It was over a year ago that Lisa Miller kidnapped her daughter and disappeared in order to avoid a court order to hand over custody to her ex-partner, Janet Jenkins.
Miller quickly became a hero to the Religious Right, thanks largely to the Liberty Counsel's long crusade to make Miller out to be the victim of a capricious legal system ... a crusade that abruptly came to an end when Miller disappeared and everyone started trying to cover their tracks.
Since her disappearance, bits of information have trickled out suggesting that Miller disappeared several months before the court imposed deadline and had help fleeing the country.
Today it was reported that a man named Timothy David Miller has been arrested for helping Miller and her daughter flee the country. And the criminal complaint [PDF] contains a wealth of information ... most notable for our purpose an assertion that Miller and her daughter are staying at a home owned by a man named Philip Zodhiates and that Zodhiates' daughter just so happens to work at the Liberty University Law School:
66. Sarah Star, an attorney who represents Janet Jenkins, has told me that she received a call on or about June 21, 2010. The caller provided the following information:
a. Philip Zodhiates is a wealthy man and a "Liberty Leader" who has a beach house in Nicaragua. Lisa Miller and Isabella Miller have been staying at the home of Zodhiates.
b. Victoria Hyden is the daughter of Zodhiates. Zodhiates asked Hyden to disseminate a request to get Lisa Miller supplies.
67. The "Faculty/Staff Directory" listed within the Liberty School of Law website lists "Victoria Hyden" as an "Administrative Assistant" within the "Admissions and Financial Aid" section.
68. A website printout dated July 7, 2010 from the Vacationrentals.com website lists Philip Zodhiates as the owner of a vacation rental in Nicaragua.
And indeed she does - that is her in the front row, third from the left:
It is quite a conicidence that Mat Staver, head of Liberty Counsel, happens to also be Dean of the Liberty School of Law and that Rena Lindevaldsen, Miller's attorney at Liberty Counsel, is also an Associate Professor of Law at LU, don't you think?
And why is it that every employee listed on this Liberty Law School "Faculty/Staff Directory" has a link to their own individual biography page ... except for Victoria Hyden?
How it is that Liberty Counsel's most high profile client kidnaps her daughter and flees the country and the organization insists for more than a year that it has no idea where she is ... only to have it turn out that she is reportedly living in a home owned by the father of an admin assistant in Staver's very own office?
