BUFFALO, N.Y. — An American missionary to Nicaragua has been sentenced to time served plus one year of probation for helping an ex-lesbian flee the U.S. with her child seven years ago.

Timothy Miller, also known as Timo, had entered a guilty plea in November on a charge of charge of conspiracy in international parental kidnapping for purchasing plane tickets for Lisa Miller (no relation) and her daughter to fly from Canada to Nicaragua, and then helping them find refuge in the country.

The woman had fled the United States after being threatened by a federal judge that he would transfer custody of the child to the woman’s ex-partner if she did not allow the girl to have further visitation.

Lisa Miller had been granted complete custody of her child by the courts following her split from Janet Jenkins, but Jenkins was allowed visits with the girl. Lisa Miller soon sought to discontinue contact as she did not want her child around the homosexual lifestyle since she had turned from lesbianism and was now raising her child in the ways of the Lord.

Jenkins has said that she is determined to do “anything and everything” to get the child, now 14, back. Jenkins has moved on to “marry” another woman, and they raise a two-year-old together.

Timothy Miller lives in Crossville, Tennessee, but conducts missions work in Managua, Nicaragua. He was facing 12 to 18 months in prison for helping Lisa Miller, but U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara decided to spare him additional incarceration since he had been held for several months in Nicaragua.

Arcara also noted that Miller has been cooperative with investigators who are searching for the mother and daughter.

“There has been so much collateral damage,” Arcara said of the three men that have been charged in the case, according to the Buffalo News. “I see some basically wonderful people making some bad decisions and getting entangled in this mess.”

Timo Miller’s attorneys had asked for leniency in the sentencing since he had already spent eight months behind bars.

As previously reported, according to the criminal complaint filed in 2011, Timothy Miller allegedly used his mother-in-law’s credit card to pay for Lisa Miller’s plane tickets to fly out of Canada—funds that he reimbursed. He then picked up Miller and her daughter in Managua and helped them to find refuge in the country.

“Timothy Miller provided assistance for Lisa Miller and [Isabella’s] travel outside of the United States,” the FBI complaint read. “Timothy Miller provided a place of shelter for Lisa Miller and [Isabella] outside of the United States.”

In March 2010, email from Timothy Miller to his mother outlined a birthday party being planned in Nicaragua for Isabella, known undercover as Lydia.

“I feel dearly for these two people,” he wrote. “And I can see it would mean a lot to them in this rough first year of their stay in Nica. I would love for Lydia’s birthday to be very special and remembered long. She is going through a lot and her future looms greatly in front of her right now…”

The situation began in 2000, when Lisa Miller joined in a civil union with lesbian Janet Jenkins in the state of Vermont, one of the few states that allowed homosexual arrangements at the time. Following an artificial insemination procedure from a male sperm donor, Miller gave birth to a girl, named Isabella, in 2002.

But Miller said she had concern even then.

“There were numerous incidents of Janet going to [the Internet] and putting up naked women on the screen saver, and I would ask her to please change it,” Lisa later told the court, according to the Washington Post.

“I don’t have clean hands, either. Previously, before … the baby was born, [pornography] was used in our relationship,” she said. “When we moved to Vermont, Isabella was 4 months old, and I said this stuff has to go … There’s a baby in this house now. I don’t want that.”

In 2003, Miller and Jenkins split over continued tension in their relationship, part of which involved the miscarriage of Miller’s second pregnancy, and Miller moved to Virginia. She renounced her involvement in homosexuality and reportedly turned to Jesus Christ to be born again.

“It wasn’t a struggle,” she recalled of walking away from the homosexual lifestyle. “I felt peace.”

When the civil union between Miller and Jenkins was officially dissolved, the court gave custody to Miller, while also granting visitation rights to Jenkins.

While Miller did allow Isabella to spend time with Jenkins for a while, she reportedly became concerned at the information that her daughter was providing to her following the visitations.

Later, Miller claimed in affidavits that the visits were causing great trauma to Isabella. She claimed that at six years old, the girl was forced to take baths together with Jenkins, and that the girl was openly touching herself inappropriately. She also stated that Isabella was withdrawn and talked about suicide at times.

“Isabella came home and said, ‘Mommy, will you please tell Janet that I don’t have to take a bath anymore at her house,’” Miller told reporters in 2008. “I asked her what happened. She said, ‘Janet took a bath with me.’ I asked her if she had a bathing suit on. ‘No, Mommy.’ She had no clothes on and it totally scared Isabella. She had never seen this woman except once in 2 ½ years and she takes a bath with her.”

“Last year, Isabella put a comb up to her neck and said she wanted to kill herself after one of the visits,” she outlined. “She took a comb and pressed it into her neck and said, ‘I want to kill myself.’ I don’t know where she got that. It was immediately after a visit. Other people have seen huge changes.”

Miller then filed for exclusive custody of Isabella, and the court agreed. She told the Washington Post, “I don’t see Janet as a parent, first and foremost. Secondly, I don’t want to expose Isabella to Janet’s lifestyle. It goes against all my beliefs. I am raising Isabella to pattern herself after Christ. That’s my job as a Christian mom. Homosexuality is a sin.”

However, Jenkins fought the ruling all the way up to the Virginia Supreme Court, which in 2008, ruled in favor of granting Miller’s former lesbian partner visitation rights. Miller refused.

The following year, family court judge Richard Cohen warned Miller that she must allow Isabella to visit Jenkins and threatened that if she did not do so, he would transfer full custody to Jenkins. In November 2009, Cohen followed through with his threats and ordered Miller to hand the child over to Jenkins.

However, Miller had fled the country with Isabella before he issued the transfer order, and for some time, none knew the whereabouts of the two. It was later discovered that they had fled to Nicaragua via the help of a number of Mennonite Christians and their contacts.

Mennonite pastor Ken Miller is currently serving 27 months behind bars for his alleged part in the escape after being convicted in 2012. Businessman Philip Zodhiates, who is not Mennonite, was just sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday.

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