A one-time designated dangerous offender guilty of multiple sexual assaults who was living in a Chilliwack halfway house is back in custody.
But he doesn’t think he should be.
Kevin Scott Miller appeared via video in Chilliwack provincial court Monday to fix a date for trial on one charge of breach of a long-term supervision order.
Before a technical difficulty in the courtroom briefly adjourned the matter, Miller stated he would be filing for a writ of habeas corpus, which is an order forcing an officer or prison official to court to determine whether the accused has been lawfully detained.
“I shouldn’t be in custody,” Miller said.
The details of the alleged breach have not come out in court, but the alleged incident comes from Sept. 24, 2016, and he first appeared in court on Dec. 22.
On Monday in court, the matter was put over two weeks because Miller decided to get a lawyer.
Miller was in the news last summer when there was outrage expressed that he was out on bail and living in a halfway house in Chilliwack.
That was after he spent two years at large in the U.S. when he was supposed to be under a long-term supervision order in Canada.
One of Miller’s convictions from 1995 involved raping a 14-year-old girl near Victoria after grabbing her in a van and wrapping a cord around her neck.
Two months after that he met a 21-year-old woman at a cabaret downtown Victoria. The woman told the court she was drunk and tired, and the next thing she remembered was being strangled so hard her nose was bleeding.
Then on May 10, 1996 during an altercation with a prostitute, Miller pulled a drawstring out of his jacket and strangled her with it until she passed out.
Miller appealed his dangerous offender designation, which comes with an indeterminate sentence in prison, in 2000.
Despite the evidence, the three Appeal Court Justices found the original judge made errors, and Miller’s appeal was granted and a new dangerous offender hearing ordered.
Miller was again designated a dangerous offender in June 2002. However, his appeal of that designation was also successful and the Crown applied for the designation a third time in mid-2005.
The result of all those proceedings was that on Jan. 17, 2006, Miller was sentenced to four years on each of two counts of aggravated sexual assault to be served concurrently.
One of his victims expressed outrage at the justice system for his release to the halfway house last summer.
“I really am just exasperated with the justice system,” she told Black Press via email last summer. “I’m tired of referring to myself, and others, as victims; however, the system continues to re-victimize every person who has ever been raped or sexually assaulted. His release is the most ridiculous outcome I could ever imagine for a person who regularly breaches conditions, and has previously been unlawfully at large.”
Black Press obtained a copy of a federal release notice regarding Miller and his requirement to reside in a halfway house in the Chilliwack area “to which he must return on a nightly basis.”
Miller faces numerous conditions on his LTO, including that he not be alone or in an isolated setting with any females; not to own, use or possess a computer; abstain from intoxicants; report all relationships with women to parole officer; to address issues and emotional instability and anger management; and to participate in a sex offender program.
paul.henderson@theprogress.com
@PeeJayAitch
