[Vision2020] Sect Pastor Is Convicted of Assisting in Abduction

[Art Deco]

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August 14, 2012
Sect Pastor Is Convicted of Assisting in Abduction By ERIK
ECKHOLM<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/erik_eckholm/index.html>

After only four hours of deliberation, a federal jury in Burlington, Vt.,
found an Amish-Mennonite pastor guilty of abetting international parental
kidnapping in a widely publicized case involving a same-sex union and
religious opponents of homosexuality.

The pastor, Kenneth L. Miller of Stuarts Draft, Va., could face up to three
years in prison. He was convicted of helping Lisa A. Miller flee to
Nicaragua with her daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, in 2009 to evade
court-ordered visits with Ms. Miller’s former partner in a civil union in
Vermont.

After the verdict, more than 100 of Mr. Miller’s supporters from the Beachy
Amish-Mennonite sect, the women in traditional long dresses and head
scarves, men with trimmed beards, gathered outside the courthouse to sing
“Amazing Grace” and other hymns.

Mr. Miller, 46, joined the group and said, “We are of course disappointed,
but with the grace of God and by his help, we will bear the consequences.”

After splitting up with her former partner, Janet Jenkins, in 2003, Ms.
Miller, who is not related to Mr. Miller, moved to Virginia, declared
herself a born-again Christian, tried in court to strip Ms. Jenkins of her
parental rights and interfered with mandated visits. In 2009, as a
frustrated Family Court judge in Vermont threatened to transfer custody of
the girl, Ms. Miller disappeared with her daughter.

The Beachy Amish-Mennonites regard homosexual behavior as a sin.

In the trial, Mr. Miller’s lawyer, Joshua M. Autry, did not dispute the
evidence that Mr. Miller had helped arrange for Ms. Miller and her daughter
to fly from Canada to Nicaragua and obtain shelter from missionaries. But
Mr. Miller, his lawyer argued, did not realize that Ms. Miller was defying
any court orders at the time.

The prosecutors cited evidence that Mr. Miller tried to hide what Ms.
Miller was doing, including by specifying that the flights should not touch
down on American soil and giving the pair Mennonite garb to wear as a
disguise. His case was also undermined by the reluctant testimony of a
fellow pastor in Canada, who said he had refused to transport Ms. Miller
and Isabella across the United States-Canada border because he feared they
were breaking the law.

“The evidence shows the defendant helped Lisa Miller because he believed in
her cause,” Paul Van de Graaf, an assistant United States attorney, told
the jury.

Mr. Miller had to give up his passport but remains free for now. Mr. Autry
said the defense might appeal, arguing that the trial should have been held
in Virginia, where Mr. Miller’s actions took place.

The prosecutors presented evidence that others had worked with Mr. Miller
to help Ms. Miller flee. Chief among those alleged to have taken part was a
businessman in Virginia, Philip Zodhiates. Telephone records suggest that
Mr. Zodhiates was in touch with Ms. Miller for months and drove her and her
daughter to the Canadian border for their escape.

Mr. Zodhiates has not been indicted, and declined to comment.

Telephone records also indicated that as he drove home from the border, Mr.
Zodhiates tried to call a cellphone number registered to Liberty Counsel,
an evangelical legal group.

That cellphone number has sometimes been used by Mathew D. Staver, the
founder of Liberty Counsel, dean of the Liberty University Law School in
Lynchburg, Va., and a leader of Ms. Miller’s defense team.

In an e-mail Tuesday, Mr. Staver said that the phone number in question had
been widely circulated as a contact number for Liberty Counsel’s public
relations office and that he had no knowledge of Ms. Miller’s flight and
had never discussed her case with Mr. Zodhiates.

Federal agents believe that Ms. Miller and Isabella, now 10,  are still
hiding in Nicaragua.

Jason McLure contributed reporting from Burlington, Vt.




-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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