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Ex-priest is charged in molestation case
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More from Local NewsA former Catholic priest was arrested at his Oxnard home Tuesday and charged with molesting a child in Los Angeles County in the 1980s and '90s.
George Michael Miller, 69, was charged with six felony counts and is being held on $600,000 bail, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. The charges come a week after 508 people with clergy abuse lawsuits settled with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for $660 million.
Don Steier, a Los Angeles lawyer who represented Miller in the past, referred questions to another lawyer, Steve Cron, who did not immediately return calls Tuesday. Miller is scheduled for arraignment today in San Fernando Superior Court.
Miller was at Santa Clara Church in Oxnard from 1984 to 1996 and at the San Buenaventura Mission in Ventura from 1968 to 1971. The allegations involve a boy who was 5 when the priest — then serving at Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima — reportedly met him in the early 1980s. Investigators allege the molestations happened from 1988 to 1991 but occurred outside Ventura County.
In 2002, Miller was charged with 24 counts of sex crimes against minors, including the older brother of the man in the current case. Those charges were thrown out because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the statute of limitations.
In a statement Tuesday, Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials referred to a 2005 church report to the public that showed written abuse allegations against Miller were received in 1977. Then-Cardinal Timothy Manning kept Miller in the ministry because the priest denied the accusations.
"Such a thing would not happen today," the statement read, noting new policies are in place.
Current Cardinal Roger Mahony placed Miller on sick leave and sent him for psychiatric evaluation after another abuse complaint in 1996. Miller was placed on inactive leave in 1997 and taken out of the priesthood — laicized — in 2005.
Posted by nancy_4ever on July 25, 2007 at 7:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
CASTRATION! This is lenient compared to what God requires of him. He hasn't shown any fruit of repentance and should be "cast into the deepest sea!"
Posted by onoshaveice on July 26, 2007 at 1:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This breaks my heart, I respected Father Miller, he helped me find my faith. My family and I don't go to church any longer because of the stance the church has taken in covering up the abuses, we are still Catholics but we will not support the establishment.
If these allegations are true than I hope he gets prosecuted to the full extent of the law, as you taught me Father Miller your punishment is yet to come after this life is over.
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