Five days after his arrest for sex crimes, billionaire Robert Miller officially calls for an end to the legal process, La Presse has learned. The octogenarian relies on the opinion of doctors according to whom his declining health makes him incapable of having a normal trial, an exercise which could even kill him. The police, far from letting themselves be slowed down, instead arrested her home caregiver for pimping on Tuesday.
Robert Miller was arrested last Thursday for crimes committed against ten women, including eight minors, between 1994 and 2016. He is accused of sexual assault, sexual exploitation in a context of authority and obtaining sexual services from ‘a minor. Released immediately, he had to undertake to appear in court at a later date.
But in a motion to stop the proceedings filed with the Superior Court and of which La Presse obtained a copy, he asks that the system leave him in peace from now on, due to his numerous health problems, notably Parkinson’s disease which leaves him “bedridden and cared for 24/7.”
Mr. Miller, who maintains his innocence, asserts that accusing him, given his state of health, violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “Indeed, the plaintiff is not capable of participating in a criminal trial, as doing so would cause significant harm to his health. He is not and will never be able to defend himself,” specify his lawyers, Me Isabella Teolis and Me Nicholas St-Jacques.
According to them, Robert Miller was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1996 and his condition seriously deteriorated over the years. The petition cites the billionaire’s family physician, Dr. John Hughes, as saying that his patient has been confined to his bed since May 2022 and suffers from pressure ulcers because he is unable to move.
“His medication must be administered every hour and a half. Without his medication, the applicant becomes completely immobile and unable to initiate movement. Each morning, since the medication is not administered overnight, it takes the plaintiff between two and three hours to reactivate with the reinitiation of his medication,” the motion continues.
The family doctor adds that Mr. Miller is not medically fit to testify.
The motion also cites a CHUM neurologist, Dr. Theodore Wein, who evaluated Mr. Miller on several occasions until last month. The specialist emphasizes that a trip to the courthouse would expose the accused, whose condition is fragile, to several risks.
If he were forced to be present at the courthouse, the hearing would have to be interrupted every 90 minutes for him to take five minutes to take his medication.
“If he were forced to be in a courtroom, he will need his full medical care team to take care of his bodily functions. If present in the courtroom, he will need a complete hospital bed, a chest of drawers, orthopedic pillows to support his posture. As he is incontinent […], he will need his care team to clean and change him in the courtroom,” adds Dr. Wein in his report cited by the lawyers. The doctor also emphasizes that oxygen must be available to administer when Mr. Miller begins to have difficulty breathing.
The specialist adds that the stress caused by the numerous transports to be anticipated between his home and the courtroom risks causing various potentially fatal complications for such a sick man.
Mr. Miller’s lawyers also cite Dr. Alain Dagher, a physician who served as a medical expert for the approximately fifty women who joined a class-action lawsuit against Robert Miller because they say they were recruited into the adolescence to offer him sexual services.
However, in Canada, the Criminal Code and the Charter of Rights protect the right of an accused to make full answer and defence, “which includes the possibility for the accused to testify during his trial”, underline Mr. Teolis and Mr. St. -Jacques.
“Holding a trial in the absence of the accused or in a context where he would seriously endanger his life, or holding a trial in which the accused cannot testify, would cause serious and irremediable damage to the rights of the accused. accused and the integrity of the justice system,” the jurists continue.
The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) has not yet had the opportunity to respond to the request to stop the judicial process. But at a press conference last Thursday, Inspector Karine Paquette of the Montreal Police Department (SPVM) confirmed that her investigators were aware of Mr. Miller’s state of health before arresting him.
“For our part, for the investigation team, we have work to do, we have victims who had the courage to file a complaint, the courage to denounce what they experienced, despite the passage of time. has expired. So regardless of Mr. Miller’s state of health, we had a job to do and we did it,” insisted the police officer.
Tuesday, continuing in the same vein, investigators from the Sexual Exploitation Section of the SPVM arrested Robert Miller’s home caregiver.
Teresita Fuentes, 67, was accused of pimping for actions committed against an alleged victim between 2015 and 2018. For several years, the woman has said she has lived at the same address as Mr. Miller, in Westmount. She remains at large, but had to undertake to appear in court on July 3. His lawyer did not respond to a message from La Presse on Tuesday.