Counting down: 12 for 2012
Published 8:54 am Sunday, January 1, 2012
Charity and Bryan Miller are led down the hall of the Jail and Justice Center after being taken into custody in July. They were sentenced to one year in jail.
11. Millers’ parental rights: Round 2
Charity and Brian Miller, the Dexter parents who chained their now 6-year-old son to a bed over a period of months, will fight for their parental rights a second time come the new year.
The Millers are scheduled for a parental rights trial in February. District Judge Fred Wellmann allowed the couple to retain its rights in the summer of 2011 because the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) states the parents must first make an effort to reunify the family before their rights can be stripped. Charity and one of the boys are members of the Cherokee Nation, making ICWA applicable to the case.
Mower County Human Services is attempting to strip the Millers of their rights because they have allegedly failed to reuinify the family or complete court-ordered case plans.
Along with their February trial, the Millers will be released from jail sometime this spring.
