By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A 30-year-old man who was arrested at his Chehalis home and held in jail for five days on suspicion of sexually abusing his 4-year-old daughter was released with no charges, after a specialist concluded it appeared the child was coached to say what she said.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said it was a rare occurrence but was also an instance of the system working.
“To me, it’s checks and balances,” Meyer said.
Michael E. Miller, 30, was jailed on July 6, a Saturday and went before a judge the following Monday afternoon. Bail was set at $100,000 to continue to hold him on probable cause while further investigating was done and prosecutors could decide whether to file charges.
The offense he was arrested for was child rape in the first degree.
According to court documents, the little girl’s mother called police in mid-June and said the youngster told her that her father put his finger in her “pee pee”. When subsequently interviewed by an investigator with Child Protective Services, she blurted out, “My dad put his finger in my bottom and it hurt,” court documents state, but the session was ended after the interviewer was not able to keep the girl “on track.”
Deputy Prosecutor Joely O’Rourke said that while Miller was locked up, the child was seen by a specialist at a sexual assault clinic in Olympia, who gave a final report. O’Rourke declined to file any charge.
“The parents are in a heated custody dispute over 4-year-old twins,” O’Rourke said.
There were indications the child might have been coached, and there was no corroboration, she said.
O’Rourke said holding a person in jail without charging them doesn’t happen often, but Miller had a previous issue that moved her in that direction. She didn’t want to elaborate, but the court documents state Miller was convicted in 2004 of possession of child pornography.
His visits with his children are supervised by his sister who is a social worker and very credible, O’Rourke said, and she said there was no way such an incident could have occurred because she was with them during the visits.
Chehalis Police Department detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said there was no physical evidence and no independent witness, but he had what a police officer needs, probable cause for the arrest.
“It’s one of those things, you err on the side of the child,” Wilson said.
O’Rourke indicated an eye will be kept on the situation.
Miller declined to comment on his situation.
Prosecutor Meyer reiterated that each step along the way to a criminal charge requires a different framework to view a case. First police have their protocol, the prosecutors apply their standards and then a judge reviews each case before a charge can be filed.
Meyer indicated potentially someone could be in trouble for coaching a child to utter such phrases, but spoke only theoretically about it.
“You have to look at what proof there is, and more importantly, what proof there isn’t,” he said.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
He’s been convicted of possession of child pornography already? Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
What was this “child pornography” in 2004? He was 21 at the time. Was he dating a 17 year old girl & had nude photos of her, that her dad found out about? (Yes that would be wrong, but today at 30 & 26 no one would bat an eye)
Mind you, that’s purely speculation.
We’re always so quick to judge a father over a mother.
It’s criminal what this mother did to her own child.
I agree Steve. The red flags are there. Father already convicted of child porn. I hope social services follows up with checks in future. Sometimes where there is smoke there is fire.
You people should know the facts and the situation before passing judgement on the mother. The father was already convicted of a serious similar crime once.
As far as our system goes, it is far from infallible. I hope, I pray that if your child had told you the same thing that you would have done exactly what she did.
That is one sick in the head mother if she coached her daughter to say something like that.
It is sad that custody battles can get so out of control that one party would be willing to have the other put into prison for something that did not occur. It seems the CJ system in this case worked.
The mother belongs in prison for falsely accusing her husband of child abuse.