What are your thoughts on the Jill Elkstrom case?

Question

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,5143,700245150,00.html

"Ekstrom, 43, was sentenced Tuesday in 1st District Court to 18 months probation, a $540 fine and $850 restitution to the Davis County Sheriff's Office for stealing hundreds of adoption records from the 2nd District Courthouse in Farmington."

"Judge Ben Hadfield ordered medical and psychological evaluations, saying he didn't know if her vast medical problems are real or imagined. He also said Ekstrom had a "victim mentality.""

"She was accused of stealing dozens of rolls of microfilmed adoption records from a room in the clerk's office of the Davis County Courthouse. She was arrested in a sting, where a Davis County sheriff's deputy posed as an adopted child searching for a birth mom. Ekstrom claimed she was "pressured" to find the mother."

"She said she wrote a letter to the judge asking if she could do community service instead of jail so she could help people and turn her case into a positive experience."

Answer 1

I completely agree with Sunny...She is a hero!!

Answer 2

They did a sting operation to catch people helping with adoption searches?!?  Not drugs, violence, prostitution or animal abuse, but adoption searches?!

Is it just me or does that seem like a colossal waste of police resources?

Answer 3

I do not see her as a hero but a thief.  What if someone else needed those records who did not know here or go to her.  How would they ever find their first family.  She took that right away from them.

Answer 4

If she stole her own records I would say time served. But she is NO different then corrupt adoption workers making money off of people. If she was really sincere she would have given the information for FREE!



ETA

   What is this world coming too? Law enforcement has time for this but not to chase child molesters or rapists?

                                     Interesting.

Answer 5

You won't like my answer but here goes:

She broke the law by stealing AND made a living doing it.

Had she been an adoptee herself in search of her OWN identity I would feel differently about it.

Answer 6

I think unlawful trespassing and stealing are illegal.

HOWEVER, I also believe it is illegal (or should be illegal) for the state to deny you access to your own birth certificate and medical information.

I think the sentencing is fair, given my above statements...but I think what would be more fair would be to allow adults to have their medical info and BC's so that no one ever has to circumvent the law to get what should be theirs legally anyway.

Answer 7

I agree with the other posters. A sting? What is the world coming to where busting people with adoption records takes priority against real (and by real I mean serious and damaging the the public) crimes?

If the police are doing "adoption record" stings, then they must realize the severity of the issue, but yet nothing is being done about it in terms of new legislation. Disgusting. Maybe  we should arrest govt. officials for unlawfully witholding information that doesn't belong to them. That is tantamount to stealing, IMHO.

Answer 8

Well, just like kidnapping is ALWAYS illegal - so is stealing records.  

Her quest to reunite willing people is admirable.  However, she should not have done it with illegal means.  She didn't just steal one record for one person, she stole 400!  She has no right to access the personal and sealed information for that many people.  

If she's truly not guilty, then I'm sorry for her.  However, I have a very hard time believing her sob story for why she pled No Contest.  I read several other articles as well and think she's guilty.  18 months probation and less than $1500 in fines and restitution isn't all that serious a penalty for what might have been very serious charges indeed - 2nd degree Felony Theft!  

Also, for those of you thinking she was "set up", other articles clearly indicate that the records were missing BEFORE they set up the sting operation.  They set up the sting because she was the main suspect in the missing records.  She might have chosen to do her work within the boundaries of the law, but instead she chose to go around it.  The punnishment she got was not overbearing given her decisions.  

On the other hand, I believe the police department was utterly stupid in how they handled the situation.  They should NEVER have used a real mother and child - or at least should have contacted the mother and child to get permission first!  The problem with what Ekstrom did is that she could then have made public information that some parties involved wanted to keep private.  However, in their sting operation, the police actually DID what Ekstrom's posession of the information only threatened to do - exposed the private legal details of two lives to at least a subset of the public.  I was glad to read in another article that they are at least facing their own lawsuits and disciplinary action for that.

Answer 9

I wish I would have known about her case. I would have donated money for her defense.  

Its amazing that it has do get down to this to just find out where your babies are at. Unbelievable.

Answer 10

If adoption records are so precious that people are willing to go to jail for them, you'd think the government would delve deeper and realize that keeping these records from GROWN UPS is ludicrous and cruel.

And arrested in a sting? Oh dear, aren't there child pornography rings that would be more pressing.

Answer 11

She's a hero.

As far as I'm concerned, she was already doing 'community service'.

Answer 12

Hey, I'd do it.