For over five years, we have been covering the case of Lisa Miller, a self-proclaimed ex-gay who was represented by Liberty Counsel in her effort to prevent her former partner from having shared custody of the daughter they had together. After repeatedly refusing to comply with court orders granting her former partner, Janet Jenkins, visitation rights, Miller was eventually stripped of custody and ordered to transfer custody to Jenkins, at which point Miller kidnapped her daughter and fled the country to a Mennonite community in Central America.
Liberty Counsel immediately tried to wash its hands of any involvement in this kidnapping, which proved problematic once it was revealed that Miller and her daughter were reportedly staying at a home in Nicaragua owned by a man named Philip Zodhiates whose daughter just so happened to work at the Liberty University Law School, where Miller’s attorneys, Mat Staver and Rena Lindevaldsen, both worked.
Liberty Law School was hit with a RICO lawsuit for the role it allegedly played in aiding Miller in the kidnapping and disappearance and now Philip Zodhiates, an influential Religious Right donor, has been indicted [PDF] in New York for conspiring with two other men (both also named Miller but neither having any relation to Lisa) to help Lisa Miller kidnap her daughter:
COUNT 1
(Conspiracy)
The Grand Jury Charges That:
From in or about September 2009 to in or about November 2009, in the Western District of New York, and elsewhere, the defendants, LISA MILLER, PHILIP ZODHIATES, and TIMOTHY MILLER, did knowingly, willfully and unlawfully combine, conspire and agree together and with Kenneth Miller and others, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to commit an offense against the United States, that is, to remove a child, J1, a person known to the Grand Jury, from the United States and to retain that child, who had been in the United States, outside the United States, with intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights, in violation of Title 18, United States Code,
Section 1204.Overt Acts
In order to effect the object of the conspiracy, the following acts were committed by the defendants and others in the Western District of New York and elsewhere:
1. On or about September 21, 2009, defendant LISA MILLER, J1, and defendant PHILIP ZODHIATES travelled from Virginia to the Buffalo, New York, area.
2. On or about September 21, 2009, defendant PHILIP ZODHIATES had telephone contact from the Buffalo, New York area with Kenneth Miller.
3. On or about September 21, 2009, defendant PHILIP ZODIATES had telephone contact from the Buffalo, New York area with an individual in Canada who had agreed to help transport defendant LISA MILLER in Canada.
4. On or about September 22, 2009, defendant LISA MILLER and J1 travelled across the Rainbow Bridge from Niagara Falls, New York, to Canada.
5. On or about September 22, 2009, defendant PHILIP ZODIATES had telephone contact from the Buffalo, New York area with an individual in Canada who helped transport defendant LISA MILLER in Canada.
6. On or about September 22, 2009, defendant PHILIP ZODHIATES had telephone contact from the Buffalo, New York area with Kenneth Miller. All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371.
COUNT 2
(International Parental Kidnapping)
The Grand Jury Further Charges That:
On or about September 22, 2009, in the Western District of New York, and elsewhere, the defendants, LISA MILLER, PHILIP ZODHIATES, and TIMOTHY MILLER, with intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights, did knowingly remove, and aid and abet the removal of, a child, J1, a person known to the Grand Jury, from the United States.
All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1204 and 2.
