A Virginia woman who was engaged in a custody dispute with her former same-sex partner and fled the country with their child in 2009 has pleaded guilty to international parental kidnapping in federal court.
Lisa Miller, 53, faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of New York, which is prosecuting the case.
Miller, who was in a civil union with Janet Jenkins under Vermont law, was artificially inseminated during the civil union and had a child, Isabella. In 2003, Miller sought termination of the civil union, and disputes arose thereafter regarding Miller’s and Jenkin’s parental rights, with Miller disputing those parental rights in both Virginia and Vermont courts after renouncing homosexuality and becoming an evangelical Christian.
Jenkins had been awarded parental rights in Vermont, and in early September 2009, the Vermont family court, which had jurisdiction over the dispute regarding the parental rights, ordered that Jenkins was entitled to an unsupervised parental visit with Isabella on the weekend of Sept. 25, 2009.
Miller was aware of the court-ordered visit, but did not want to allow unsupervised visitation for that weekend. In the early morning of Sept. 22, 2009, Miller removed Isabella from the United States to Canada via Buffalo, N.Y,. and eventually to Nicaragua, with the intention to take her out of the country in order to obstruct Jenkin’s court-ordered parental rights.
Miller remained out of the country until she voluntarily returned to the United States in 2021, after Isabella had reached 18 years of age.
Three other defendants were charged and convicted for their roles in this case. Philip Zodhiates, of Waynesboro, was charged in the Western District of New York and convicted following a jury trial of international parental kidnapping and conspiracy to commit international parental kidnapping and sentenced in 2017 to serve three years in prison.
Zodhiates, according to authorities, organized the kidnapping, and assisted in the recruitment of a Mennonite pastor from Stuarts Draft, Kenneth Miller, who was convicted following a jury trial of international parental kidnapping in the District of Vermont and sentenced in 2012 to serve 27 months in prison.
Timothy Miller was also charged, convicted, and sentenced to time served (eight months) for his role in assisting Lisa Miller. According to authorities, he purchased a one-way plane ticket for Lisa Miller and Isabella to travel from Toronto, Ontario, to Nicaragua. Upon their arrival in Nicaragua, Timothy Miller assisted Lisa Miller and Isabella financially, including providing them with shelter.
Story by Chris Graham
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