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US v. Miller, et al.

Monday, December 8th - Afternoon Session

New witness: Abby Powers (former assistant to F. Jeffrey Miller)

Ms. Powers met Miller after her parents purchased a Miller built home.  Through her step-father, Powers found a job with Miller in his office.  Powers testified that her predecessor, Angela Parenza had left Miller’s employment and she was trained by Sandra Jo Harris.  Soon after, Powers started a business; Powers, Chambers & Creighton. (Creighton was the middle name of her brother-there was no one named Chambers..).

The business had two purposes.  One was as a notary. The name that Powers used as a notary was her maiden name, Taverner.  The other business purpose was as a ‘collection agency’ of Miller’s second mortgages.  Powers worked for Miller beginning in June, 2006.  The terms that Miller and Powers agreed to were:

$500 per month

10% of second mortgage payments collected, less than 90 days in arrears

20% of second mortgage payments collected more than 90 days in arrears.

After being served Government supoenas, for Miller and Starland records, Sandra Jo Harris faxed her supoena to Powers at Miller’s office.  Powers testified that Miller and Miller’s attorney, Pete Smith, insisted that the supoena concerned the Jordan file.  Powers testified that under the direction of Miller, she made a copy of the Jordan file for the Government and left it on a table in the office for Agent Glaser to pick up.  Agent Glaser spoke with Powers and advised her that the supoena included ‘all loan files’, not just the Jordan file.

The Government introduces an email sent by Harris to Powers.  Harris asks how Power’s is feeling and says ‘sorry you missed the file cleaning party, last night..’.

Cross examination by Atty. Bradshaw (Miller):

Atty Bradshaw attempted to have Abby Powers testify that the reference to the ‘file cleaning party’ was the Federal Agents seizing all the files in Miller’s office.  Power’s was questioned extensively about her interpretation of the Harris email. 

Re-Cross by Atty. Hathaway (US):

Hathaway referred Powers to her previous two appearances and testimony regarding the ‘file cleaning party’ incident.  Asked if she had met with Bradshaw to prepare her for this testimony, Ms. Power’s at first said that she met with Bradshaw in early November.  When further questioned, Powers testified that she spoke with Bradshaw, yesterday.  Atty. Hathaway vigorously questioned Power’s about the ‘file cleaning party’.  He accused Powers of changing her testimony from previous hearings.  Power’s became upset while being questioned.  She wants to see a transcript of her prior testimony.  Crying on the stand, Judge Robinson takes a 10 minute recess for the witness to compose herself.

When court reconvened, Atty Hathaway further questioned the witness about a visit she had made to the Perello home.  ‘They were really complaining’, she testified, referring to shoddy construction of their home in Lone Jack.  Power’s did a walk through of their home close to Halloween of 2006.  When she arrived, she found decorative headstones in the yard of the Perello home, one saying ‘RIP Jeff’ , the other ‘RIP Steve’

In the Courtroom today:

Todd Earnshaw (Miller’s brother in law)

Nancy Seats (President of Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings)

Jeff Miller’s sisters and Mother.

Reynelle Miller (Miller’s wife)

Upcoming Witnesses:

Kris Kanakares (HUD Investigator)

Steve Brown (Court assigned business monitor, Meara King)

Angela Parenza (former assistant to F. Jeffrey Miller)