Judge Porter,
I am writing to you about a defendant in your court, Tonah Fishinghawk, Offense Tracking number 58456518. Ms. Fishinghawk has been a fugitive since 2019 as a result of her failure to comply with the terms of her probation. She pleaded guilty to Reckless Endangerment and a misdemeanor count of possession as part of a plea deal. She received a 24 month suspended sentence from Judge Robert C Lunnen, with a warrant issued for her arrest on November 12, 2019 less than five months after she received her sentence due to her failure to comply with probation.
She had fled the jurisdiction and she has been a fugitive ever since. What you and Judge Lunnen are likely unaware of is that Tonah Fishinghawk has a long affiliation with the prosecutor in her case, former Utah County Attorney David Leavitt. Tonah's brother Justin was in the Indian Placement Program with the Eastwood family, David Leavitt's in-laws through his wife Chelom Leavitt. Nothing in the record for her case shows any disclosure of this relationship by David Leavitt to the court.
Worse still, David Leavitt illegally adopted Tonah's daughter Allisandra Florence Fishinghawk, an enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana. As such, Allisandra's adoption would have been governed by the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which gives priority to Native adoptions by blood relatives, which would have given the priority to Allisandra's biological father, Gary Valenzuela. Mr. Valenzuela was never notified that Tonah had dropped her daughter off at the Rosebud Emergency Lodge on the reservation on September 20, 2017. This was in clear violation of the statutory requirements of ICWA.
Seven days later, David Leavitt showed up to the Northern Cheyenne reservation demanding possession of Allisandra. He had no standing to do so, but he was able to walk off of the reservation the same day on September 27, 2017 with Allisandra in his custody. He transported her back to Utah. He has since transported her to Scotland. The way in which David Leavitt managed to persuade Tribal Social Services to give him custody of Allisandra is simple: he offered a quid pro quo to Tribal President Lawrence Jace Killsback, in the form of an offer to leverage his government contacts in the Ukraine to enable Killsback to export the tribe's buffalo to Ukraine. That is a de facto bribe in exchange for an adoption.
There was no background check, criminal records check, nor were any of the other statutory prerequisites of ICWA fulfilled. There were allegations that Leavitt paid Tonah Fishinghawk a substantial amount of money to purchase Allisandra Fishinghawk, which would appear to be borne out by two factors: Tonah's purchase of a gold Cadillac, which raised eyes on the reservation, and the allegation of her brother Justin that the family had documents showing that Tonah was paid by David Leavitt through a USBank account.
Additionally, Jace Killsback allegedly told an NBC News producer that he had received a $30,000 cash payment from David Leavitt to expedite the matter after Tribal Social Services initially refused to turn Allisandra over to David Leavitt. Killsback authored a fraudulent letter claiming that David Leavitt was Allisandra's uncle in the eyes of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, a distinction Killsback did not have the authority to make and which was completely false. There was no adoptive or blood relationship that would qualify David Leavitt as the uncle of Tonah or her daughter.
In simple terms, David Leavitt bought a child and trafficked her across state and international boundaries, and he was aided and abetted in doing so by a corrupt Tribal President who would later go to federal prison in an unrelated case. In doing so, Leavitt denied Gary Valenzuela his legal rights as a father, and utilized the courts in Utah in his illegal trafficking scheme to finalize an illegitimate, illegal adoption. In order to finalize the adoption, Leavitt would have been required to certify to the court that he had offered nothing of value to Tonah for the adoption of her child. That is perjury.
The adoption was not finalized until 2020, the year after Leavitt appeared on the record as one of the prosecutors in Tonah's criminal case. Leavitt had an obvious motive for his failure to disclose his relationship and ongoing criminal conduct with regards to Tonah Fishinghawk and her daughter. He had an obvious motive to secure a lenient sentence and plea deal for Tonah Fishinghawk as well.
Despite the fact that Tonah was a fugitive, Leavitt did nothing to locate her or bring her to justice for violating the terms of her probation. He was obligated to do so as an officer of the court with direct knowledge of Tonah's whereabouts. Attached to this email is an inmate release sheet from Oklahoma for Tonah Fishinghawk, wbo was incarcerated for domestic violence in Oklahoma in 2022 while David Leavitt was still Utah County Attorney. The release sheet shows David Leavitt listed as her emergency contact with his phone number, and it shows that she called David Leavitt from jail.
In spite of his obligation as an officer of the court, David Leavitt did not disclose Tonah's whereabouts to the court nor did he act to extradite her from Oklahoma for violating her probation. That is the lack of respect he has for the court, and for your authority as judges. As Adult Probation put it in their 2022 report, “Ms. Fishinghawk’s behavior has clearly displayed a complete disregard to the orders of the court." How much disrespect and disregard for the orders of the court was shown by David Leavitt, the County Attorney who failed to disclose his conflict of interest in the criminal case, and who violated federal and state law in his illegal acts during the adoption of Allisandra Fishinghawk?
The question is simple: will you allow a man whose familial relationship with a prominent political family apparently immunizes him from culpability to continue to mock the judicial process, the clear requirements of legal ethics he is obligated to follow as a licensed attorney, and the legal obligations he held as a County Attorney to continue to evade accountability?
Go El, thank you for your work on these things. I think that this judge has been aware of these problems and is part of the problem. I wonder if we will ever have success bringing these people to justice because too many police, prosecutors, politicians, and judges are compromised. If you have actual evidence, meaning journals, physical photographs that can be dated to a certain age, or movie reels, I encourage you to release them to the public. Some might urge you not to because of the damage it would do to the Church, however D&C 123:13 talks about bringing to light the hidden things of darkness; it doesn't mention prosecuting those things and it doesn't mention not hurting the institutional Church. My guess is that until these men are exposed there will be no justice possible for the cabalists occupy the seats of power. I also wonder if it's the case that for the Church to eventually become what God meant it to be that we must expose what's going on.
If I had such evidence I would bring it forth immediately (because it isn't safe to have it and not expose it). Unfortunately, I don't have that evidence, but I'm very confident that it exists. People will argue with images because of AI, but it's hard to argue with 30 year old photographs that were printed before AI. That's what we need.