Update (March 5): The Associated Press reports that Amish-Mennonite pastor Kenneth Miller has been sentenced to 27 months in jail after being convicted for assisting in international parental kidnapping last year.
However, the sentence will be “stayed pending an appeal on whether the case should have been tried in Virginia instead of Vermont,” according to Religion Clause.
Update (Feb. 4): Religion Clause has additional details.
Update (Jan. 25): Pastor Kenneth Miller has been jailed for refusing to testify to a grand jury, citing his religious beliefs.
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A federal jury decided Tuesday that pastor Kenneth L. Miller acted “with intent” to help a member of his congregation kidnap her daughter in 2009 and take her to Nicaragua. He faces up to three years in prison.
Prosecutors charged that the Amish-Mennonite pastor collaborated with other people and knowingly used deception to help Lisa A. Miller (no relation) live in Central America rather than share custody of her daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, with Janet Jenkins, her former lesbian partner from a Vermont civil union.
Kenneth Miller’s lawyers argued that the pastor did not know it was against the law for Lisa Miller to travel abroad with her daughter.
CT has noted how religious differences are making custody disputes even messier.
