Lisa Miller Kidnapping Accomplice Seeks to Move Trial to Virginia

Timothy David Miller, who is charged with assisting "ex-gay" Lisa Miller in kidnapping Lisa Miller's daughter in defiance of a Vermont court order is now seeking to have his trial moved from Vermont to Virginia where he no doubt - perhaps accurately - believes he will find friendlier judges and/or jurors, especially if the trial is in the Western District of Virginia, the most backward and reactionary part of the state. While Timothy Miller was arrested in Virginia, the court order he defied was issued by a Vermont court which would seem to make the Vermont venue appropriate. Others who have not been charged in the case although who appear to have suspiciously involved are folks at good old Bible thumping Liberty University and Liberty University Law School. Here are more details on the legal tussle from the Boston Globe:

A missionary charged with helping a woman involved in a custody dispute with her former lesbian partner flee the United States with the child wants his trial moved from Vermont to Virginia. In a motion filed Thursday in federal court in Rutland, Vt., a lawyer for Timothy David Miller said he also wants statements made to investigators in April excluded from the evidence, arguing that his client was not read his Miranda rights.

[Lisa] Miller, who once lived in Forest, Va., has repeatedly failed to obey court orders, and in November 2009 a Vermont judge ordered her to surrender custody to Jenkins. Miller failed to show up with the child on Jan. 1, 2010, and a federal warrant was issued for her arrest.

A lawyer for Timothy Miller said the Christian pastor, who was living in Managua, was stopped April 18 by US marshals and an FBI agent when he arrived at Reagan National Airport with his wife and four children. The were traveling to a wedding in Virginia.

Miller was interviewed at the airport police department office, where he told investigators he had been contacted by another man to purchase airplane tickets for Lisa Miller, and used his mother-in-law’s credit card to do so, according to the motion filed by Pennsylvania attorney Jeffrey A. Conrad.

[Timothy] Miller, described by the FBI as an Amish-Mennonite pastor from Tennessee, was charged with international parental kidnapping.

Conrad argues that the incriminating statements should be thrown out because Miller was the subject of an interrogation and was detained without having his rights read. He also says that the most appropriate place for the trial is the Western District of Virginia.

The alleged actions that constitute international parental kidnapping took place there, and the defendant was in Nicaragua when the alleged crime occurred and has never traveled to Vermont or had contact with anyone in the state, Conrad said in the motion.

One can only hope that in the course of the trial some of the folks at Liberty University are further implicated and charged as well.