An Antigay Website’s Curious Mention in Lisa Miller Case
December 23 2011 12:24 PM ET
Of prosecutors’ decision to drop charges against Timo Miller, Severo wrote that the missionary “is now free from the ominous claws of the FBI, which in a sane legal system would persecute thugs and terrorists. But Lisa and Isabella are not free: the FBI is after them. At any time, they may be captured. At any time, Isabella may be kidnapped by the FBI and her mother arrested. … This tragedy was made possible only because gay civil unions were allowed in Vermont. And when homosexual ‘marriage’ is allowed, the gay agenda and the State become united in an unholy ‘marriage,’ where special rights and freedoms are granted to those in the footsteps of Sodom.”
Kenneth Miller was indicted on one count of aiding and abetting the international kidnapping of Isabella Miller-Jenkins in a court filing dated December 15 and signed by U.S. Attorney Tristram J. Coffin. He appeared in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt. on December 6 and was released on $10,000 bail. No other arrests have been made in the case, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul J. Van de Graaf.
Another individual mentioned in the Kenneth Miller complaint is Philip Zodhiates, who according to Commonwealth of Virginia State Corporation Commission records is the owner and registered agent of the Christian direct-mail firm Response Unlimited in Waynesboro, Va., located a few miles east of Stuarts Draft.
The affidavit alleges that on September 21 and September 22, 2009, the day of Lisa Miller’s border crossing into Canada, Kenneth Miller made phone calls to a Mennonite pastor in Ontario as well as multiple calls to cell phones tied to the company owned by Zodhiates. Roaming activity on the Response Unlimited cell phones “is consistent with a pattern of travel for those phones from Virginia to Buffalo, NY on September 21, 2009, with a return from Buffalo, NY to Virginia on September 22, 2009.”
According to an April affidavit against Timo Miller, Zodhiates had asked his daughter, an administrative assistant at Liberty University School of Law, to “disseminate a request to get Lisa Miller supplies” in Nicaragua, where she and her daughter had allegedly been staying at a beach house owned by Zodhiates (Zodhiates’s daughter has denied that she was contacted with such a request).
Liberty University School of Law dean Mathew D. Staver is also founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, which represented Lisa Miller in court proceedings. Staver and fellow Liberty Counsel attorney Rena Lindevaldsen, who recently wrote a book on the case, have said they have not had contact with Miller following her disappearance. “From our perspective, she just dropped off the face of the earth. We haven’t heard from her or from anyone who said they’ve heard from her,” Staver told the Associated Press earlier this year.
Meanwhile, a new website supporting Kenneth Miller and created by Mennonite churches affiliated with the minister expresses “solidarity with Ken as he faces charges for choices and actions we believe were correct. By God’s grace we would want to make the same choices he did.”
“Our involvement with Lisa and Isabella Miller has stemmed from a desire to obey our Lord Jesus — both His commands and example,” the website’s unidentified authors wrote.
Attorneys for Kenneth Miller did not respond to calls for comment.
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