Right-wing pastor arrested in lesbian custody battle

A Tennessee pastor who allegedly helped a woman abscond to central America with her 9-year-old daughter has been charged with aiding a kidnapping, the latest twist in a long-running custody dispute between former lesbian partners.

Timothy David Miller, 34, of Crossville, Tenn., is accused of helping to arrange passage for Lisa Miller of Virginia and daughter Isabella Miller Jenkins, who have been on the run since 2009 and now are believed to be living in Nicaragua.

It doesn’t appear that Timothy Miller is related to the mother. He works with an Ohio-based Christian ministry and people with links to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University may have provided a beach house where the two could live, according to an FBI affidavit.

“I know very little at this point, but I really hope that this means that Isabella is safe and well,” said Miller's former partner, Janet Jenkins, of Fair Haven. “I am looking forward to having my daughter home safe with me very soon,” she said in a statement released by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which has provided legal help to her.

Timothy Miller, described by the FBI as a pastor in an Amish-Mennonite church, is charged with aiding in international parental kidnapping, which carries a potential three-year prison term.

He’s accused of providing Miller and the girl with travel assistance and a place to live outside the U.S.

A public defender who represented him after his April 18 arrest in Alexandria, Va., Whitney E.C. Minter, declined to comment. Steven Barth, a public defender who was designated to represent him in Vermont, where his case is being prosecuted, didn’t return messages.

Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2000. Isabella was born to Miller in 2002, and the couple broke up the following year.

Miller then moved to Virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian. She was granted custody of Isabella, but Jenkins got visitation rights.

Courts in Vermont and Virginia have since ruled in favor of Jenkins on the custody issue, most recently in November 2009, when Rutland Family Court Judge William Cohen – frustrated by Miller’s refusal to obey court orders – ordered her to surrender custody to Jenkins.

Miller, who at one time lived in Forest, Va., failed to appear with the girl for a court-ordered Jan. 1, 2010, custody swap in which Jenkins was to take her.

A federal arrest warrant has since been issued for her.

Jenkins’ attorney had said the two were last known to be in El Salvador, but the FBI says they were last known to be in Nicaragua.

According to the April 1 affidavit by FBI special agent Dana Kaegel:

- Using search warrants that gave them access to various e-mail and Facebook accounts, authorities found their way to Timothy Miller, who is described as pastor of an Amish-Mennonite church in Managua, Nicaragua, and associate of Christian Aid Ministries, which is based in Berlin, Ohio.

- On Sept. 22, 2009, Lisa Miller and the girl flew from Toronto to Mexico City and then onto to El Salvador. A day later, they flew to Managua.

- In customer service notes obtained from TACA Airlines and dated the day before, someone wrote that Timothy Miller called from Nicaragua and said Lisa Miller and the girl had to leave Canada the following day and couldn’t be routed through the United States. According to the airline, “Timothy” approved the itinerary.

- Investigators believe that references to “Sarah” and “Lydia” in e-mail messages sent from Timothy Miller's account are code names for Lisa Miller and her daughter. In one March 25, 2010, a birthday party for the girl is discussed, with the writer saying: “I feel dearly for these 2 dear people. And I can see it would mean a lot to them in this rough first year of there stay in Nica. I would love for Lydia’s birthday to be very special and remembered long. She is going through a lot, and her future looms greatly in front of her right now.”

- E-mail messages make reference to Lisa Miller. One written by Timothy Miller said: “Sorry, folks, the Lisa subject should currently not be a topic of discussion or e-mailing. It might soon, or it just might be more of a secret. Please advise folks about this. Pray. Definitely pray.”

- A law professor at Liberty University represented Lisa Miller in court appearances before her disappearance, and an administrative assistant there named Victoria Hyden is the daughter of Philip Zodhiates, a “wealthy man” and “Liberty Leader” who has a beach house in Nicaragua where Miller and the girl have been staying.

Janet Jenkins’ lawyer in Vermont, Sarah Star, called Timothy Miller’s arrest the biggest development in the case so far.

“Hopefully, it’s a step in the right direction towards bringing Isabella home. That's the only thing Janet cares about. Hopefully, it also means that Isabella is safe,” Star said.