Crime & Safety

Father Michael Miller's Case Continued to January 5

Nothing new as case makes its way through the court.

 

Father Michael Miller's court date Nov. 22 was simply to continue it to Jan. 5, 2012 at 10 a.m. The case has appeard on the docket eight times with only one actual appearance by Father Michael himself.

Miller was arrested on five felony counts of risk of injury to a minor and a misdemeanor obscenity charge and is free on $150,000 bond.

Attorney William St. John represents Miller, who is currently suspended from his church duties.

The arrest warrant for the St. Paul Church priest details allegations of an ongoing, lurid relationship between Miller and a 13-year-old boy that was conducted through Facebook and text messaging.

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The boy's identity was redacted from the warrant.

According to the warrant, the Berlin Police Department received a complaint from the mother of a 13-year-old boy whose family members are parishioners of the church. The woman told police that her son had become uncomfortable with the correspondence on Facebook and text messages from Miller.

Police confiscated two computers from Miller, but before they could arrest him, he was flown to St. Francis Hospital on July 4 by Life Star after suffering a still-unspecified medical condition.

According to the arrest warrant, the conversations started innocently enough but escalated into sexual comments quickly.

The warrant states that Miller, who uses an alias on Facebook, asked the boy about his sexual preference. Miller told the boy he was bi-sexual in high school and was addicted to pornography.

When police confiscated Miller's computers, the priest admitted to texting and talking to the boy on Facebook but said that there was no actual contact.

Miller, according to the warrant, also told the boy on more than one occasion that he would like to perform sex acts on him and asked him to meet him, but the boy declined. The request to meet seems to have led to the boy to talk to his mother.


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