A former Los Angeles priest at the center of Cardinal Roger Mahony's unsuccessful attempts to keep archdiocese personnel records from county prosecutors was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for molesting a young boy two decades ago.
George Miller, 70, pleaded guilty in December to molesting the child between 1988 and 1989 and admitted to sexually abusing at least three other boys after the archdiocese received its first complaint about him in 1977.
"My family trusted you to teach me the ways of the Lord, not the ways of hell," one of the victims, now in his 30s, told Miller in a trembling voice in a San Fernando courtroom.
Miller, gray haired and spectacled, sat silently with his fist covering his mouth. A handful of supporters sat behind him in the courtroom audience.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ulfig ordered him taken into custody immediately after the sentencing.
After the hearing, Miller's lawyer, Steven M. Cron, said his client had a different version of what happened but accepted a plea deal to avoid a possibly lengthy prison sentence if he were convicted at trial.
"In the end we decided not to contest the charges and that it's time for everyone to move on," Cron said.
Prosecutors believe that Miller molested at least six boys between 1977 and 1991. Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Marie Wise said the case would have been a challenge to bring to trial because of the time that had passed and the difficulty the victim would have had in testifying about abuse that left him emotionally scarred.
She said the outcome of the case gave victims an opportunity they had long sought: to confront Miller in court and hear him admit to his abuse.
"I don't think that any amount of state prison can ever heal the victims in this case," Wise said.
The district attorney's office initially charged Miller in 2002 with molesting several boys. But the charges were dismissed the next year, along with more than a dozen other cases against priests or former priests, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law that extended the statute of limitations for decades-old sexual abuse.
Prosecutors were able to pursue a new criminal case against Miller when an additional victim came forward. Authorities said Miller befriended the victim's mother when the boy was 5 and Miller was assigned to Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima. The abuse allegedly began after Miller was assigned to Santa Clara Church in Oxnard in 1984.
