Dec. 4, 2008 — Rodney E. Miller Sr. has until Wednesday to pay $515,000 or he'll go to jail, unless the V.I. Supreme Court grants an emergency stay on a contempt-of-court order handed down late last month by V.I. Superior Court Judge James S. Carroll III.
In his Nov. 25 ruling, Carroll found that Miller violated a temporary restraining order (TRO) he granted in early August that froze certain assets belonging to Miller, Amos Carty Jr. and Peter Najawicz, all former executives of Schneider Regional Medical Center who were recently arrested on charges ranging from grand larceny to embezzlement. Among the assets was a Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PFCU) account belonging to Miller, from which more than $1.1 million was transferred between Aug. 18 and Sept. 2 to accounts belonging to Miller's wife and the law firms of his attorneys, Charles Grant and William Glore.
Over the past week, motions to appeal and stay Carroll's order have been filed at the Superior Court. Glore also filed an emergency petition Thursday for a stay pending appeal at the V.I. Supreme Court. But unless the petition is granted, Miller and his attorneys still have to hand over the funds, according to court officials.
Glore received a payment of $150,000 on Aug. 18, while Grant received a $160,000 payment the same day. Another transfer of $75,000 made on Aug. 21 to Glore was later used to post bail for Miller. While Carroll did not find Grant and Glore in violation of the TRO — both attorneys have claimed they did not know the money was being transferred from Miller's frozen account — he did order them to give most of the money, about $260,000, back to the court. The figure does not include the $75,000 used for Miller's bail or the $50,000 the attorneys earned in legal fees.
If the attorneys fail to make the payment by Dec. 9, they could also be found in contempt, Carroll wrote in his order.
"The court does find that in light of the knowledge Grant and Glore have now gained about the source of the funds they received from Miller, it would be improper for them to retain the unexpended funds," Carroll said.
The judge took a hard line when it came to Miller, saying that it was "undisputed" that the former hospital chief executive officer transferred a total of $1.2 million from the frozen PFCU account up to a month after the temporary restraining order was issued. Miller has challenged the court's authority to freeze assets held outside the territory, and has argued that the order was not valid since it did not specifically list the particular account number or say that he could not access it.
But the credit union voluntarily complied with the TRO, which lists by name the owner of each of the frozen assets and contains a paragraph stating that "neither the owner(s) of record, nor any other person or entity" can access any of the items listed, Carroll said. Miller was employed by the territory for years, and paid with government funds, the judge noted.
"Although he (Miller) claims to no longer have any ties to the community, the TRO he is accused of violating arises out of an investigation directly related to his activities in the territory during the course of his employment and the alleged misappropriation of funds belonging to the government of the Virgin Islands with which he was entrusted," Carroll wrote.
In addition to the payments made to his attorneys, Miller made a $50,000 transfer into his wife's account Aug. 26, followed by another $650,000 transfer into the same account Sept. 2. All in all, $1.1 million was transferred out of the frozen account between Aug. 18 and Sept. 2. Another $100,000 transferred into the account of Miller's mother on Aug. 8 was not included in the final list of transactions, since government attorneys could not prove in court that Miller knew about the restraining order before Aug. 11, Carroll said.
Miller's payment to the court will be offset by the $325,000 he has posted as bail over the past few months, along with the $260,000 now owed by his attorneys. If he doesn't come up with the remaining $515,000 by Wednesday, Miller will be held in jail until a payment is made, Carroll said in his order.
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