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
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.
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.
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.