A former Bisbee woman who never told authorities that her husband was sexually abusing their children for years and making videos of the abuse is asking a Cochise County judge to end her supervised probation almost two years early.
Leizza Alcantara Adams was sentenced in 2018 to 2.5 years in prison after pleading no contest to two felony counts of child abuse. A no contest plea does not involve an admission of guilt but is treated as a conviction.
Adams, 39, was also ordered to serve four years of probation once out of prison. She has been supervised by Lake County Adult Probation in Illinois where she relocated after being released by the Arizona Department of Corrections.
Last month, her attorney petitioned a Cochise County judge to grant Adams early termination of the probation set to run through October 2024.
“She has performed well on probation in Chicago, IL, where Ms. Adams now resides and has been fully complaint,” attorney Perry Hicks wrote in the petition. “In light of the foregoing, it is respectfully requested that this Court issue its order terminating Leizza Adams successfully from probation.”
A hearing is set for Jan. 11 on whether the probation should be terminated early. A report from Adams’ probation officer will be provided to the judge prior to the hearing, and the Cochise County Attorney’s Office has a right to comment on the petition as well.
There is also an opportunity for the victim representatives for the two Adams’ children named as victims in the plea deal to weigh in on the petition. The children are currently represented by Lynne Cadigan in a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint and several of its members in 2020.
A motion to amend that lawsuit to allow the children to include their mother as a defendant is awaiting a decision by a Cochise County judge.
The lawsuit stems from the sexual abuse of the children by their father, Paul Douglas Adams, who confessed his activities to two local Mormon bishops years before being arrested in February 2017. Some of the abuse was recorded by Paul Adams in the family’s Bisbee home and uploaded to the internet.
One of the bishops even included Leizza in a counseling session with Paul Adams during which the ongoing sexual abuse was discussed. But neither Leizza nor that bishop notified police.
Nor did another bishop who Paul Adams also confessed to while he continued to molest the children. Instead, the Mormon Church excommunicated Paul Adams without taking steps to ensure the children were protected.
Court records show Paul Adams, who was working for the U.S. Border Patrol when arrested, continued the abuse for several years. He killed himself in a federal detention center in December 2017 while awaiting trial.
READ MORE:
Grand Jury Appears To Be Investigating LDS Church’s Handling Of Child Sex Abuse Confession
LDS Church Ordered To Release Member’s ‘Report’ To Bishop About Abuse Of Her Children