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Molester freed despite teen's pleas Ex-Central Point man leaves after time served for 1996 crime By DANI DODGE Despite a teenager's tearful pleas, a man who molested her when she was 14 - James Peter Miller - was released from jail Monday. "He needs to go to prison," the teen said in court, the ends of her sentences lost in sobs. "If he gets out, he will do it again." Based on a plea bargain struck between the prosecutor and the defense attorney, Judge Ray White sentenced Miller, 43, to 10 months in jail for sexual harassment and delivery of a controlled substance to a minor. Sexual harassment was defined in the case as offensive physical contact of a sexual or intimate part. Miller had been behind bars since July 7, 2000, when police in Maine stopped him on a traffic violation and discovered he had Jackson County warrants for sodomy and sex abuse. Because of the time already served, he was released at 5 p.m. Monday - only hours after his sentencing. Miller will spend the next five years on probation that will include sex offender evaluation and treatment as well as the requirements that he have no contact with the victim and pay for her counseling. Miller was a Central Point resident in 1996 when the crime occurred. He and his girlfriend, who had a young teenage daughter, took the daughter and several of her friends on a camping trip to Natural Bridge, a campground near Beckie's cafe at Union Creek. Miller gave the girls alcohol and marijuana, according to court testimony. Some of the girls became ill. The 14-year-old victim passed out. When she woke up in her tent the next morning, she was undressed from the waist down. She was sore. She knew something bad had happened and she suspected Miller. Another girl in the tent had seen some "sexual behavior" going on, but had assumed it was Miller and her mother, so she went back to sleep, according to court testimony. After the group returned from the camping trip, the victim received a love letter from Miller. "After spending those few days with you I fell completely in love," he wrote on Comfort Inn stationary. He signed it "All my love, Brew, AKA James. The girl only reported the abuse after a parent discovered the letter. The detective that investigated the case, Carl Sieg, said that during his 12 years as a child abuse investigator with the sheriff's department, he saw a number of sexual abuse cases that occurred during camping trips. He said the free-flowing alcohol, lack of supervision and the trust developed during camping can contribute to an abuser's sense that he can get away with it. In November 1996, Miller was indicted by a Jackson County grand jury of first-degree sodomy, third-degree sodomy, third-degree sexual abuse, four counts of furnishing alcohol to a person under 21, and three counts of delivery of a controlled substance to a minor. The sodomy charges are Measure 11 felonies and carry a mandatory sentence of 100 months. But before police could arrest Miller, he went to the East Coast. He was arrested in Somerset County, Maine, and extradited to Jackson County in October 2000. Miller has a long criminal record of weapons, drug and theft convictions dating to the 1970s, but no previous convictions for sexual abuse. At the sentencing Monday, the victim came alone to have her say. Now 19, she told Judge White that Miller had "almost ruined" her life. She tried to hide the tears by putting down her head, her shiny long blond hair swinging into her face, but the tears would not subside. So she continued, gasping for air between words. "He had no reason to violate me," she said. A bailiff took a box of tissues to her. Miller's attorney, Larry Roloff, said the plea bargain prevents the girl and others from having to testify at a trial. "We think it's fair," he said. Deputy District Attorney Terry Smith said the case would have been difficult to prosecute. Because the victim had passed out, she doesn't remember the attack. The other witnesses, the mother and her daughter, moved to Arizona and refused to return to testify. Miller then addressed the court. "I'm sorry that I put her through any grief," he said. "It was all a misunderstanding." The judge, though, told him he should've known better. "It sounds like you had romantic feelings," White said. "You think it's consensual, but you are just flat taking advantage of somebody." The victim walked out of the courtroom, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. Miller was led back into jail, to be processed for his release. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.