FBI Makes Arrest In Lisa Miller Case

The FBI have made an arrest in connection with Lisa Miller, the "ex-gay" mother who vanished with her daughter in 2009 after courts awarded custody of the child to Janet Jenkins, her former partner. When Miller failed to surrender Isabella Jenkins-Miller, now age nine, to her ex, police issued a warrant for parental kidnapping. Metro Weekly reports:

According to court documents, the FBI arrested Timothy David Miller in Alexandria on charges that he aided in the international parental kidnapping of Isabella Miller-Jenkins by one of her two mothers, Lisa Miller. The FBI statement says Lisa Miller took her child to Mexico in September 2009 ''with the intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights by Janet Jenkins,'' her former civil union partner. The statement says Timothy Miller provided assistance with Lisa Miller's travel from the U.S. to Toronto and then to Mexico City, and provided shelter for her. The Millers then continued on to Managua, Nicaragua, later that month. A warrant for Lisa Miller's arrest was issued in April 2010. Sarah Star, a Vermont attorney representing Jenkins, said Friday that, despite Timothy Miller's arrest, ''We still don't know where they are now." Jenkins issued a statement saying she hopes ''Isabella is safe and well" and that she is looking forward to "having my daughter home safe with me very soon."

According to the FBI, Lisa Miller has been receiving checks issued by the Lynchburg Christian Academy, an affiliate of Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Church. Before vanishing, Miller had been legally assisted by the anti-gay Liberty Counsel, leading many to speculate that they had a hand in her disappearance. That appears to be the case as the Liberty Counsel is also affiliated with Falwell's Liberty University. Let's hope the FBI is questioning Matt Barber.

UPDATE: In an extensive story on today's news, the Advocate notes that Miller's Liberty Counsel attorney is named in the FBI's affidavit.

Miller’s attorney, Liberty associate professor of law Rena M. Lindevaldsen, could not be reached for comment Friday, though a Liberty representative asked to see Kaegel’s affidavit and said that any allegations of misconduct on the part of the organization were false.

Every involved Liberty Counsel member should be indicted!

Read the FBI affidavit. (PDF)

UPDATE II: In an addition to their above-linked story, the Advocate notes that the Liberty Counsel has now scrubbed their website of the bio of an employee named in the FBI affidavit. The normally Twitter-happy Liberty Counsel has so far remained mum on the growing scandal.

UPDATE III: Right Wing Watch notes that the FBI's affidavit reveals that Lisa Miller and her daughter have been living in a Nicaragua house owned by the father of Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver's secretary.

How it is that Liberty Counsel's most high profile client kidnaps her daughter and flees the country and the organization insists for more than a year that it has no idea where she is ... only to have it turn out that she is reportedly living in a home owned by the father of an admin assistant in Staver's very own office?