The Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, where former Utah County Attorney David Leavitt's adopted child hails from. Photo: Dukas/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
A former Utah prosecutor is at the center of a media investigation into his controversial adoption of an Indigenous child over the objections from her home tribe, relatives and birth father.
Driving the news: In interviews with Reveal, legal experts and members of theNorthern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana say former Utah County Attorney David Leavitt adopted the girl in violation offederal laws created to prevent the removal of children from Indigenous communities.
Zoom in: Leavitt is not Native American — but his wife's parents housed Cheyenne children through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' "Indian Placement Program," which for decades moved children from Indigenous communities to live with families in the faith.
One of those children was the grandmother of the child the Leavitts adopted six years ago. That, Leavitt argues, makes his wife the child's great-aunt.
The Northern Cheyenne president at the time submitted a letter in agreement, prompting a Utah judge to allow the adoption — even though the child's birth relatives opposed it.
The other side: The girl's birth mother told Reveal she supports the adoption, saying life with the Leavitts is what she wants for her daughter.
Leavitt told Reveal the adoption "followed every paragraph and subparagraph of ICWA."
The intrigue: Reveal obtained a recording of a conversation between Leavitt and the child's birth uncle, in which Leavitt promised to keep the girl in contact with the tribe.
Instead, the family says "the Leavitts don't let them see her at all," Reveal reports.