DESERET MORNING NEWS
March 19, 2008
Adoption 'mediator' says she's innocent
By Ben Winslow
BRIGHAM CITY — Jill Ekstrom says she's innocent.
"I'm not going to plead guilty to something I didn't do," she said Monday, after appearing in 1st District Court to face 21 counts of altering public records, a class A misdemeanor.
Ekstrom is accused of stealing hundreds of sealed adoption records from Farmington's 2nd District Courthouse. But she told reporters outside of court that she did not take dozens of rolls of microfilm, and she questioned Davis County prosecutors' motives for charging her.
"Davis County had microfilm in a room that was unmarked as being off-limits. Records that were supposed to be sealed were left in a room that was unattended," she said. "Anybody could have taken them."
Ekstrom says she did know that sealed adoption records were in the room behind the clerk's counter at the 2nd District Courthouse. She was told that much when she was let in by a clerk to look up some other public records.
As a "finder," Ekstrom has made a career of helping reunite long lost relatives or adopted children with their birth parents. Ekstrom claims that in her career, she has arranged more than 9,000 reunifications.
"I was a mediator," she said Monday. "I never gave information unless all parties agreed to it."
Link to article
No comments:
Post a Comment