Former Bath Man Pleads Guilty to Interstate Travel to have Sex with a Minor

Portland, Maine: Acting United States Attorney Richard W. Murphy announced that David Miller, 54, of Flushing, Michigan (and formerly of Bath, Maine) pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Court records reveal that during the summer of 1995, Miller, then 33, was working as a long-haul truck driver. In June and July of 1995, Miller took a thirteen-year-old relative with him on two interstate trips. During these trips, he engaged in sexual activity with this relative. Federal agents began investigating Miller in 2015 when the relative reported the abuse to authorities after seeing a Facebook photograph of Miller with a five-year-old child sitting on his lap. In October 2016, Miller was interviewed by federal agents in Michigan and admitted sexually abusing his relative during the 1995 interstate trips.

Under federal law, the statute of limitations for the offenses did not expire before Congress extended it to the life of the child in 2003. Where a statute of limitations has been extended by Congress, it may be applied to crimes that preceded enactment so long as the prior statute of limitations has not expired.

The defendant faces a sentence of between 10 years and life in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The investigation was conducted by the Bath Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.