Berlin Priest Faces More Child Pornography Charges

By Lisa Backus
New Britain Herald
June 21, 2012

http://www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2012/06/21/news/doc4fe313ae6b5d6149801327.txt

A popular priest already facing charges he initiated lurid conversations with a 13-year-old boy was arrested again this month for possessing child pornography.

Michael Miller, a Franciscan Friar relieved of his duties at St. Paul’s Church last year was charged with 10 counts of risk of injury to a child, two counts of obscenity and third-degree possession of child pornography June 14. He will be arraigned in New Britain Superior Court on the new charges July 9.

The arrest likely stems from the seizure of Miller’s computers when he was charged in July 2011 with five counts of risk of injury to a child and attempted obscenity. It is unclear if the new charges involve contact with the same 13-year-old.

Miller had been a highly regarded priest at the Berlin parish for five years. According to the arrest warrant served last July, Miller engaged the young teen in several sexually oriented conversations on the social networking site Facebook that included graphic descriptions of the acts he'd like to commit with the boy and other men. The priest also allegedly admitted to the boy he was bisexual in high school and was "addicted to porn," the warrant said.

The discussions were discovered in late June when the boy's mother noticed that Miller had made a comment on her son's Facebook page that professional wrestlers had "cute butts." The woman inspected her son's account and discovered dozens of comments going back months that included graphic sexual comments, the warrant said.

She alerted Berlin police after finding the conversations.

Miller was using an alias on Facebook because the nuns and the church didn't approve of him having an account on the social networking site. He admitted to police when confronted about the allegations that he had sent inappropriate text messages to the teen but never had any physical contact with the child.