Federal prosecutors in Vermont say a Virginia pastor worked with a number of other people to help a woman flee the United States with her daughter rather than share custody of the girl with the mother's former lesbian partner.
The trial of 46-year-old Kenneth Miller of Stuarts Draft, Va., opened Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Burlington. In his opening statement, Miller's lawyer said he will prove his client believed Lisa Miller had full custody of daughter Isabella.
Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven fought a five-year custody battle. After Lisa Miller refused to share custody, a judge transferred it to Jenkins.
Prosecutors say in 2009 Kenneth Miller drove mother and daughter from Virginia to Buffalo, N.Y., where the two crossed into Canada and flew to Central America.
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