RIETTA MILLER
SALINE CO. – Any glee over the resolution of the local case of a notorious Harrisburg woman was short-lived when, at the end of January, she was charged with a felony in federal court.
Rietta Miller, 51, was charged last May with two Class 4 felonies: Possession of a Controlled Substance and Theft.
She ran into trouble when she failed to appear for a hearing per the terms of her bond, and was arrested on a Failure to Appear (FTA) warrant on January 23.
She had previously been set for a jury trial on Jan. 25 anyway. When that day approached, Miller, still sitting in jail, agreed with the prosecution (being handled by Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Olson) to an amended charge of misdemeanor Theft, for which she received, in exchange, a sentence of 18 months of probation, a fine, and to make restitution. Fines and fees amounted to $2,788.58 in total, and included the restitution of a whopping $10,78; Miller’s thousand-dollar bond was applied to the total and she currently owes $1,788.58.
Whether Saline County will ever see the rest of it or not remains unknown, however, as Miller was advised almost immediately upon conclusion of the matter that she had been federally indicted.
Defrauding the court alleged
Paperwork released from the federal court system in Benton Jan. 30 shows that Miller has been indicted on a count of bankruptcy fraud.
According to the bankruptcy documents, Miller filed a Chapter 7 (complete discharge of debts) in mid-May 2015. The filing was made in the effort to bankrupt out of less than $20,000 of credit card and other unsecured debt.
While listing the limited amount of income she had from a lawn care service, social security from her kids’ fathers and other benefits like food stamps, claims the federal court, Miller failed to mention $47,736.12 in proceeds from a Worker’s Compensation Settlement she received on April 8, 2015, shortly before the filing of the disclosure paperwork.
Court documents indicate in a separate filing how the bankruptcy court found out about the forty-seven grand, which discovery took place right about the time that the attorney Miller hired to handle the bankruptcy, Paula Newcomb of Benton, withdrew as her counsel in the bankruptcy February of 2016.
These documents show that on or about November 4, 2011, Miller was injured in an accident during the course of her employment with Man-Tra-Con Corp, which resulted in Miller filing a claim through her attorney David Moss with the Illinois Industrial Commission (IIC).
Her get-rich-fast attempt worked this time
On April 8, 2015, an arbitrator with the IIC approved a settlement contract between Miller and Man-Tra-Con: $50,000. After attorney’s fees to David Moss, Miller received the sum of $47,736.12. That amount was deposited into Miller’s Banterra Bank account on April 14, 2015.
When under oath in front of her bankruptcy trustee on July 10 of that same year, court documents show that Miller testified that she was telling the truth about all of her bank accounts, none of which showed the $47k-plus. Specifically, court documents show that Miller testified that Moss had lost the claim against Workmen’s Comp because he had allegedly “failed to file something in a timely manner.
“That statement was false,” court documents state in paragraph 7 of the secondary complaint.
Shell game with cashier’s checks
Following the deposit of the $47,736.12, the documents show, Miller made various payments or transfers. Specifically, she gave a friend five thousand of it, on or about April 30, 2015. In addition to that, she gave her son (presumably Roman Moore) $10,000 on or about April 27, 2015. All of these funds came from the Banterra Bank account.
On May 5, 2015, thirteen days prior to the filing of her bankruptcy case, Miller withdrew $25,000 in the form of a cashier’s check made payable to herself.
Court documents allege she “continued to hold the $25,000 cashier’s check until June 3, 2015, at which time she deposited the cashier’s check back into her Banterra Bank account minus $2,000 she retained in cash, for a net deposit of $23,000.
On July 8, 2015, two days prior to the July 10 meeting of creditors, she again withdrew in the form of a cashier’s check payable to herself the sum of $16,000, which she continued to hold until August 21, at which time she deposited the check back into her Banterra Bank account minus $1,000 in cash. At this time a deposit to a different account was made of the $1,000, documents show.
That same day, she withdrew $14,000 in the form of a cashier’s check and held that until September 22, 2015, depositing that back into the Banterra Bank account and retaining $1,000.
The paperwork shows that Miller continued to retain or otherwise transfer the settlement proceeds such that it is believed that no settlement funds from the claim remained at that time.
No discharge
In the conclusion of these documents, the trustee asked the court to deny the bankruptcy discharge because Miller “with intent to hinder, delay or defraud a creditor or an officer of the state charged with custody or property…transferred, removed, destroyed, mutilated or concealed” her property, namely the settlement, as well as made a false oath in signing her schedules, a false oath in signing her statement of financial affairs, and made false oaths in her testimony at the meeting of creditors (three of those).
On April 7, 2016, the discharge of Miller’s debts was denied by the bankruptcy court.
The new federal charge of Concealment of Property is now working its way through the court system with a next court date of February 16.
In the meantime, her offspring Roman Moore – recipient of $10,000 of the settlement that got his mom in trouble – is still hemmed up in Williamson County, with a recent arrest (November 26, 2016) of Felon in Possession of a Firearm being filed and keeping him behind bars, this after the early September 2014 incident of robbery in Marion that made him a felon at the age of 21. He’s set for a jury trial in early March, which will likely end in another plea and a brief stint in IDOC.
A summons was issued to Miller for her appearance in federal court; apparently there was no warrant attached to that and so she, unlike her kid, remains free.