Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
Lisa Miller fled the US and its courts, vanishing abroad with her young daughter Isabella. Others got swept up into the case for helping her escape.
Isabella turned 18 in 2020 and Lisa voluntarily surrendered (on January 19, 2021) at the US embassy in Managua, Nicaragua.
I see this evening that the media finally caught on that Lisa is back in the States and in custody. That sure took a long time!
Now the maligning will resume. May the Lord continue to keep her and sustain her and give her abundant, victorious, loving grace.
And the hunt for Isabella’s whereabouts will probably take on new energy. Whether she chose to stay in Nicaragua or to return to the US, I think we should be praying for her safety and well-being. And her spiritual stability.
The evening January 29, 2021 — having first secured permission to do so — I broke this story into the public Web: Lisa Miller Surrenders Into US Custody.
I included this:
I believe Lisa did the right thing to protect her daughter Isabella in the course of the last eleven years or so. I also believe she did the right thing in surrendering now that Isabella is of age. I commend her for that.
Before long, I was asked via Facebook as well as private email why I think it was the right thing for her to do.
Before I answer the question, I present to you a principle and a warning from Someone far wiser and experienced than I: Read it all
I learned this morning that Lisa is at the Federal Detention Center in Miami. Rather, I learned that her mailing address is there. As a traveler arrived from abroad, she is quarantined because of the Covid-19 epidemic. I don’t know that she has Covid. Nor do I know that such quarantines are done on site there at FDC Miami.
She is doing OK and would like to hear from members of her faith community. Her address is:
Lisa Miller
No. 0147207
PO Box 019120
Miami FL 33101
Remember inmate mail is subject to inspection and reading by prison officials. Feel free to encourage Lisa, but avoid direct references to parties involved. Be sure what you write does not distract any “reviewers” and “proofreaders” from the name of Christ.
My source says, “If you don’t want to wade through all the guidelines below, just write her on a clean piece of white paper in black or blue ink and it should be good to go.”
For those of you who want to do that and/or more, please review the following restrictions and guidelines… Read it all
Today, January 18, 2021, I am voluntarily surrendering myself to the U.S. Authorities by walking into the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua.
Lisa Miller’s plan was thwarted by a holiday. She and Isabella (and a friend) arrived at the American Embassy in Managua only to learn it was closed due to Martin Luther King Jr Day.
They returned the next day and followed through with their plan.
The officials at the embassy just couldn’t see why she would turn herself in! “Why are you here?” they asked. “Why do you do this?” 🙂
This past Wednesday (January 27), Lisa finally returned to the US after leaving the country in 2009. (For more details about her case, see two links I’ve included at the end of this post.) What happens to her now in the American justice system remains to be seen. Read it all
As I understand from two different news sources, Timo was sentenced today to time served plus one year of probation. As far as I know, he has been released by now.
Timo Miller Family (201_?)
Because “a woman’s faith and modern society collided,” Ken Miller reported to federal prison in Virginia on March 22, 2016.
In this “war against Satan’s tyranny,” Ken holds to the view that the proper weapons must be employed by the faithful disciple of Jesus. In the excerpt below, notice how he identifies such weaponry.
I had forgotten Ken Miller’s appeal was in the works.
A Mennonite pastor from Virginia convicted of helping a woman flee the country rather than share custody of her daughter with her former lesbian partner says his federal conviction should be thrown out because no part of the crime occurred in Vermont, where he was arrested, prosecuted and found guilty.
Attorneys for Kenneth Miller argued in documents filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the effort to get Lisa Miller and her daughter Isabella out of the country began in Virginia and ended in New York state when the pair crossed the Rainbow Bridge to Canada in September 2009 before flying to Nicaragua.
The documents, filed Monday in New York, said Miller’s right to be tried before a jury near his home could be traced to England’s Magna Carta in 1215, the basis for much of the U.S. Constitution.
[…]
The criminal case stemmed from a custody battle decided by a Vermont family court. Miller turned himself in to federal authorities in Vermont in December 2011, and was sentenced in March to 27 months in prison. His sentencing has been delayed pending his appeals.
U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin in Vermont said Wednesday he had not seen the appeal but would make the same argument as his office made to the trial court — that Miller’s criminal actions became complete once the mother and child left the U.S. and were therefore subject to prosecution where Miller was arrested.
“The crime was not completed until they entered Canada,” Coffin said.
Ken is called a Mennonite here. Close enough. I think he’s actually Beachy.
