Former Pastor Gets Probation for Child Sex Assault, CBS 4, July 13, 2006

Former Pastor Gets Probation for Child Sex Assault

CBS 4
July 13, 2006

http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_194115034.html

(AP) CANON CITY, Colo. A 73-year-old former pastor has been sentenced to probation for 10 years to life after pleading guilty to a charge of sexual contact with a teenage girl who belonged to his church.

Allan M. Miller of Williamsburg, former pastor of Victory Apostolic Church in Florence, apologized to the girl, her family and his family during his sentencing hearing Wednesday.

He pleaded guilty in May to sexual assault on a child. Prosecutors dropped two other charges as part of a plea agreement.

"Just about everything important to me I have blown -- my ministry of 30 years -- and this has put a tremendous strain on my wife. I want to make up for what I've done," Miller said.

"For a 14-year-old girl, something like this will affect her for the rest of her life. I'm not sure you appreciate how harmful it was."

Photo by The CBS

The victim said the sexual contact started when she was 14 and continued until October, when she was 15, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Fremont County District Judge David Thorson placed Miller on intense supervised probation, which includes sex-offender therapy, and ordered him to avoid contact with anyone under 18, including the victim.

"For a 14-year-old girl, something like this will affect her for the rest of her life. I'm not sure you appreciate how harmful it was," Thorson said.

But he said Miller's otherwise clean record was a factor in the sentence.

"I have no reason to believe you have ever done anything like it before and no reason to think you would ever do anything like it again," Thorson said.