priest pleads guilty

 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
MEDIA RELATIONS DIVISION

STEVE COOLEY District Attorney JOSEPH SCOTT Director
JOHN K. SPILLANE Chief Deputy District Attorney SANDI GIBBONS P.I.O.
JANE ROBISON News Secretary
SHIARA M. DÁVILA Asst. P.I.O.

18-1112 Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center
210 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 974-3525

Dec. 2, 2008

Former priest pleads guilty to molesting boy 20 years ago

SAN FERNANDO – A former Los Angeles Archdiocese priest pleaded guilty today to molesting a boy 20 years ago and admitted three prior victims whose cases cannot be charged because of statute of limitation problems, the District Attorney's office announced.

Deputy District Attorney Ann Marie Wise of the Sex Crimes Division said the admission by 70-year-old George Miller means that the three uncharged victims can address the court when the defendant is sentenced on Jan. 30 by San Fernando Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ulfig.

Miller, who has been free on bail since just after his arrest in July 2007, faces a three-year prison term, said Wise. He must serve at least 85 percent of that term before being eligible for parole consideration.

The defendant was charged on July 24, 2007, with molesting a boy that he met while assigned to the Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima.

Authorities said Miller befriended the victim's mother and became a frequent guest at the family home. He was charged with molesting the boy between March 1988 and March 1991, when the victim was 12 years old.

In 2002, Miller was charged with molesting the victim's older brother and two other boys. Those charges were dismissed in 2003 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California statute of limitations on child molestation cases was unconstitutional. Not only did the District Attorney's office have to dismiss the Miller case because of the Stogner ruling, it also had to dismiss more than a dozen other cases against priests or former priests accused of child molestation.

The new case against Miller was filed after the current victim came forward. The defendant was charged with six counts – three of lewd act against a child and three of sodomy of a person under the age of 14. He pleaded guilty to Count 1, which alleged lewd act on a child under the age of 14 between March 1988 and March 1989. The remaining counts will be dismissed after Miller is formally sentenced.

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Sandi Gibbons, Public Information Officer
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
Criminal Justice Center
210 W. Temple St., 18th Floor
Los Angeles CA 90012
Phone: 213-974-3528
Email address: sandi@da.lacounty.gov