group.
(This was incorporated in 2011 as TAHTEYA TOPA (FOUR WINDS) NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH with Eldon Talley and Wayne Jones Hintze. Talley is a knife maker of much repute, and Hintze has an eminently spooky and typically Mormon/IC bio. Talley's daughter has blogged about Hamblin being her "medicine man" circa 2007.)
The allegations against Hamblin are a contradictory spectrum. Abuse charges involving his daughters were initially filed in 2000, while Hamblin and his then-wife, Roselle Anderson, were going through a protracted and contested divorce. While these statements are horrific, detailing years of abuse beginning in infancy, they do not include any mention of a larger abuse network, and do not identify Roselle Anderson as a perpetrator.
The 2012 charges are much different, outlining the familiar contours of a multi-family, inter-generational, Satanic Ritual Abuse network. Roselle Anderson is identified as a (particularly sadistic) perpetrator along with her parents. Many other prominent Provo area families are also mentioned, with surprisingly few redactions along the way since many of them are now deceased. Many atrocities and murders are described along the way.
Then there is the Brett Bluth material: he was referred to Hamblin by his Bishop, Conrad Cotfredson of the Alpine stake. He was fighting with the realization he was homosexual and wanted an alternative to "conversion therapy." He states that Hamblin insisted 1) he was being successfully hypnotized (Bluth does not believe this) and 2) during these inducted trance states, he related a detailed story of being raised in a Satanic Ritual Abuse cult.
This escalated until Hamblin was sexually assaulting Bluth, in his office, in order to "heal" him. This pattern of abuse is corroborated by the 2015 statement from the peyote group caller, and according to police reports, corroborated by additional witnesses there are (to my knowledge) no FOIA releases or documentation for.
While it may seem at first glance that all these different narratives cannot be true, from a strategic perspective, there is a clear utility in abusing the client-therapist power dynamic to seed false SRA allegations while you yourself are actively engaged in actual SRA activity. That said, I personally remain agnostic on the overall murky landscape here, but have become certain there's definitely something strange afoot in Zion.
A couple final points. I have multiple documents going and I'm wrapping up the first draft of a timeline, but I'm not trying to write an essay here, just start a thread.
1. LDS has been dealing with SRA allegations for decades, some of which are credible, and a disturbing number of those credible cases overlap with the same locations and families. All of the many problems that plague SRA cases apply here. At a minimum, though, it is clear that the Mormon hierarchy has had a system set up for decades now in order to cover up child abuse cases "in house" rather than report felony abuse to law enforcement. So at a minimum, then, this is what Leavitt is responding to: the need to protect one of the wealthiest and most powerful institutions in the United States from billions upon billions of dollars of litigation.
2. David Leavitt is likely a State Dept / CIA spook who has been involved with ongoing operations in Ukraine. He runs a nonprofit charity front, The Leavitt Institute for International Development (site), in cooperation with the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). His work brought him to Ukraine just before the Orange Revolution, where his office overlooked Independence Square. He later had to leave in a rush. He was also in a rush to get to his apartment in Kyiv to "secure documents" and "collect some personal effects" as the latest conflict with Russia broke out. Then he was looking to find 500 familieson behalf of an anonymous donor to get out of Ukraine and into the United States. Just regular County Attorney things.
3. David Leavitt's older brother Michael was Governor of Utah for three terms, as well as a Bush admin appointee and a confidant to the Romney family and campaign.
4. The history of "peyote churches" in the Southwest is packed with weird shit, cult fronts, intelligence assets, and the usual cornucopia of organized crime activity that takes advantage of The Rez no matter what the tribe. In this specific case, Hamblin's long-standing access to peyote, and track record of using it to manipulate others, needs to be considered in connection with the more lurid and occult aspects of the victim testimony.
5. Finally, Hamblin's wife indicated in a statement to the court that she found out David Hamblin led a parallel life, complete with wives, in the Manti polygamy abuse network run by James Harmson, the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ Saints of the Last Days. Harmson is also indicated as a cult perpetrator in the 2012 era testimony of Hamblin's daughters. I have not had the time yet to engage with the abundant material surrounding this monster or his, uh, "church" yet.
Last edited by Wombaticus Rex on Sat Jun 25, 2022 2:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Wombaticus Rex » Sat Jun 25, 2022 12:13 pm wrote:
2. David Leavitt is likely a State Dept / CIA spook who has been involved with ongoing operations in Ukraine. He runs a nonprofit charity front, The Leavitt Institute for International Development (site), in cooperation with the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). His work brought him to Ukraine just before the Orange Revolution, where his office overlooked Independence Square. He later had to leave in a rush. He was also in a rush to get to his apartment in Kyiv to "secure documents" and "collect some personal effects" as the latest conflict with Russia broke out. Then he was looking to find 500 familieson behalf of an anonymous donor to get out of Ukraine and into the United States. Just regular County Attorney things.
I am consistently distracted by how bizarre it was to hold a press conference at all. Unsure whether Leavitt has difficulty distinguishing himself from his office or whether it was a very deliberate bid to interfere with an ongoing investigation. Perhaps a mix of both.
Leavitt has also been publicly feuding with a local reporter, Adam Herbets of FOX 13, even admonishing him with a stern finger during his June 1st press conference. The arrogance of this behavior is every bit as striking as the unprofessional conduct aspects.
Speaking of glib arrogance: I was mistaken about the "into the United States" aspect of his current mission on behalf of an anonymous donor. The 500 families in question will not be leaving Ukraine, just receiving "support for an entire year."
UTAH COUNTY, Utah — Utah County Attorney David Leavitt is heading to Ukraine to help an anonymous donor select 500 families to support for an entire year.
“He wants to be generous, but he doesn’t necessarily want the credit for it,” Leavitt said.
Finding 500 families to support
To help with this generous donation, Leavitt will be on the ground in Ukraine trying to identify those 500 families. Once the families are identified, Leavitt says Visa gift cards will be provided to each family for immediate financial assistance until bank accounts can be set up.
“Really what we’re trying to do is humanize what’s going on in people’s lives,” he said.
Leavitt is more than familiar with the war-torn country, it’s almost a home away from home of sorts for Leavitt and his wife. For 14 years (2004 to 2018), they worked in legal reform efforts in Ukraine as part of The Leavitt Institute for International Development.
“Our role was to teach the jury trial and American criminal law in 35 law schools throughout Ukraine and Moldova,” Leavitt said.
During their time there, the Leavitts made many friends, and even have a home there.
“Kyiv is as much a home city for us as Provo or Salt Lake is,” he said.
Second trip to Ukraine
This is the second trip to Ukraine this year for Leavitt. He says he was there just before the Russian invasion to take care of some personal family issues, regarding their home.
“And now we’re going back to help our friends and others who are refugees,” Leavitt said.
The process of identifying the families that will be supported figures to be a huge undertaking.
“We are taking applications and hearing stories and trying to identify people who have lost everything,” he said.
Getting to Ukraine won’t be easy, however. Leavitt says he will first fly from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam. From there, he will fly to Romania, and will travel by ground the rest of the way into Ukraine.
As I mentioned, Leavitt has done the Amsterdam thing quite recently:
Utah County Attorney David Leavitt makes quick exit out of Ukraine, but is now stuck in Amsterdam with COVID-19
Jessica Miller - Jan 26
When Utah County Attorney David Leavitt decided to go to Ukraine earlier this week to collect documents from his Kyiv apartment, he’d planned for several contingencies in case the city was invaded by the Russian military.
He had extra cash in case the internet went down and the ATMs didn’t work. He’d also rented a car, deciding it safest to not rely on public transportation in case the trains stopped running.
But something unexpected happened that halted what was supposed to be a quick trip to Ukraine to gather a few personal items: Leavitt is stuck in Amsterdam after he tested positive for COVID-19.
It’s the second time Leavitt has been ill with the coronavirus.
Leavitt, who taught in Ukraine with the American Bar Association for more than a decade, has owned an apartment in Kyiv for several years. With news of a threat of a Russian invasion, Leavitt said in an interview on Wednesday that he’d booked the hasty trip to Ukraine to get paperwork proving ownership of his apartment and to collect some personal effects.
“We flew from Salt Lake to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Kiev,” he said Wednesday, “and spent 24 hours there and got things taken care of then visited with some close friends of ours.”
Leavitt jumped on the nCoV bandwagon back in April 2020 during his failed campaign for Utah Attorney General
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Omitting a lot of personal details, especially on his family, because I don't want to cause any problems for the board. All report number references are to the FOIA/GRAMA source documents. I'm very curious to find out more about when and why Hamblin and his family were in New York state.
Current Hamblin timeline:
1987 - January - Hamblin's dissertation "SENSITIVITY TO THERAPIST VALUES, VALUE CONVERGENCE AND OUTCOME IN GROUP COGNITIVE THERAPY"
1987 - DH graduates from University of Arizona
1988 - July 11 - DH licensed as psychologist - state of New York
1989 - January 31 - Licensed as psychologist - no. 115145-2501 - state of Utah
1993 - August 21 - Sterling Van Wagenen calls police to confess to fondling incident on August 15th. States he is in therapy with David Hamblin in Provo.
1994 - Brett Bluth becomes a client of David Hamblin at the referral of Bishop Conrad Cotfredson in Alpine, Utah
1995 - May - "under pressure from increased publicity and mounting legal problems, the LDS Church announced a toll-free phone number for reporting child abuse directly to church headquarters, 1-800- 453-3860, ext. 1911"
1996 - Hamblin refers Brett Bluth to peyote ceremonies
1998 - Bluth confronts Hamblin in his office with help from his father and Joe Bennion
1998 - Roselle Hamblin alleges at least two separate domestic assaults by DH
1998 - Roselle Hamblin alleges both daughters given peyote ("paote") in July
1999-2001 - Utah property records list his address as 280 E 2200 NORTH - PROVO
1999 - January - Arrested (why? poaching?) - Sanpete County Jail
1999 - June 13 - incident where Rosalie got her daughters to go into Hamblin's house through an open window to find "Indian items" he was forbidden from having. They located eagle feathers and a peyote button and called police and a wildlife officer, "Dave Hintze"
1999 - October - loses license - per Utah County paper The Daily Herald - “Dr. Hamblin’s license to practice was revoked for having intimate relations with several patients during clinical therapeutic sessions, and claiming it was therapeutic,” said Lauri Arensmeys, operational manager for the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing.
1999 - November 12 - police called because Hamblin was violating civil order to ask daughters what Roselle and her attorney were planning re: ongoing divorce
1999 - December - Arrested (why? poaching?) - Juab County Jail - led police on a chase, was driving a borrowed Lexus
2000 - April - sexual abuse charges file by daughter(s?) via Roselle to Provo City PD
2000 - July 31 - Rosalie speaks with victims advocate Sheree Svensson
2000 - October 21 - shows up in Salt Lake Tribune in story about Peyote Church; poaching; divorce; criminal charges. "Medicine Man Path Lined With Divorce, Criminal Charges for LDS Psychologist"
2000 - October 23 - (Utah?) psychologist license expires
2001 - June 8th - preliminary hearing for peyote possession case from June 13, 1999 incident - Hamblin pleads Not Guilty
2001 - Detective Vanwagoner talks to Deputy Attorney John Allan - will not prosecute due to inconsistent statements
2002-2006 - Utah property records list Hamblin as a deed holder for 4639 W BROOKRIDGE LA - AMERICAN FORK
2002 - June 28 - Report 200205893. Hamblin daughter, redacted, curfew violation, reported by Rose. 3820 LITTLEROCK LN.
2002 - August 24 - Report 200207980. Hamblin daughter, redacted, runaway reported by Rose, unauthorized use of Rose's vehicle. 1994 GMC SUBURBAN. 3820 LITTLEROCK LN.
2003 - April 28 - Report 200303917. Hamblin daughter attempted to run over Rose in driveway due to dispute over taking vehicle, this time an '86 BMW. Blocked into driveway by father Richard Anderson. Given a court date May 14th.
2003 - John Allan writes Vanwagoner again because he "reviewed the case because of a civil hearing in the matter" - was this a suit by Rosalie?
2004 - July 8 - all Hamblin peyote charges dismissed per Utah Supreme Court
2004 - November 2 - registered to vote as a Republican in Utah County
2005 - James Mooney arrested (again?), Hamblin quotes in papers as "a friend of the Mooneys and a spiritual leader of Oklevueha EarthWalks"
2006 - Hamblin publishes "The Righteous Branch"
2006 - March 7 - quoted as "spokesman" for Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church in Salt Lake Tribune
2007 - Roselle Anderson becomes Roselle Stevenson by marriage for Ford L. Stevenson (b. 1944)
2007 - June 10 - Hamblin visits Rachel Talley home as "Medicine Man" to give a talk about "The Righteous Branch" to an informal group
2011 - June 2 - incorporates TAHTEYA TOPA (FOUR WINDS) NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH with Eldon Talley and Wayne Jones Hintze
2011 - Hamblin publishes "Mary and the Book of Mormon"
2011 - report 2011001257. Roselle Anderson files report of criminal non-support vs. David Hamblin. Mentions his website, "redpath.org" (Note: incorrect URL) Includes a "To Whom It May Concern" narrative from Rose.
2012 - January 20 - report 12PR22590. Summarizes a dozen reports of sexual abuse filed with Provo PD, all filed on this date
2012 - January 20 - report 2012000485. Narrative of officers conducting victim interviews and taking statements.
2012 - September 2nd - Nusiance call, report 12PR12749, Hamblin complaining about loud neighbor. 541 E 500 NORTH ST.
2012 - October 25 - Robert L. Hamblin dies
2012 - December 13 - report 12PR21723, Hamblin arrested on $750,000 felony warrant. 541 E 500 NORTH ST.
2012 - December - Hamblin formally charged with dozens of counts regarding children
2013 - January - Bluth contacts DA office with offer to help. "the attorney on this case returns my calls and we are unable to connect"
2013 - January 14-15 - NY Board of Regents: "David L. Hamblin; Provo, UT 84604; Lic. No. 009519; Cal. No. 26467; Application to surrender license granted. Summary: Licensee did not contest the charge of having been found guilty of professional misconduct in the State of Utah."
2013 - February 21 - report 13PR04248, report 13PR04835. Additional charges filed against Hamblin, this time including an extensive evidence log. Brett Bluth is named as a witness. Complaintant middle names "HELENA WINTERS," first and last redacted.
2013 - February 22-26 - odd confrontations with "Judith or Judy Harding" and Rosie Stevenson x Ford Stevenson over release of therapy records for the daughters. Reads like Rose / Rosie / Roselle wanted to know the full extent of the accusations against her.
2013 - September 11 - Hamblin is granted deed for his father's condo at 541 E 500 N APT 11 from conservators Susan Hamblin Christensen and David Lee Christensen.
2014-2016 - Utah property records list Hamblin as deed holder for 541 E 500 NORTH - PROVO, inherited from his father. This is later tranferred to TAHTEYA TOPA (FOUR WINDS) NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH.
2014 - March - Hamblin charges dismissed - "prosecution is still having difficulty getting evidence it needs"
2015 - April 28 - report 15PR10122. Janell Aiken Lorenz reports "suspicious" behavior by Hamblin in depth based on his past accusations and current behavior in peyote "therapy" community. Extensive and important corroboration for DH patterns of abuse.
2016 - August 6th - report 16PR2247. Hamblin calls PD to complain about his trailer being ticketed while on private property. 3300 N UNIVERSITY AVE.
2018 - February 18 - report 18PR04081. Hamblin calls to complain about a loud party. 541 E 500 NORTH ST.
2018 - June 27 - report 18PR16125. Hamblin calls to report a hit and run car accident at the intersection outside his apt. 541 E 500 NORTH ST.
2019 - October 10 - report . Hamblin calls to report his car stolen. WHI 1999 SUBA LEGACY. Recovered Oct. 16th in West Valley City. 541 E 500 NORTH ST.
2021 - April - Utah County Sheriffs begin investigation - timespan 1990-2010 - "portions of these allegations have been confirmed"
2022 - February 5th - report 22PR02567. Traffic accident. Hamblin address still 541 E 500 NORTH ST. 2011 White Subaru Outback vs. 2011 Lexus CT. Unclear if Hamblin was driving but he reported the accident.
2022 - May 31st - Utah County Sheriffs issue public appeal for help, witnesses. Investigation spans three counties: Utah, Juab, and Sanpete, location of the Manti abuse network.
2022 - June 1st - David O. Leavitt hosts inadvisable press conference to deny ritual abuse and cannibalism after reading "Victim Statement #3" - references it during his speech - also:
"I prosecuted the therapist, in Juab county, for poaching a deer. He pled guilty ... he poached a deer to use for ritualistic purposes."
"When I was a law student, this therapist was my Elders Quorum President in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was my neighbor. I had a family connection. When his wife ... learned ... of ... whatever he was doing, she divorced him, and I testified at that divorce hearing."
"Let me be clear. When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, for whom I do not speak, found out about ... this person's conduct, they kicked him out. Right? I mean, there is nothing, there is no ... organized ... ring. Of abuse. It was debunked."
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Thank you for doing this essential work digging and summarizing, WR. I regret that I haven't yet been able to do much of a deep dive myself; usually I'd be on top of such a case but there are too many other rabbit holes I'm stuck in at the moment. This is definitely something I hope to come back to and go over a lot more thoroughly.
As a general overview of my thoughts, this certainly fits how SRA cases tend to be clear as mud with all the evolving/changing stories and false memory allegations. The evolution of an intra-family case involving just Hamblin to a wider network of abusers that even includes some of the people (e.g. ex-wife Roselle Anderson) who were supposedly trying to hold Hamblin accountable is a pattern I've seen before. A notable example, which I've been investigating recently, is the story of Nancy Krebs in California.
Initially (in 1979), in her teen years, she only accused her stepfather's brother Macky Boykin (and Macky's children whom he made participate). Her mother Gwen and stepfather Tom Boykin along with the family appeared to be on her side (though the court records I have suggest that Boykin family members were trying to undermine the case against Macky behind the scenes), and Macky pleaded guilty, albeit with a suspended sentence and probation. Later on into the case, Nancy was also stating that her sister Shirley (a future Pentagon finance person at various AF bases including in Germany) had been abused by Macky too, and that Macky had others in the local area participate in the abuse. Later, during the 90s, she went into therapy and ended up describing a much larger RA practice against her that her mother Gwen was complicit in. Macky was a key "handler" of hers, but the network also included many others, such as Fleet White Sr., a prominent oilman who was the godfather to Gwen and the father of JonBenet Ramsey's father's best friend Fleet White. It was people like the Whites — and "Uncle Johnny", who Nancy identified as JonBenet Ramsey's father John Ramsey — who were the true ringleaders. Connections were even drawn, bizarrely enough, to the Manson case (and the timing fits, with Nancy born in 1962): Nancy claimed that her mother, purportedly a friend of the Manson Family, once took her out to their ranch in Death Valley, and that her abusers had at one point showed her items taken from the LaBianca home in order to intimidate her.
Notwithstanding the seemingly inconsistent story that many "skeptics" would say has conveniently evolved over time, there is corroboration for the later claims about the Whites. Among other things, the Whites were independently connected to another pedophile ring in the Houston area before Nancy even came forward, and Nancy was made as a toddler to model for a Pennzoil (i.e. the successor to Bush Sr.'s Zapata) calendar which validates the strange oil industry ties to this stuff. Plus, what are the odds that she would be related to and accuse a family (the Whites) that later turns up in one of the most prominent child murder/pedophile cases of the century?
Recovered memories of sexual abuse are undoubtedly real, and sometimes these additional memories can reveal that those previously seen as helpers were actually abusers, who may have opportunistically tried to make one patsy take the fall. That's not even getting into the possibility of deliberate screen memories being placed, which is something I have heard about as well. My friend John Brisson (of We've Read the Documents) investigated child abuse at the Glendale Montessori school in Stuart FL involving James Toward, and was told about how victims were literally being programmed by a corrupt therapist to all tell an identical and false story of RA, likely to discredit their real experiences. That notion of having SRA stories implanted sounds a lot like what Hamblin was apparently doing to Brett Bluth. by Marionumber1
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Thank you for the background, much appreciated.
In the meantime, I'd better wrap up my Leavitt timeline because he just got a bomb dropped on his ass by FOX13 ... if he hated Adam Herbets before, he's gonna be nursing a blood atonement sized grudge now. Pretty unlikely he's going to win his re-election, and he may even drop out, but my sense of his character precludes that kind of humility or self-awareness. (It's funny how much Leavitt's stare on camera is 100% of the reason I initially concluded there was something to this.)
FOX 13 Investigates: Video raises questions about Utah Co. Attorney's adoption of Native American child
The video was entered into evidence as part of a human trafficking investigation into David Leavitt
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.
The video was recorded by a documentarian in 2020. It has since been submitted to Homeland Security Investigations as part of a criminal human trafficking investigation.
The 17-minute clip first shows Leavitt expressing his struggle with the decision whether to pursue the adoption.
Leavitt went on to explain how he tried to broker a deal with the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana, offering them the ability to export buffalo to Ukraine.
Although he is not blood-related to the child, the little girl was considered Leavitt’s step-foster-great niece.
“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.”
The “strategy,” as Leavitt described, involved boarding a plane to Montana in 2017. Upon arrival, Leavitt said he walked onto the reservation for an unscheduled meeting with the president of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.
FOX 13 News has confirmed the tribal president at the time was Lawrence Jace Killsback.
“And I say to him, ‘I’m here for two reasons,’” Leavitt described. “I said, ‘I’m here to tell you the second reason first, but I’ll tell you the first reason second – but before I tell you the second reason, I’ll tell you a story.’”
Leavitt’s story touched on the importance of family. Then it highlighted his close friendship with former Ukranian president Victor Yuschenko.
“Victor and I have this goal of introducing buffalo into western Ukraine,” Leavitt recounted, “and you’re a sovereign nation, and you have a buffalo herd, and Ukraine is a sovereign nation, and it doesn’t have a buffalo herd, but it wants one, and so I’m here to see if we can form a bilateral agreement between the people of the Northern Cheyenne and the people of Ukraine to introduce buffalo to western Ukraine.”
“At that point, (Killsback) 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.’”
Leavitt said Killsback gave his blessing, but Tribal Social Services did not.
“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.”
As a last-ditch effort, Leavitt said he went back to the tribal president for help.
“(Killsback) said, ‘Listen, the Leavitts are friends of the tribe... They’re assets to the tribe for more than just this,’” Leavitt said. “I left, and five minutes later the phone rang and it was the social worker saying, ‘I think I’ve figured out a way to get this child to you.’”
Leavitt said he took home the child that same day in 2017.
Killsback declined to comment. At the time of the 2020 interview, he was in prison for fraud in an unrelated case.
After the child's adoption, Tribal President Jace Killsback served time in prison for an unrelated case.
I spoke with him briefly on the phone. So far, he has chosen not to comment on the claims made by Leavitt.
Stephanie Benally, a Native American specialist for Utah Foster Care, said the adoption of any Native American child raises questions about the Indian Child Welfare Act.
“It’s best for the Native children to remain in Native communities,” Benally said. “Not every child needs to grow up in the city, green grass, white picket fence house.”
Benally explained the cultural and historical significance of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which was passed in 1978 in order to protect Native American children from being adopted by outsiders.
“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.”
When asked about the child’s relationship to Leavitt as a “step-foster-great niece,” Benally said that the designation of “family” is up to the tribe, even if not related by blood.
“Let me put it this way: I would like our elected officials to be servants of the public, and not self-serving."
According to court documents obtained by FOX 13 News, the child’s biological mother willingly gave up her parental rights, but the biological father did not.
The court ultimately ruled in Leavitt’s favor, approving the adoption.
Linda F. Smith – a member of the Utah State Bar Ethics Advisory Opinion Committee and former ethics professor at the University of Utah – agreed to review the video.
“Let me put it this way: I would like our elected officials to be servants of the public, and not self-serving,” Smith said. “He was clearly politicking to get his way... It was a little smarmy way to talk somebody into letting you adopt a child that might otherwise be better raised by the tribe.”
Leavitt is the same county attorney who named himself as the subject of a ritualistic child sex abuse investigation. Last month, he held a press conference to announce he is not a murderer, a cannibal, or an abuser.
Then he accused Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith of playing politics shortly before the primary election.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office did not name Leavitt as a subject, even after the press conference.
“This is not a politically motivated investigation,” the sheriff insisted at his own 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.”
Noel Engels, a former analyst with Homeland Security Investigations, confirmed his team had been investigating sexual allegations against Leavitt for several years.
Then, in 2020, Engels received a copy of the video. HSI added the video to the case file, investigating Leavitt on suspicion of human trafficking.
“It’s literally our job to make sure children are safe,” Engels said. “Is it disturbing? Yeah, it is. You have to kind of separate that and not let emotions affect your investigation at all.”
Five months after receiving the video, documents show Engels and his team were removed from the case.
The HSI case against Leavitt was eventually reassigned.
Engels has since filed a whistleblower complaint and received a letter from the United States Office of Special Counsel in response.
“You alleged that HSI improperly terminated an investigation into allegations involving current Utah County Attorney David O. Leavitt,” wrote attorney John U. Young. “We emphasize that, while (Office of Special Counsel) has found a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing based on the information you submitted in support of your allegations, our referral to the Secretary for investigation is not a final determination that the allegations are substantiated.”
“This remains an open matter under investigation until the agency’s final report is forwarded to the President and Congress.”
FOX 13 News reached out to Leavitt for an explanation last week.
According to his spokesperson, “Mr. Leavitt would be happy to tell the entire story.”
More than 72 hours later, the spokesperson later clarified that Leavitt is not able to meet until after the primary election.
“Anything related to what you’ve brought up has no bearing on his performance as the Utah County Attorney and is not relevant,” she wrote.
Note that David O. Leavitt is running as a Republican in the County Attorney race against two other Republican candidates, Jeff Gray and Adam Pomeroy. (Presumably Gray is the bigger threat since that's who Leavitt is sparring with, in terms of his campaign emails and press conferences, about his allegations.) That primary is today, June 28th, and will be a big test of whether or not Leavitt remains a protected asset or gets cut loose. The Ukraine connections make me suspect the former but I hope for the latter.
Correction: Adam Pomeroy formally withdrew on June 14th to endorse Jeff Gray, emphasizing the need to remove Leavitt from office.
Per the official Utah County results, David O. Leavitt has lost the primary by a big margin: Jeff Gray took 44,688 votes for a 73% sweep. Things should start moving quickly from here.
Leavitt has had a lot of turnover in administration (one recent testimonial in Deseret claimed "I'm the 25th to leave") so it will be interesting to see how much latitude Hamblin has to abuse his power and cover his ass. He is leaving office as the subject of both a state and federal investigation, but of course, still has a lot of connections and leverage to lean on.
He'll be calling into the local news radio product in the next hour so it will be interesting to hear what frame will be.
Update:link to Leavitt call with KSL talk schmucks Dave & Dujanovic
"This is disturbing to me on a really deep level, not for me personally because this really isn't about me."
Says America is heading towards a police state, emphasizes the importance of jury trial vs. plea bargains.
Actually says "We live in a society." Followed by: "where people can m-, can, can fabricate lies out of whole cloth. Advance them on social media. Perpetuate them through um, um, you know, various media outlets that are just looking for a, a daily story ... and people will believe them! And, and, um. You know. What we, I think what we see in this race ... is, is, a new low in Utah politics, because I don't believe that there's been a race in my memory, in any part of Utah, that has stooped to such vicious lows and, and incredible lies, in order to get someone out of office."
Thread starts - 2022 Jun 25 Rigorous Intuition David Lee Hamblin / Utah SRA Case mostly written by Wombaticus Rex starting on Sat Jun 25, [1]
Previous posts in the series are
UT0 – Utah Mormon Satanic Ritual Abuse Links and Timeline [UT56]
UT1 – Utah Ritual Abuse [UT45]
UT2- Rapist Suspect linked to Mormon Ritual Abuse Scandal Still Delaying Extradition from Glasgow to US [UT42]
UT3 – Satanic Ritual Abuse in the Mormon Church [UT47]
UT4 – Two accuse Leavitt of being Ritual Abuser [UT59]
UT5 – Kristy Allen Mormon Ritual Abuse and MKUltra [UT62]
UT6 – Church of Mormon in Books About Abuse [UT95]
UT7 – David Hamblin Utah County Mormon Ritual Abuse [UT96]
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[1] 2022 Jun 25 Rigorous Intuition David Lee Hamblin / Utah SRA Case http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=42347
[1a] 2022 Jun 25 Rigorous Intuition David Lee Hamblin / Utah SRA Case archive https://web.archive.org/web/20220702222056/http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=42347
[2] Flying Cuttlefish https://flyingcuttlefish.wordpress.com/
[UT56] 2022 Jun 25 cathyfoxblog UT0 – Utah Mormon Satanic Ritual Abuse Links and Timeline https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2022/06/25/ut0-utah-mormon-satanic-ritual-abuse-links-and-timeline/
[UT45] 2022 Jun 19 cathyfoxblog UT1 – Utah Ritual Abuse https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2022/06/19/utah-ritual-abuse/
[UT42] 2022 Jun 21 cathyfoxblog UT2- Rapist Suspect linked to Mormon Ritual Abuse Scandal Still Delaying Extradition from Glasgow to US https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2022/06/21/rapist-suspect-linked-to-mormon-ritual-abuse-scandal-still-delaying-extradition-from-glasgow-to-us/
[UT47] 2022 Jun 24 cathyfoxblog UT3 – Satanic Ritual Abuse in the Mormon Church. Pace Memo https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2022/06/24/ut3-satanic-ritual-abuse-in-the-mormon-church/
[UT59] 2022 Jun 26 cathyfoxblog UT4 – Two accuse Leavitt of being Ritual Abuser https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2022/06/26/ut4-two-accuse-leavitt-of-being-ritual-abuser/
[UT62] 2022 Jun 28 UT5- Kristy Allen Mormon Ritual Abuse and MKUltra https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2022/06/28/ut5-kristy-allen-mormon-ritual-abuse-and-mkultra/
[UT95] 2022 Jul 2 cathyfoxblog UT6 – Church of Mormon in Books About Abuse https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2022/07/02/ut6-church-of-mormon-in-books-about-abuse/
[UT96] 2022 Jul 3 cathyfoxblog UT7 – David Hamblin Utah County Mormon Ritual Abuse https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2022/07/03/ut7-david-hamblin-utah-county-mormon-ritual-abuse/
This is by far the most informative and objective post that I have read on this topic.