BURLINGTON, Vt. — In a case action filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Vermont, Janet Jenkins filed a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) lawsuit against the Mennonite pastor who was convicted of aiding an international kidnapping by helping her former partner flee the country with the couple’s child.
Jenkins also named her former partner Lisa Miller, the Liberty University School of Law, and the Thomas Road Baptist Church, among others. Both Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist were founded by the late Jerry Falwell and are based in Lynchburg, Va.
On Tuesday, a federal court found Kenneth Miller of Stuarts Draft, Va., guilty of helping to orchestrate Lisa Miller’s flight to Canada and ultimately to Nicaragua in 2009, despite court orders from family courts in both Vermont and Virginia that ordered Ms. Miller to honor visitation and custody orders. (The two Millers are not related.)
Get the Daily Brief
The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you:
In her suit, Jenkins asserts that the defendants “intentionally” kidnapped and conspired to kidnap the couple’s daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, on or about September 21, 2009.
The Plaintiffs also complain against Defendants for violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1962 (c) and (d) for participating and conspiring to participate in the affairs of the Beachy Amish-Mennonite Christian Brotherhood through a pattern of past and continuing acts and threats involving kidnapping, money laundering and mail fraud.
[…]
Based on the foregoing, all of the Defendants named herein, in both their individual capacities and as agents of TRBC, Liberty University Law School, Response Unlimited, Inc., and CAM are liable for conspiring with Lisa Miller and with each other to kidnap Isabella Miller-Jenkins, assure her continued detention outside the State of Vermont, and for conspiring with Kenneth Miller to participate in the affairs of the Beachy Amish-Mennonite Brotherhood through a pattern of racketeering activity.
The suit seeks an immediate return of the kidnapped child to the U.S., as well as actual and punitive damages.
Lisa Miller allegedly took Isabella to Central America after denouncing homosexuality and losing a series of family court battles in Vermont with Jenkins.
