Timothy Miller with his family

IN THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT in a child custody case that will either go down in the history of American jurisprudence for its flagrant violation of parental rights or represent a radical shift in the legal defintion of parenthood, federal prosecutors last week dropped kidnapping charges against Timothy Miller, the Mennonite missionary who helped Lisa Miller flee the country with her daughter in 2009 after a Vermont judge ordered her to hand over the child to her former lesbian lover.

According to The Rutland Herald, U.S. Attorney for Vermont Tristram Coffin, in a motion to dismiss the charges against Timothy Miller, stated that Miller agreed to appear as a possible witness in the future. Timothy Miller, who is no relation to Lisa, works as a missionary in Nicaragua. He has been unable to leave the United States since his arrest last April. The Timo Miller Support Network was collecting financial support for him.

Interestingly, the story of the charges against the missionary has been virtually ignored. Both the criminal charges against him and the case against Lisa Miller vividly exemplify the coercive nature of homosexual rights. Prosecutors may have come to see the charges against the father of four not only as a colossal embarrassment but as without legal foundation. A person cannot be accused of interfering with the parental custody rights of a non-parent. Janet Jenkins, the lesbian lover, is not a parent at all under federal law. She neither adopted the child in question or had biological ties with her.  The mother, Lisa Miller, was never ruled by a court as an unfit parent.

According to the support network for Timothy:

The criminal complaint against Timo Miller says he aided in the removal of a child from the US in order to interfere with “parental” custody. It accuses him of arranging tickets, and picking them up at the airport.

To those of us who are observing the situation, the accusation begs a question. How can a biologically unrelated individual who has not gone through the adoption process even have “parental” rights in the first place? Homosexual marriages are not recognized federally, nor are they recognized by most states. In fact, most states have specific prohibitions banning homosexual marriage, helping to prevent a situation like this from occurring.

Timothy Miller allegedly helped Lisa purchase plane tickets to flee in late 2009. Lisa is believed to be living in Central America with her nine-year-old daughter Isabella. The two left the country after Lisa was ordered by a Vermont court to hand over Isabella to Jenkins. Lisa Miller’s appeals were denied and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear her case.

Miller and Jenkins were involved in a civil union in Vermont when the child was born. An anonymous sperm donor was the father. Miller became an Evangelical Christian when the child was a baby and left the relationship. Jenkins, who had never adopted the girl and had no consistent relationship with her since she was a toddler, was granted sole custody of the child in 2009 after Lisa Miller had violated visitation orders that required her to take Isabella to Vermont from her home in Virginia to periodically stay with Jenkins. 

Lisa Miller

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