Oren Miller
 

What is the hold up with getting our ELECTED commissioner back to doing the peoples’s work? Commissioner Miller was elected to do a job. We certainly don’t need the governor putting someone in none of us chose. No disrespect intended towards the two, just want democracy not communism.

https://www.**************.com/2023/...be-reinstated/

The poor guy is the poster child selected to put everyone on notice of what will happen to them if they cross the entity that controls Sumter County on an issue that is deemed important. After the horror he has been dragged through, he would be crazy to want to go back to trying to represent “the people”.

Doesn't someone have to step down for that to happen ?

Isn't there still an open case about the Sunset law violations??

Three hours for a thread to last about a convicted felon politician ............ that's doing very well.

:MOJE_whot:

Doesn’t overturned and exonerated mean it was determined he was wrongfully convicted and never should have been convicted?

but he WAS convicted.............which is all my statement indicates.
:coolsmiley:

ya sure?
 

Not wanting to get into a peeing contest, Mr. Sage, and I'm not a lawyer. (Perhaps you are.) But if the conviction was overturned and the man in question was exonerated, is it fair to call him a convicted felon?

:wave:

Oh, okay. Then it makes sense for me to refer to the two year olds who are posting on the forum.

And really, I didn’t (still don’t) clearly see the past tense in your comment.

Having read most of the testimony & text messages, as well as the original conviction, I was shocked by the recent exoneration. You can never tell what a court might do.

All that said, it presents an interesting situation. Obviously, the electorate has been deprived of representation by their duly elected Commissioner since Miller was ousted. The fact that Miller was eventually exonerated, will never erase the stigma that's now attached to him, even if he decides to run again.

Allowing politics to influence the Judicial system is a dangerous road and clearly what happened in this situation.

Congratulations to Mr. Miller for toughing it out and coming out a winner.

(& at least according to what I read, he's been exonerated ... which would mean he's no longer a "convicted felon".)

My post:
Three hours for a thread to last about a convicted felon politician

Dictionary:
verb
the simple past tense and past participle of convict.

Hope that helps you.


:beer3:

Let’s put aside that both Miller and Search violated the Sunshine Law numerous times AFTER they were told not to discuss county business in private. Both Search and Miller were terrible commissioners. Remember, they were still on the BOCC when the independent commission recommended that VPSD and Sumter Fire be combined. If not for the public outrage there would be no VPSD.

Instead of negotiating with the developer on Road Impact fees they just went ahead and crammed down huge increases for small businesses that would of stagnated small business growth here (see Don Wiley / Goldwingnut video about how much that would have cost small businesses outside of the developer). UF was so unnerved by the move they moved their planned hospital from Sumter to Lake county. Luckily the legislature stepped in to reverse the move.

Finally there was an election last year and Millers seat was filled. So if he wants to run again he can do so in 24. Why anyone would want him on the BOCC is beyond me, but hey he can try if he wants.

Actually No
 

No, the only thing that would be in question would be any pertinent votes his substitute voted on. He was suspended from his post wrongly. Suspended isn’t permanent. Will all the substitute’s votes stand?

The people in office were ALL elected in the last election so they are chosen by us. I would suggest if Miller is still interested in being a commissioner, he should run in the next election. It's not that far away and people are already filing their paperwork!

Does a quite little meme count as exoneration ?

Hmmmm, guilty (aka pull strings to falsely accuse and wrongfully convict) until proven innocent is never a good thing. This is a rare instance where I agree with the Bill & Brian show and find Dewi to be totally off base. Arguing the definition and tense of the word convicted doesn’t do justice to the fact that an innocent man was dredged through hell and back.

I didn’t see this story in the Daily Sun. Did I miss it?

You should see it, along with an apology for defamation of character, but don’t hold your breath.

Someone who is exonerated no longer fits into the category of "felon" - convicted or otherwise. Exoneration means a retcon. It's treated as though the charge never happened. No charge = no conviction = no felony.

Mr. Miller is not a convicted felon.

It was on the Daily Sun front page a few days ago.

The whole thing seemed like making a mountain out of a molehill. And with a complete disregard for equity. Like something out of a Charles Dickins' novel. Or, maybe, even Franz Kafka.

You can read DeSantis's order suspending, not removing, Miller from office justified by the Florida constitution giving him the option, not the requirement, to suspend an official with a felony indictment

DeSantis Order

The citation in the Florida Constitution is Article 4 section 7(a) you can read that section

ARTICLE 4
Note that very clearly the Constitution anticipates that a suspended official can be re-instated. And look at section (c) which I will repeat with BOLD

suspended from office until acquitted and the office filled by appointment for the period of suspension, not to extend beyond the term,
'

Now I am not a lawyer but my reading is that Miller was suspended because he was indicted. And that once acquitted that suspension should terminate not subject to the whim of the Governor.

So next question is what is the term of Oren Miller's election. That's easy he was elected to a four year term in November 2020 and took office in Nov 2020. So Miller's term is not over. Yes, he was replaced but that seems null and void now as he is clearly by our Constitution given his seat back now that he is acquitted.

I looked at their website under Sumter politics. It has five articles talking about the trial and the conviction. Not a word about the appellate decision.

https://www.**************.com/2023/...on-overturned/

I can't find a word in the Daily Sun about Miller winning on Appeal. I searched pretty thoroughly.

I did find this and now I'm curious:

Ethics Commission: Miller didn’t properly disclose his donors | In Today's Daily Sun | The Villages Daily Sun | thevillagesdailysun.com

If I'm not mistaken (& the Sun mentions it), most if not all of funds, were raised after he was removed from his position. If he was no longer an elected official, how did his actions violate the Ethic Regulations for elected officials?

I could not find anything either online for both their website and what they have up on their Facebook page. Lots of old stuff though.

This poor guy

This is a copy of the decision reversing the conviction.

https://supremecourt.flcourts.gov/co...23-0846.pdf%0A

Why is it that Oren Miller was removed from office but George Santos, who seems to have done all sorts of illegal things, has not been?

Last I checked…

No, he has no record of conviction.

Mr. Miller lied under oath. The appeals court found his lie did not constitute perjury due to the "correction" of his lie when confronted with the facts.

Can Mr. Miller now sue the State of Florida for wrongful conviction?

From a law firm website:

Those who are eligible can collect $50,000 per year of wrongful incarceration, up to a maximum of $2 million dollars. However, compensation is rare because the bar for eligibility is set very high. Many people in prison for decades in Florida have been exonerated based on newly available evidence, such as DNA testing.

No... thats the whole point. Put through hell then found not guilty after all. Witch hunt comes to mind...

Sunshine

Oren is a true American and we the people voted him in until DeSantis was asked by a political contributor in TV to get involved. Unfortunately that is the result of large campaign contributions. Oren you are the best and did not deserve what happened to you

Seriously? His partner admitted his guilt. His values are not in line with most Villagers.

The UF hospital move a short distance to be in Lake County is a moot point. IF it ever actually gets built, as a non - profit entity they will apply for and get property tax exemption. So no real loss to Sumter county in terms of tax dollars and a gain for Sumter county in terms of less services needed to be provided long term. The short term loss would be the impact fees for construction, but they don’t cover all of the actual costs so now Lake County can cover that too!

Is that where most Villagers like higher taxes so The Developer can rake it in while skipping impact fees?

2,500 a home verses the rest of the state’s developer’s paying 25,000 dollars per home? All because we love taxes!