According to an article published in The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah state Senate President J. Stuart Adams inspired a change in state law that reduced the penalty for cases in which an 18-year-old still enrolled in high school has "consensual" sex with a 13-year-old.
At the time the law was changed, Adams reportedly had an 18-year-old relative facing charges of child rape for having sex with a 13-year-old. Although Snopes couldn't independently confirm Adams' relationship to the individual, he didn't deny the individual was related to him in public interviews about the case.
Voting records showed that Adams didn't vote on the bill except to adopt an amendment introduced in the House that didn't affect the aforementioned change.
Some social media posts claimed that the change "loosened" the age of sexual consent, which is inaccurate — the age of consent in Utah was and still is 18, and the law only altered the charge for the criminal act.
The law wasn't retroactive, meaning Adams' relative still faced the original charges of child rape, not a reduced charge. However, the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney in Adams' relative's case reportedly all agreed that the legislative change did impact how the charges were resolved in the relative's plea deal.
On Aug. 2, 2025, The Salt Lake Tribune published an article, titled, "Utah's Senate president prompted law change that helped a teen charged with child rape." The article claimed that state Senate President J. Stuart Adams, a Republican, made the initial suggestion that led to a recent change in Utah's child rape penalty, and that Adams had an 18-year-old relative charged with child rape who was indirectly helped by the law's change.
The claim went viral on social media, and Snopes readers wrote in and searched the site asking for more information about it. As part of researching this story, we reached out to Adams and the senator who introduced the bill, Kirk Cullimore. We also contacted the journalist who wrote the Salt Lake Tribune article. At the time of publishing, we had not heard back from any of them.
Clear information was somewhat difficult to find, as the allegation stemmed solely from the Salt Lake Tribune article. The paper also elected to not publish the name or gender of Adams' purported 18-year-old relative, meaning that Snopes could not independently confirm Adams' relationship to the individual. As a result, there isn't enough information to include a rating on this article.
However, some versions of the claim shared on social media inaccurately reported the situation. Here's what we do know:
The change lessened a penalty but 'age of consent' law didn't change
Some social media posts described the legislation as a change in "age of consent law." However, that's somewhat misleading.
A statement from Adams available on the Utah Senate website pointed this out:
Contrary to fabricated and baseless claims, the law is not retroactive, does not alter the legal age of consent and does not apply to incidents of rape, aggravated sexual assault or offenses involving force, coercion or threats.
The age of sexual consent in Utah is 18. Under state law, any child under the age of 14 cannot legally consent to any form of sexual activity. Any adult having sex with a child under the age of 14 is committing a first-degree felony punishable by a minimum of 25 years in prison and must register as a sex offender. (Teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17 can legally consent in some, but not all, circumstances, according to The Salt Lake Tribune).
In 2017, the Utah legislature created exceptions to that law for cases where two youths, one of whom was either 12 or 13 years old, "mutually consented" to the sexual activity. The exceptions, which reduce the criminal charges based on the ages of the two participants, cannot be applied to situations involving "rape," "object rape," "forcible sodomy," "aggravated sexual assault," [or] incest."
Those exception charges, in order of lowest severity to highest severity, are:
Class C misdemeanor: any 12- and 13-year-old with each other, or a 14-year-old with a 13-year-old
Class B misdemeanor: a 17-year-old with a 14- or 15-year-old, or a 15-year-old with a 13-year-old
Class A misdemeanor: a 16-year-old with a 13-year-old, or a 14- or 15-year-old with a 12-year-old.
Third-degree felony: a 17-year-old with a 12- or 13-year-old, or a 16-year-old with a 12-year-old.
The provision in S.B. 213 that Adams supposedly influenced extended the third-degree felony charge to include cases in which an 18-year-old still enrolled in high school and 13-year-old had mutually consensual sex.
The change, therefore, did not alter consent laws — the age of consent in Utah is still 18. Children under the age of 14 still cannot legally consent, meaning that a teen under the age of 18 who has sex with a 13-year-old is still doing something the state deems illegal.
The case against Adams' relative
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, an 18-year-old relative of Adams was charged with having sex with a 13-year-old. Since the individual was a legal adult, the state charged the defendant with two counts of child rape and two counts of child sodomy, all of which are first-degree felonies.
The article claimed that "plea bargain negotiations were at an impasse" in the case when the law was changed. Sen. Kirk Cullimore, who introduced the legislation that changed the law, told the newspaper that Adams explained the charges against the relative and asked Cullimore to look into the law.
Reportedly, Cullimore consulted several criminal lawyers about changing the law, including Cara Tangaro, the attorney defending Adams' relative. According to Cullimore, Tangaro told him that the prosecutor in Adams' relative's case was not "consider[ing] the circumstances and offer[ing] pleas."
So he asked her what the ideal scenario would be. Cullimore claimed that Tangaro drafted the language that would allow for the lower-level felony charge, and that neither he nor Adams intended for the law to retroactively apply to the case against Adams' relative.
Adams said in a statement to the Tribune that he "did not request the legislation and did not intervene or give input on the drafting of the bill." Voting records showed that he did not vote on the bill except to adopt an amendment introduced in the House that did not affect the aforementioned change.
The bill did not apply retroactively, meaning that the 18-year-old did not face the fully reduced charge once the bill was signed into law.
However, the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney all agreed that the legislative change did impact how the charges were resolved, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The parties reached a plea deal that required the 18-year-old to plead guilty to aggravated assault (a second-degree felony) and three counts of sexual battery (a class A misdemeanor) instead of the two child rape and child sodomy charges.
Crucially, those reduced charges did not require the 18-year-old to register as a sex offender, which the article reported was a sticking point for the prosecutors. The judge "ordered the teen to serve four years on probation, complete sex offender treatment, pay a $1,500 fine and perform 120 hours of community service," according to the article.
Sources:
Criminal Penalties. https://www.utcourts.gov/en/self-help/case-categories/criminal-justice/penalties.html. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
"GOP Lawmaker Changes Law to Help Relative Facing Child Rape Charges." The New Republic. The New Republic, https://newrepublic.com/post/198855/republican-lawmaker-consent-child-rape-law-relative-charges. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
"Here's What Utah Law Says about Minors Having Sex and When They Can Consent." The Salt Lake Tribune, https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/08/04/heres-what-utah-law-says-about/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
KUTV, Jared Turner. "Utah Senate Leader Denies Influencing Law for Family amid Resignation Calls." KUTV, 9 Aug. 2025, https://kutv.com/news/politics/utah-senate-leader-denies-influencing-law-for-family-amid-resignation-calls.
President J. Stuart Adams Addresses False Information | Utah Senate. https://senate.utah.gov/president-j-stuart-adams-addresses-false-information/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
SB0213. https://le.utah.gov/~2024/bills/static/SB0213.html. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
Senator | Utah Senate. https://senate.utah.gov/sen/CULLIKA/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
---. https://senate.utah.gov/sen/ADAMSJS/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
Utah Code Section 76-5-401.3. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title76/Chapter5/76-5-S401.3.html. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
Utah Code Section 76-5-402.1. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title76/Chapter5/76-5-S402.1.html. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
"Utah's Senate President Prompted Law Change That Helped a Teen Charged with Child Rape." The Salt Lake Tribune, https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/08/02/utah-senate-pres-stuart-adams/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
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